CLYDE, Ohio — The third-ranked Anthony Wayne Generals will make their third trip to the Division I state softball semifinals in four years after taking a 9-1 victory over eighth-ranked Northern Lakes League rival Perrysburg in Friday’s regional final at Clyde High School’s Joe Wilson Field.
The Generals (29-1), who have posted a 114-12 overall record since 2021, will face second-ranked Pataskala Watkins Memorial (30-1) in a D-I state semifinal next Friday at 5:30 p.m. at Firestone Stadium in Akron.
“This is an incredible accomplishment for these seniors, AW coach Ron Myers said. “They're playing their hearts out right now, and we're running on all eight cylinders. We've peaked at the right time of year.
“When you get to the final four in the state, though, everybody is great. These seniors are great kids, and they're fun to be around. I'm going to enjoy having one more week with them.”
Before punching their ticket back to Akron, AW was locked a scoreless tie entering the bottom of the fourth inning before breaking through with a sudden onslaught of offense.
The Generals pounded out 11 hits in a span of 13 batters in the fourth and fifth innings to plate nine runs and seize control.
Senior pitcher Kat Meyers, who has been nearly unhittable in four tournament starts (24 innings, four hits, one run, 51 strikeouts), worked the first five innings and struck out 11 Perrysburg batters to earn the win.
“I felt really good in warm-ups, and I love playing on [artificial] turf,” Meyers said. “I know I have a good defense behind me, so I just had to keep their hitters off balance.
“They're a very good hitting team, so I knew if it could get soft contact and keep the walks low, then we would be successful.”
The hard-throwing Michigan-bound right-hander, whose fastball has been clocked up to 72 mph, yielded just one Yellow Jackets hit, Hayley Griggs' RBI double to left-center in the fifth.
That came after AW had grabbed a 3-0 lead on five hits off Perrysburg senior starter Maison Gerrard in the fourth. Fourth-year starting catcher Trinity Nowicki sparked the uprising with a lead-off double in the fourth after fouling off six Gerrard pitches.
“Once we all just start hitting, it just never stops,” Nowicki said. “It just keeps going, and you feel like it's never going to stop. We had so much momentum and energy, and were just up in the dugout. It's fun.”
The Generals then put the game out of reach in the bottom of the fifth, greeting the Jackets' sophomore reliever, Maddie Von Sacken, with five straight hits to open what would be a six-run fifth for AW.
Gerrard returned to the circle and yielded two more Generals hits before the ambush was complete.
AW's five seniors in the lineup combined to go 9-for-16 at the plate — shortstop Abby Kennelly (2-for-4), outfielder Essence Dobbelaere-Buchman, Nowicki (2-for-3, two doubles, 2 RBI), second baseman Ally Meyers (2-for-3), and twin sister Kat (1-for-3).
Sophomore third baseman Megan Sumner contributed a two-run single, sophomore designated player Gabi Nowicki added a sacrifice fly in the fourth and a two-run single in the fifth, and freshman first baseman Piper Phillips contributed a two-run single in the fourth. All nine batters in the AW starting lineup had at least one hit.
Perrysburg (26-5) picked up its only other hit on a sixth-inning double by Gerrard off of junior Molly Conner, who came in from center field to pitch the final two innings.
“Anthony Wayne's got great pitching, and we knew that going in,” Perrysburg coach Ryan DeMars said. “We knew that we were going to have to do a really good job with our pitch selection and grind out hits.
“Obviously, we weren't able to do that. That's a credit to Anthony Wayne's pitchers and what they were able to do and the quality of their team.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0