Newark Catholic softball fails to react to Portsmouth Notre Dame counter punch
PICKERINGTON — The Newark Catholic softball team again shot out of the gate Wednesday, but unlike during its run to a district championship, the offense then stopped.
The Green Wave led 3-0 after one inning, but Portsmouth Notre Dame rallied and dominated the rest of the way, earning a 7-3 victory in a Division IV regional semifinal at Pickerington Central. The Green Wave (18-11) were bidding for their second regional title in three seasons, but the Titans (23-4) instead will get a rematch of their 2022 final when they play Strasburg on Friday.
“Our first inning was really good," NC junior shortstop Kami Diaz said. "We came out with a lot of energy, and our bats were going. We made a lot of hustle plays.”
A walk for Ava Heffley and single for Kylie Gibson in the first inning set the table for Maris Knowlton, who singled home Diaz, who had reached on a fielder’s choice. After Gibson raced home and dove across the plate on a wild pitch, freshman Veronica Bailey singled in Knowlton.
Notre Dame ace Gwen Sparks settled down, throwing two scoreless innings. Reliever Kyndall Ford was even better, allowing one hit in four scoreless innings, combining with Sparks for eight strikeouts against just two walks.
“To keep winning games, we had to score in those first and second innings,” NC co-coach Devani Adam said. “We kind of took our foot off the pedal and made some defensive errors. We weren’t ready for covering the bunt and whatnot. We didn’t come back and keep hitting the ball.”
After the Titans scored a run in the second inning, they tied the game in the fourth on two hits, a passed ball and squeeze bunt off junior Avery Nagel. NC went to Bailey, a freshman, who has been a shutdown reliever during the postseason, but Maycee Ford hit an RBI double to the right-center gap in the top of the fifth inning and later scored on an error.
The Green Wave made two physical errors and a mental error during the last three innings. The Titans took advantage, scoring in each inning.
“Around the fourth inning, they got a couple runs, and instead of bouncing back and coming back with an even stronger aggression, we kind of just laid down,” Diaz said. “The errors kind of stacked on top of each other.”
Veronica Bailey’s second hit was the Green Wave’s only hit after the first. They graduate just designated player Mya Stokes and will be led next season by their first five hitters, all of whom will be seniors and started in the state tournament as freshmen.
“We can’t take for granted these days that we have,” Adam said. “Now that group is going to be seniors. We have to capitalize on the opportunities when we have them.”
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This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Newark Catholic fails to react to Portsmouth Notre Dame counter punch
