JEFFERSON — Nobody thought it would last until dark. Expecting young girls to give a whole day in hot, humid weather for the sake of playing softball is a thing not many would ask of their kids.

However, teams representing 54 groups of players did those things for the sake of their families and friends over the weekend. The end result was a fantastic finish among 12-and-under teams battling for a title that went into extra innings, and eventually ended shortly after 9 p.m., on a line-drive single to left field by Ohio Blast hitter Bailey Byers that scored Hannah Dennison with the winning run for an 8-7 win and a title in the Ohio Jaguars Summer Showcase tournament.

The hit by Byers capped a game for the youngest group of girls that defied logic. Tied at 6-6 after seven innings, the teams went to an international rules tiebreaker where a runner starts at second base in the extra frame. The Grand River Styx, who had led most of the way during the game before seeing the lead slip away, promptly scored a run on a throwing error that plated the go-ahead run. The Blast promptly did the same thing, and then Dennison and Byers completed their actions to finally put an end to a day and game full of wild occurences.

With the rains that had hit the area early in the day, the 12U girls who had been scheduled to play on both fields at Lakeside High School instead found themselves rained out and forced to move to the JAGS Complex in Jefferson. The result was expected. They didn’t start until nearly 2 in the afternoon.

“After expecting to play at 10 this morning,” Blast manager Ron Dennison said, “we didn’t get to play until 3:30 today. It was one long day for us, but well worth it. This is the third tournament in a row we’ve won. That’s 21 straight wins.”

Both teams had a chance to win



before things reached the tiebreaker. Both loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh and failed to score, but the Blast got a run to tie the game, and the rest is memories those girls and families will remember for a long time.

While coming out on the short end of the score for the third week in a row in title games as well, Grand River Styx manager Doug Havens, while totally spent, was proud of his girls.

“Considering we’re a first-year team,” he said, “I’m really proud of how we played. We’ve made it to championship games three weeks in a row and lost one in the seventh inning and two others in overtime. Can’t ask any more of the girls.”

The 14U division wasn’t quite the nailbiter the 12U game was, but it was a superbly played contest won in regulation by the host Ohio Jaguars team managed by Will Irons.

They claimed a thrilling 5-3 win over the Canfield Crush.

Down 2-0 after the top of the third inning, the Jaguars scored once when Taylor Stoltz doubled home Sam Tromba, who had reached on an error.

Two runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings gave the Jaguars the lead, and with Alyssa Irons, an incoming freshman at Jefferson, doing a superb job on the bump, especially when she got into trouble, the Jaguars withstood a two-out rally by the Crush for the win.

“We were able to get out of situations we got ourselvse into today,” Will Irons said. “We finished third here last year, but the girls have worked hard in really improved in their play. They’re growing up fast, and it has showed with them reaching more championship games this year than we ever have before.”

His daughter, Alyssa, fanned 12 on the mound while walking four and giving up six hits to the Crush. After a long day in the weather, she was still pretty happy.

“I was tired,” she said. “I had a couple times when my control wasn’t the best, but I just tried to throw strikes. I am satisfied with the win, for sure.”

In ripping out 10 hits for the game, Makela Kroll went 3 for 3, Sydney White was 2 for 3 and Alyssa Donato contributed a pair of hits in four at bats to pace the win.

When the Crush threatened in the top of the seventh, it was the Jaguar defense that took over.

A fly ball to right and a foul popup to third got the first pair of outs, but Amelia Maneti, who ripped a pair of doubles to the outfield fence in left, got her second and came home when the next hitter sent a modest grounder to second base. First, the throw to first pulled the first baseman off the bag. Then, the first baseman sent a wild toss to home trying to get Maneti.

White caught a popup to end the game.

 “I’m really proud of our girls,” Crush coach Steve Miller said. “This is the third time we played them. They won 6-5 and 1-0, and we had a chance in this game and just didn’t get it done. These are two evenly matched teams that can play the game. When we got down late in the game, it took us out of our small ball game, and they were just too good to come all the way back on.”

The 16U grouping went to the TigerLillies from the Akron area.

They claimed their title win with a thrilling 3-2 win over the Turbos of the Lewis Center area.

“Our girls played hard all day,” manager Tom Steiger said. “Our best hitter the last couple years has been Laura Lakins, who hits cleanup. She came through again today when we needed her most.”

They nipped a Turbo team that reached the title game with a big 8-5 win over the Wizards. Keying that semifinal win, and providing possibly the highlight of the day for every division was Hannah Tucky.

She ripped a pair of homers, the second of which provided a great deal of laughter to a tired crowd. Her cannon shot over the center-field fence landed squarely on the windshield of a car parked belonging to one of the umpires, who did such a fantastic job during the tournament, by the way.

A softball sized spiderweb directly in front of the steering wheel landed with a major-league thud.

“We really had a solid tournament,” Turbo manager Dana Wisecarver said. “We made a really good run today. It’s good to get to the championship game any time you can do it.”

Katelyn Nye led an opportune Turbo attack in the title game.

The day proved to be a great one for the TigerLillies. They took home the 18U title as well with a solid 10-2 thumping of the Ohio Hurricanes Black team.

“This is a well tuned group of girls on our team,” TigerLillies manager Doug Hawkins said. “I really don’t have to do too much coaching with them. We have five or six girls heading to college to play next fall, and tournaments like this one are a great way for them to prepare for what they will deal with in college.”

Kaitlynn Morse carried the load in the championship game with a 4-for-4 effort, including a homer in the first inning to go with a double and pair of singles. Lexie Teodosia added a pair of hits.

“I don’t want to take anything at all away from the TigerLillies,” Hurricanes manager Max McCrone said. “Basically, I think we just left everything we had out on the field in the semifinal contest. We won the last game due to the bottom of our order, which says a lot about how good our team is.”

His referrence to that semifinal win was regarding a rally by his team in the bottom of the seventh to overcome a five-run deficit against the Pittsburgh Power. The energy just wasn’t there in the title game.

Everybody was tired, most were really happy, and there could not have been any fans who felt they didn’t see some great softball during this tournament.

Kelly is a freelance writer from Jefferson. Reach him at heavensthunder@centurylink.net.

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