Source: MI Prep Zone
Author: MATTHEW B. MOWERY
DETROIT >> The key to surviving in the postseason isn’t to think you’ll never get hit hard — it’s merely to avoid being the one that gets squished.
While both teams in the Division 1 softball quarterfinal at Wayne State may feel like bugs on a windshield after Tuesday’s dual offensive maulings, only one of them flew away from the encounter.
No. 2-ranked Farmington Hills Mercy survived a series of persistent comeback attempts by No. 6-ranked Lake Orion, to hold on to an 11-7 win, and advance to the semifinals for the second straight season.
“Some days, you’re the windshield, some days you’re the bug. Today, we’re the bug,” Lake Orion coach Joe Woityra said. “We did enough right things to win, but we did too many things wrong. We’ve never been hit that hard — give them credit; their four lefties, they hit the ball well. They just kept going opposite field, over and over and over. That’s a very good hitting team.
“And we can’t just be a one-inning team like we’ve been on this little run here.”
The Marlins (41-2) will take on Mattawan — a 5-1 winner over Allen Park Tuesday afternoon — in a 12:30 p.m. semifinal Thursday at Michigan State University.
“We’re so excited. This is one of our biggest goals of the whole season. It’s just so cool that we can do this as a team to get back there again, for this year,” said senior Cari Padula, who was on last year’s team, which lost to Caledonia in the semis. “It kind of seems like it (the season) flew by, but we take every game, and try to do our best in every single game. So it’s just like once it (the postseason) gets here, we put our hats on, and we’re just like, ‘All right. We can do this.’”
The Marlins needed that sort of mentality, after they jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first, then expanded it to 8-1 by the top of the fifth inning, before the Dragons (35-6) began to claw their way back into it.
The two teams combined for 18 runs on 19 hits, seven walks, three hit batters and two errors.
Lake Orion would score two in the fifth to make it a five-run deficit, 8-3, then answer Mercy’s three runs in the top of the sixth — highlighted by Anna Dixon’s three-run, inside-the-park home run to provide some insurance — with four in the bottom of the sixth. At one point in the sixth-inning rally, Lake Orion had the potential tying run at the plate, having already knocked Mercy’s starting pitcher, Andrea Elmore, out of the game.
“Yep. Haven’t seen her like that in a couple of years. Not sure what it was. We’ll go back and look at some stuff, check out her mechanics. She’ll be ready,” Mercy coach Alec Lesko said.
“That was crazy. Just not what we’re used to. A lot of fight in those Dragons — they never gave up. For some reason, we just got off kilter of doing what we normally do. We don’t give away too many free bases, and in a couple of those innings, putting people on, hitting batters, not making routine plays — that’s not our game. But what I’m most proud of, above all that, we kept responding, kept scoring runs, and the most important stat at the end of the game, is the one that’s on the scoreboard. That’s what we’re happy about today.”
Abby Krzywiecki left her normal first base position three batters earlier, then took over in the circle with the bases loaded, two outs, and two balls already on the batter, Sierra Gonzales. She would issue a walk to drive in a run, making it a four-run deficit, 11-7, then get a ground-out to get out of the jam, before pitching around a single in the seventh to earn the save.
“We do really well with staying calm and not panicking,” said Padula, who went from third base to behind the plate with all the positional switches. “We just know we have to do what we can do, and get out there and play like we can. I don’t think we really panicked that bad.”
It was the second time in the game the Dragons left the bases loaded, after a Mary Reeber running catch in right field got the Marlins out of a bases-juiced jam in the second.
“We needed a break. One break, and I think we roll. And we did roll. Two outs, we score six runs on them — we did that numerous times (this year). Again, it’s not for lack of effort or heart from the girls. They don’t give up. By any means, they don’t give up,” Woityra said. “We just couldn't get untracked. I thought we’d get the big hit. We stranded a runner at first twice with nobody out, and that’s just a killer. At this level, you just can’t do that.”
For the Marlins, it’s back to the semis again, after falling short a year ago.
“With all the returning players from last year’s team, that’s one of the main focuses. Our first was the Catholic League. The other one was, we gotta get back there, and we gotta see if we can take it a little further,” Lesko said. “We’re working at it. We’re going to get there, I hope.”