BELLVILLE — The softball postseason tournament is one of the most pressure-packed thing a high school player will go through.
Every pitch, every swing, every ground ball has extra meaning when it comes to games where the season literally hangs in the balance. It is supposed to create nervous moments and force players to clam up and play tight.
Someone forgot to tell the Clear Fork Colts, who have no seniors on the roster, that before their 16-2 drubbing of Vermilion during the Division IV sectional championship on May 13. The Colts came out and played like a team not worried about the big moments of a tournament game where a loss ends the season abruptly.
The Colts scored one run in the first and five in each of the second, third and fourth innings to run away with a convincing victory. They scored 16 runs on 16 hits, only struck out twice as a team and took advantage of seven Vermilion errors to pull off the run-rule victory.
“We got some offense going, which was nice,” Clear Fork coach Adam Brokaw said. “We have been scoring runs in the first inning lately with five runs in the first inning against River Valley last week and the next day, we got seven. The bats came out early for us again and that was nice to see.”
The game started about as bad as it could have for the Colts. Junior pitcher Miley Shafer rolled her ankle just one batter into the game after finally making her return from a back injury that caused her two miss two and a half games. She didn’t return, but Mariah Hatfield came in and dominated allowing no runs on five hits with five strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings of work.
“Mariah has been our No. 2 most of the year and keeps teams off balance and throws strikes,” Brokaw said. “We are confident with her out there. We will see how bad Miley’s ankle is, but we trust Mariah out there.”
Chloee Steward and Braylee Wenger led the Colts with three hits apiece while Jada Brokaw, Mya Perry, Millie Chamberlain and Hailly Thrush had two apiece and Presley Lilly and Karlynn Mortimer had one apiece. Brokaw, Lilly and Wenger had three RBIs apiece while Chamberlain had two and Perry, Steward and Kylie Ludwig had one apiece. Lilly clubbed a home run to cap off a solid offensive night for the Colts.
Wenger added three runs scored and had a perfect throw from right field to nail a Vermilion runner at home plate to end the third inning.
Not a bad day for the freshman in her very first tournament game.
“My main goal as a slapper is to just get the ball on the ground and run fast,” Wenger said. “Coach tells me the plan and it worked. We jumped on them early and I was able to do my job. It felt good to get off to a better start especially after a letdown against Northmor. I feel like we gained all of our confidence back.
“As a freshman, it is nerve-wracking, but I have an entire team of great players with me and I have so much confidence in each on of my teammates. We are working great as a team and I feel like we have something special.”
Brokaw was thrilled for Wenger along with the rest of the bottom of his order that combined for seven hits.
“We have been juggling the lineup around all season,” Brokaw said. “Chloee (Steward) had some nice line drives and was hitting seventh for us. Braylee Wenger hit ninth and had some nice claps to get on base and turn the order over. It helps when you can count on 1 through 9 to hit.”
The Colts do not have a senior on the roster and just won a sectional championship by 14 runs. While he could love to have some veterans on his team, Brokaw knows he has plenty of experience on the diamond.
“No worry quite yet, but it’s because we have a lot of juniors who have played three years of high-level varsity softball,” Brokaw said. “We have sophomores who got a lot of action last year, so I am not concerned about not having seniors. We have juniors who play like seniors.”
The Colts (20-7) move on to play No. 1 seed Oak Harbor at 2:30 p.m. on May 19 at Margaretta in the Division IV district semifinals.
“They have been to state the last two years in Division V and are a small Division IV school like us,” Brokaw said. “They return a great pitcher and very solid players all around. I feel like we can play with them and it will come down to who doesn’t make any mistakes and who finds a way to get on base and produce runs.”
jfurr@usatodayco.com
740-244-9934
X: @JakeFurr11
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Clear Fork shows no nerves in sectional championship win over Vermilion
Reporting by Jake Furr, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
