KENT — The Field Falcons will play for a softball regional championship.
It just sounds right — rolls off the tongue, really.
Why wouldn’t the Falcons, long one of the area’s top programs, compete among the final eight teams in their division? And yet it’s a sentence they have waited a long time to say, having never won a game at the regional level.
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Well, not until May 27 this year, when Field topped Lakeview 2-1 in an extra-inning thriller at Devine Diamond. That one of the greenest teams the Falcons have fielded — with seven new starters — got it done is all the more remarkable.
“It feels pretty good,” Field coach Beth Dyer said. “It feels pretty good to get that off our back. I don’t think they’re afraid of anything.”
Field will return to Devine Diamond to play West Geauga in a regional title game at 5 p.m. April 29.
Adrianna Berry, Field show poise
In the biggest moments, the Falcons (21-3) were remarkably poised.
Like when junior pitcher Adrianna Berry uncorked a wicked drop curve to strike out Bulldogs cleanup hitter Isabella Isenberg with runners on first and second in the bottom of the seventh.
Poised and fearless.
Dyer and catcher Averi Weis both said the original plan was to intentionally walk the dangerous Isenberg with the winning run on second. Facing the possibility of a crushing walk-off defeat, Berry was unafraid of the challenge.
“I don’t know, I was standing there and I was like, ‘No, I got this,'” Berry said. “Like, yes, there are two people on base, but we also had two outs and the adrenaline was high and I was, like, as long as I calm down and focus myself, I got [it].”
One would’ve never guessed Berry was a first-year varsity pitcher watching her work out of trouble all afternoon against a loaded Lakeview lineup. Berry had just one 1-2-3 inning, but that didn’t stop her from holding the Bulldogs to a one run over eight innings.
“She breathes,” Dyer said. “She breathes, and I like how she calms herself down and does some breathing out there, but I tell you she is a bulldog out there, what the heck. She obviously does a great job, because that is a brutal lineup.”
Gracie Hoskin, in her first full year on the varsity after splitting between the JV and varsity last season, was no less impressive. The junior second baseman kept the Falcons alive in the top of the eighth after two quick outs, reaching on a slap hit to the shortstop’s backhand.
“Honestly, I went into the at-bat knowing she was going to throw me outside,” Hoskin said. “That’s all she’s thrown me all game, so I knew I was going to slap [hit] because I knew that was probably my best chance.”
That gave Weis a chance, and the senior catcher — one of just two returning starters for Field this year — capitalized with an RBI triple to the right-field gap. Remarkably, Weis hit one to almost the exact same spot in the sixth, but Lakeview centerfielder Rylee Barnot robbed her with a spectacular diving grab. But softball is a game of inches and whether the ball hung in the air a second less or Barnot was playing a smidge toward left this time around, Weis’ hit dropped and Hoskin came around to score the winning run.
“She had been throwing out all game,” Weis said. “The last one that I hit far was a change-up. I’m pretty sure it was a change-up again, so I just took my hands out that way where it was pitched — same technique, same mindset, it just ended up landing.”
After a stressful seventh for Berry and the Falcons, Hoskin helped alleviate such stress in the eighth. After Annaliese Dejulio pinged a leadoff single off Berry’s leg, the ace responded by coercing a weak but tricky pop. Out went Hoskin into short right to make the hardest catch an infielder can make. Hoskin twisted about and deftly stuck out her glove for the catch, then whirled around to catch Dejulio off first for the double play.
“It felt great because I had my teammates supporting me,” Hoskin said. “It was amazing to make that play.”
One innocent fly to center later and the Falcons were heading somewhere they’ve never gone before.
“I think everyone took the doubt into motivation and we pushed through,” Berry said. “We’ve done way better than anyone thought we would this year and we just made history right now, so I think we all have grit, we all have motivation in us and we all have good mindsets and we also have great chemistry, which is really great for a team to have.”
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Contact Jonah L. Rosenblum at jrosenblum@recordpub.com and follow him on Twitter at @JLRSports.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Fearless Field softball secures elusive regional win
Reporting by Jonah Rosenblum, Ravenna Record-Courier / Record-Courier
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
