LOGAN — Paul Culver Jr. had sayings for about everything in a Hall of Fame coaching career with Sheridan football, but one most always held true when it came to freshmen and sophomores gaining playing experience.
“At the end of the year, you’re not an underclassman anymore.”
Gabby Prati and Ayla Hittle can attest to PC’s wisdom.
Prati, Tri-Valley’s freshman second baseman, launched homers in her first two at-bats, while Hittle, her classmate, had a key two-run single that broke open an 11-5 win in a Division III district final on May 23 at Logan High School.
Indeed, neither resembled the freshmen who navigated the early season pitfalls of varsity play. The Scotties are now a blend of young and weathered, with the joining mainstays like Aly Peterson, Gerran Matthews, Larsyn Holdsworth and Alivia Reffitt.
The win against the Shermans (18-12) was their sixth straight since back-to-back losses to Sheridan April 20-21.
“As I told the girls, now that we’re in the Sweet 16, the ratings, the rankings — all of that is out the window,” Tri-Valley coach Brian Sterling said. “It’s one game. You have to be better than your opponent in one game, one time to move on.”
Tri-Valley (16-11) advanced to the regional semifinals against Bloom-Carroll (22-4) at 2 p.m. on May 27 at Sugar Grove Berne Union, located in Fairfield County about 10 minutes east of Lancaster off U.S. 33. The winner gets either unbeaten Dover (24-0) or Plain City Jonathan Alder (16-11) winner at 5 p.m. on May 29.
The hard road paid off
Rather than ease a younger team into the season against smaller schools or those with less pedigree, Sterling instead went the opposite direction.
Their nonleague games included defending Division III state champion Dover, who topped Sheridan, 6-0, in the other East/Southeast district final, along with a doubleheader with Granville and single games against DeGraff Riverside and Whitehouse Anthony Wayne on neutral fields.
After an inconsistent regular season, they’re finally reaping the benefit of the struggles. They were 4-5 in nonleague play and third in the Muskingum Valley League’s Big School Division behind co-champions John Glenn and Sheridan.
“We talked to these girls very early in the season about how everybody thinks we are reloading or rebuilding,” Sterling said. “In our program, we want to be thought of as an elite program or one of the better programs in the area. To do that, you have to play better teams and you have to believe in your kids. Yes, we lost a special senior class last year, but the kids came in and filled those positions and our underclassmen we believed in. And they believed in each other. We built that schedule for this time of year.”
Prati’s loud entrance
Prati has bat-to-ball in her blood as the daughter of former Steubenville High and Muskingum University standout Nathan Prati, who has spent his adult life in the coaching ranks with Maysville and Coshocton, respectively, following his heralded playing career.
Like ol’ dad, Gabby was no fraidy cat when it came to the big moment. She entered with only one homer on the season, but she set the offensive tone early with a game-tying, two-out, two-strike blast to left in the first inning.
The Lady Dawgs were only getting started.
After Ava Neal — another slugging underclassman — singled home a run in the second to send Tri-Valley ahead, 2-1, Prati hit the first pitch she saw out the front door to lead off the third.
Logan’s launching pad, with fences at just 188 feet, also surrendered homers to Reffitt and catcher Camdyn Tyson on a day Tri-Valley had 14 hits. Unioto, which upset top-seeded Chillicothe in the semifinals, got homers of its own from Macie Cox and Mackenzie Welch in a game that was 3-3 after four innings.
Yet it was Hittle’s timely hit in a four-run fifth that pushed a two-run lead to 7-3 and offered pitcher Megan Kozusko some much-needed breathing room. She pitched a complete game to get the win, allowing seven hits with two walks.
Reffitt and Tyson also had three singles and Neal had two singles with two singles with two RBIs as four Scotties had at least two hits. They also had one error after committing almost three per game in the regular season.
Things are officially materializing at the ideal time for Sterling’s group.
“I give a lot of credit to our girls because they wanted to keep playing,” Unioto coach Spenser Smith said. “They understood that, ‘hey, it’s win or go home.’ And it’s unfortunate, but give a lot of credit to Tri-Valley. Tri-Valley is a really good team.”
Adversity never pushed Tanks off course
Unioto faced immediate adversity when its top two returning pitchers decided not to come out for the team. It left Cox, who had never pitched previously, as the team’s best option. She responded with a strong all-around season.
The team also responded from two different instances of back-to-back losses, then followed a three-game skid in late April with an 18-16, 10-inning win against Westfall that triggered a six-game winning streak.
It didn’t end until the loss to the Scotties.
“We had a lot of confidence,” Cox said. “We never gave up until the end. We kept that confidence — they just hit the ball well.”
No moment was bigger for Cox than a 4-2 win against neighboring Ross County rival Chillicothe in the semifinals, when Cox outdueled Cavs ace C.J. Rittinger with a three-hitter. It avenged a 9-1 loss to them on April 7.
“It was amazing,” Cox said. “We were famous in our own town.”
Smith credited Cox for stepping into a difficult situation and adapting.
“We were in the boat (before the season), but we’re gonna scramble and do what we’ve got to do,” Smith said. “The girls bought into it and did a good job. We’re bringing home a trophy today. It’s a 100 percent a credit to them for not giving up and believing in what the coaches were preaching.”
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Pups fuel Lady Dawgs past Unioto, win 1st district title in 16 years
Reporting by Sam Blackburn, Zanesville Times Recorder / Zanesville Times Recorder
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