sabres rally to secure back-to-back ofsaa slo-pitch titles
there’s always a little added pressure when you are the...
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sandwich sabres' shortsop kyra smith connects on a pitch during the ofsaa slo-pitch gold medal game at mic mac park.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
there’s always a little added pressure when you are the defending champion.
the sandwich sabres finally felt a little of that pressure in the gold-medal final at the ofsaa slo-pitch championship.
“there’s a lot of expectations to uphold,” sabres’ shortstop kyra smith said. “going in, everyone thinks you’re a good team, so they’re going to be prepared. so, there’s more competition.”
the defending champion and top-seeded sabres rolled through pool play in the 16-team tournament with a 3-0 record and outscored the opposition 37-4 in the process.
in the semis, sandwich cruised to a 6-0 win over the toronto michael power-st. joseph trojans to advance to the final.
sandwich sabres’ outfielders brook ward, left, and caitlin brayford chase a ball during the ofsaa slo-pitch gold medal game at mic mac park.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
but the sabres found themselves chasing the second-seeded milton bishop reding royals for much of the gold-medal final at mic mac park before a four-run sixth inning put the team up for good en route to a 10-7 victory and a second-straight title.
“i felt we had a lot more pressure on us this game because we really haven’t had to chase anyone this tournament or even through wecssaa or swossaa,” sabres’ catcher haylie hancock said. “for this game, to be down and have to comeback, there was a lot of pressure.”
the royals jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning and while the sabres rallied to tie the game at 2-2 and then scored to runs to again tie things at 4-4 after three innings, the club found itself down 7-4 after four innings.
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“it was a hard game,” sabres’ pitcher emily crosby said. “they scored, we scored and we were never up until the sixth inning. it was hard because we had to know that we could do it and trust in ourselves.”
trying to get back into the game, sandwich batters seemed anxious at the plate and were swinging early in counts.
“we were all wanting to change the scoreboard and we were a little antsy at the plate,” crosby said. “later in the game, we relaxed and starting hitting pitches we can hit.”
crosby threw three shutout innings to close the game and the bats came alive for the sabres. sandwich pulled to within a run in the bottom of the sixth inning with two runs and added four to go ahead in the bottom of the sixth inning.
“it was a little scary, i’m not going to lie,” said smith, who had three hits and scored three runs. “we all kind of had to lift each other up.”
crosby’s sacrifice fly brought in the smith with the tying run and liv koszegi, who had two hits, drove in the go-ahead run with a single. hancock singled to drive in an insurance run and meredith reynolds capped the inning with a single for her second rbi of the game.
sandwich sabres’ outfielder breslynn bankscatches a ball during the ofsaa slo-pitch gold medal game at mic mac park.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
“at the beginning of the game, everyone was a little anxious at the plate,” said hancock, who had three hits and drove in three runs. “as we went through the game, we were able to take a couple of deep breaths, zone in and hit the ball the way we know we can.”
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crosby induced three ground balls – two to smith and one to second baseman sam garant – to close things out and set off the celebration.
“it’s just a lot of pressure,” said crosby, who just started pitching this season. “we’d never seen (the royals) before. we had no clue where they were going to hit it, no clue how they were going to field or what their pitcher was like.
“i think it’s harder this year because we had a lot of pressure and a lot on our plate because we won last year and wanted to repeat.”
jpparker@postmedia.com
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