Fairfield Lady Lions repeat as district champions
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
MINFORD — The Fairfield Lady Lions start four freshmen, two sophomores, two juniors and one senior each game, and on Monday in the Division IV SE District championship game, they not only showed how much they’ve grown up on the softball field, but they left the diamond as district champions.
The Lady Lions, who are now 20-4 overall, repeated as district champions by playing small ball while at the plate, took advantage of errors and on the defensive side played errorless softball. By the way, their pitching was nearly hitless once again, as all of those aspects of the game equaled a 2-0 victory over the Paint Valley Lady Bearcats at Minford High School.
The game was delayed from Saturday to Monday due to inclement weather over the weekend, and for the young Lady Lions, they may be young in age, but they have or are becoming veterans on the diamond, as their third inning nearly mirrored their first meeting earlier in the season, when at Fairfield High School the Lady Lions defeated Paint Valley by the same 2-0 score.
It wasn’t easy for the Lady Lions by a long shot as they had to face All-State pitcher Mikayla Newland of the Lady ’Cats as she didn’t make things easy for the Lady Lions, but the third inning is where FHS managed to do just enough damage on the scoreboard to have their lone scoring inning.
“I just want to start off by saying Mikayla Newland is by far the best pitcher in the SE District. That kid is phenomenal,” FHS head coach Mark Dettwiller said. “She is going to go to Akron, and I very much believe she’ll do very well there.
“As for us, our game plan was to put the ball into play, put pressure on the defense and use our speed on the base paths and see if we can force them into mistakes, and we did,” Dettwiller said. “We capitalized on them, and that was the difference in the ball game.”
FHS assistant coach Tom Purtell spoke of the Lady Lions’ offense, as the team finished with nine hits in the district final win, while also reaching base twice on two PV errors.
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“One of our rules coming into this game was to keep our strikeouts (at the plate) to 10, and we had eight, so we did that, and we were real happy with that,” Purtell said. “In-game adjustments are key in softball.”
The bottom of the third began with two consecutive outs, but Grace Larrick reached first base on an infield error on a throw to first base that sailed away. From there, it was the bat of Carli Reiber that moved Larrick to second base and put her on first base.
Then the scoring came for Fairfield, as Kaiti White hit a line drive down the third base line to left field for a single, but as the ball was being fielded it went past the outfielder, allowing White to reach second base and both Larrick and Reiber to score runs for the eventual 2-0 advantage.
This win by the Lady Lions is not only their second consecutive district championship, but it is their eighth district title in program history and their third in the past four seasons. Since 2006, the Lady Lions have won five district championships (’06, ’11, ’13, ’15 and ’16), while their other three district title came in the ’80s (’81, ’82, ’86).
As for the pitching of FHS, again, it was nearly flawless as White didn’t show any freshman jitters when she stepped into the circle in her first district final showdown. In fact, she helped the Lady Lions control the pace of the game by retiring 10 consecutive batters from the third inning for outs two and three until she walked a batter in the top of the sixth with two outs, though she did retire the next batter with a fly ball hit to right field.
In the final inning, Larrick made a diving catch at second base for out one, followed by Emily Williams making a catch while turning for the second out on a line drive. PV threatened with a two-out base hit, but the game ended on a ground out hit back to White as she tossed the ball to Lyndee Spargur for the final out of the game.
For the contest, White pitched all seven innings, allowing no runs on three hits and one walk. She ended the game with nine strikeouts, improving her overall record to 20-2 overall when pitching.
“We are just proud to be representing the Southeast District at Pickerington in the regionals,” Dettwiller said.
FHS, the No. 9 state-ranked team, moves to 20-4 overall on the season as they advance to the regional semifinals to face No. 1 state-ranked Danville on Thursday, May 26 at 5 p.m. at Pickerington (Central) High School. Danville won the Pickerington District championship by defeating Sugar Grove Berne Union by a 7-3 score.
Danville (22-2) this postseason has defeated Columbus Patriot Preparatory (7-0), Delaware Christian (5-0) in 12 innings, Howard East Knox (9-2) and Berne Union in the district final. Last season, Danville finished as the regional runner-up. Their district title was their seventh in the past 11 seasons.
FHS this postseason has defeated Western Latham (9-1), Glouster Trimble (13-1) and Paint Valley in the district final.
The Lady Lions, who are now 20-4 overall, repeated as district champions by playing small ball while at the plate, took advantage of errors and on the defensive side played errorless softball. By the way, their pitching was nearly hitless once again, as all of those aspects of the game equaled a 2-0 victory over the Paint Valley Lady Bearcats at Minford High School.
The game was delayed from Saturday to Monday due to inclement weather over the weekend, and for the young Lady Lions, they may be young in age, but they have or are becoming veterans on the diamond, as their third inning nearly mirrored their first meeting earlier in the season, when at Fairfield High School the Lady Lions defeated Paint Valley by the same 2-0 score.
It wasn’t easy for the Lady Lions by a long shot as they had to face All-State pitcher Mikayla Newland of the Lady ’Cats as she didn’t make things easy for the Lady Lions, but the third inning is where FHS managed to do just enough damage on the scoreboard to have their lone scoring inning.
“I just want to start off by saying Mikayla Newland is by far the best pitcher in the SE District. That kid is phenomenal,” FHS head coach Mark Dettwiller said. “She is going to go to Akron, and I very much believe she’ll do very well there.
“As for us, our game plan was to put the ball into play, put pressure on the defense and use our speed on the base paths and see if we can force them into mistakes, and we did,” Dettwiller said. “We capitalized on them, and that was the difference in the ball game.”
FHS assistant coach Tom Purtell spoke of the Lady Lions’ offense, as the team finished with nine hits in the district final win, while also reaching base twice on two PV errors.
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“One of our rules coming into this game was to keep our strikeouts (at the plate) to 10, and we had eight, so we did that, and we were real happy with that,” Purtell said. “In-game adjustments are key in softball.”
The bottom of the third began with two consecutive outs, but Grace Larrick reached first base on an infield error on a throw to first base that sailed away. From there, it was the bat of Carli Reiber that moved Larrick to second base and put her on first base.
Then the scoring came for Fairfield, as Kaiti White hit a line drive down the third base line to left field for a single, but as the ball was being fielded it went past the outfielder, allowing White to reach second base and both Larrick and Reiber to score runs for the eventual 2-0 advantage.
This win by the Lady Lions is not only their second consecutive district championship, but it is their eighth district title in program history and their third in the past four seasons. Since 2006, the Lady Lions have won five district championships (’06, ’11, ’13, ’15 and ’16), while their other three district title came in the ’80s (’81, ’82, ’86).
As for the pitching of FHS, again, it was nearly flawless as White didn’t show any freshman jitters when she stepped into the circle in her first district final showdown. In fact, she helped the Lady Lions control the pace of the game by retiring 10 consecutive batters from the third inning for outs two and three until she walked a batter in the top of the sixth with two outs, though she did retire the next batter with a fly ball hit to right field.
In the final inning, Larrick made a diving catch at second base for out one, followed by Emily Williams making a catch while turning for the second out on a line drive. PV threatened with a two-out base hit, but the game ended on a ground out hit back to White as she tossed the ball to Lyndee Spargur for the final out of the game.
For the contest, White pitched all seven innings, allowing no runs on three hits and one walk. She ended the game with nine strikeouts, improving her overall record to 20-2 overall when pitching.
“We are just proud to be representing the Southeast District at Pickerington in the regionals,” Dettwiller said.
FHS, the No. 9 state-ranked team, moves to 20-4 overall on the season as they advance to the regional semifinals to face No. 1 state-ranked Danville on Thursday, May 26 at 5 p.m. at Pickerington (Central) High School. Danville won the Pickerington District championship by defeating Sugar Grove Berne Union by a 7-3 score.
Danville (22-2) this postseason has defeated Columbus Patriot Preparatory (7-0), Delaware Christian (5-0) in 12 innings, Howard East Knox (9-2) and Berne Union in the district final. Last season, Danville finished as the regional runner-up. Their district title was their seventh in the past 11 seasons.
FHS this postseason has defeated Western Latham (9-1), Glouster Trimble (13-1) and Paint Valley in the district final.