High school softball: Keystone, taking it one blowout at a time, rolls over Padua to win seventh straight district title

LAGRANGE — Coach Jim Piazza is always guarding against a letdown, never takes an opponent for granted and is always preaching his one-game-at-a-time philosophy. Everyone else had already penciled his Keystone softball team in for its seventh straight Division II district championship and the Wildcats didn't disappoint during an 11-1 victory in five innings Thursday night over No. 14-seeded Padua. Keystone — ranked No. 13 in the USA Today Super 25 high school softball national poll released hours before the game — outscored three opponents 42-2 in breezing to the district title. Many top teams chose to play in other district brackets thanks to the super district draws this season. "It prepares us mentally, too," Piazza said of playing overmatched opponents in the early rounds of the playoffs. "There's a different side of the game that a lot of people don't prepare for in coming ready to play every day. We don't read the front of the jersey and we talked in practice yesterday that every game from here on out, every team is 0-0. You win, you move on and you lose and you're done. You have to take the approach that this is a state championship game no matter who we're playing." Keystone (29-1) showed consistency at the plate, both up and down the lineup and from inning to inning. The Wildcats hit for the cycle in the first five batters — Jessica Chapman led off with a triple to right field, Kerrigan Williams singled her in with a hard shot off the third baseman, Jess Gerhardinger sent a towering home run over the center-field fence and Kennedy Kerr doubled down the left-field line. "Nothing's better than that, I promise you," Chapman said of hitting a triple in the team's first at-bat. "It's a huge honor and just to start us off every game really feels special to me. It was the best feeling just to start my team off and have my team back me up … it worked out." Chapman went 4-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs scored. Williams, Madi Herrington and freshman Jalyn Owca also had multihit performances, while Dana Pace and Morgan Modock each hit doubles. Delaney Peters drove in a pair of runs with long sacrifice flies to center field. "We had a good time. We all put out like we were supposed to," Chapman said. "It was a big team win and I'm happy to say we got that dub as a team." As a team, Keystone hit 14-for-24 (.583) with a home run, two triples and four doubles. "It's kind of tough to prepare for," Padua coach Dave Jesionek said after his team fell to 13-11. "We knew they were a good hitting team — they've always been a good hitting team — but the speed that they have is just hard to prepare for. One through nine, they have speed, they have power and they have great defense throughout. Just a great team." Not that the Wildcats needed much on the offensive end. Lily Cassell dominated the Bruins lineup, pitching a two-hitter with no walks and nine strikeouts. Both hits came from Padua catcher Mikayla Gordon, who sent a rocket over the center-field fence in the fourth inning to ruin the shutout bid. "I just know that I have a job that I have to do," Cassell said. "I have to have my teammates' backs the same way that they have mine, so all I want to do is go out there and do my job and my team had my back the whole game." "Lily was lights out today," Piazza said. "One mistake, but I told her, 'You have one of the best offenses in the state of Ohio behind you so you're allowed to make one mistake.'" Many within the program — and probably outside of it as well — feel it should have been Keystone's eighth straight district title as last season was lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cassell said the players had last year's seniors on their minds as they took the field and Piazza said it was a bittersweet moment when this year's seniors completed the mission and tradition of hoisting the district championship trophy over their heads. "They were here," Piazza said of the 2020 seniors. "I wanted to see if I can bring them out here and get a picture with them with the trophy. That senior group last year did an unbelievable job of leadership until the season got canceled, and even after that they still kept their heads held high and had a great impact on our program. They showed this year's seniors how it's done." Contact Shaun Bennett at 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on Twitter.