High school softball: Brookside set for first regional appearance since 1982

SHEFFIELD — Lorain County is always well represented when it comes time for the regional softball tournament. But this year something is different. There's a new name joining the list of usual suspects keeping their state title hopes alive. The Brookside Cardinals are headed to the Division III regional tournament after breaking a 39-year district championship drought with a 3-0 win over Northwestern in the Wellington district final. Brookside (18-8) will face 26-2 Youngstown Ursuline in today's Division III regional semifinal at 2 p.m. at Youngstown State University, the Cardinals' first regional appearance since 1982. Leading the way for the Cardinals this season have been junior Leah Musall and sophomore Lindsay Nader. Not only are Musall and Nader Brookside's top two pitchers, they are also the top two hitters. Nader is hitting .618 while Musall is batting .547. Musall is 14-7 in the pitcher's circle, including a shutout of Northwestern in the district finals, when she struck out nine. Nader is 4-1 in six starts. "Having two stud pitchers is a great addition to our team. Plus, Leah is right-handed and Lindsey is left-handed," Cardinals coach Ken Collins said. "They have been great teammates and great leaders. They have both been great contributors on both sides of the ball." Musall came into her own as a freshman in 2019, striking out 164 batters and earning all-district honors. This season, she has 194 strikeouts. "We worked really hard in the offseason. We started working out in our new weight room," Musall said. "It was sad not to play last year but thankfully we didn't have any seniors on that team, so we were all able to come back." In 2018, Brookside went 2-19. The Cardinals improved to 13-12 in 2019, but it's safe to say few expected them to make a deep tournament run this season. "I didn't know what to expect this year because I haven't played with a lot of these girls before, but we really started strong," Musall said. Brookside has been building on that strong start and getting better with each game. The Cardinals showed how far they've came in the district semifinal game when they beat a Wellington team which had defeated Brookside twice in the regular season by a 12-3 margin. "We came into the Wellington game with so much confidence. We did not want to lose to them for a third time," Nader said. "We came out in that game and hit from the start. We trust each other and we know what we can do as a team." Nader has been part of Brookside's power surge with five home runs, trailing only sophomore Faye Clark, who leads the team with seven homers. "Hitting a home run is the best feeling you can ever have," Nader said. In addition to Musall and Nader, the Cardinals have five more batters in the lineup hitting over .400 — Clark (.488), Lexi Bartlome (.472), Haley Trowbridge (.450), Savannah Dixon (.446) and Ashlee Aliff (.443). Brookside is averaging 8.7 runs per game. "Getting to the district championship game was one of our goals prior to the season," Collins said. "We said we didn't want to look past that until we got there. Now, here we are. I think everyone is real excited and looking forward to seeing what we can do." The Cardinals will face a tough challenge against a Fighting Irish team that has won 16 games by 10 or more runs and won their three district tournament games by a combined score of 35-1. Collins thinks the Cardinals' tough Lorain County League schedule has them prepared. "There's no break in our league. You go from Keystone to Wellington to Black River," Collins said. "That helped prepare us for tournament play. Every conference game is either a rivalry game or you're playing a really strong team." Although Ursuline will be the favorite, Brookside is ready to embrace the underdog role. "I knew we were going to get far this year, but I don't know if I expected this much," Nader said. "We knew there were a lot of teams out there that could pitch and hit but we had confidence and trust in each other that we could do all of those things, too. "Winning a district championship was amazing. Everyone is super excited. We want to keep going and keep pushing ourselves. We're not ready to give up." Contact Todd Shapiro at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.