High school softball: Leah Sprague's big home run helps Amherst salvage split at Prebis Classic

LAGRANGE — Leah Sprague did Saturday what she's done all year for Amherst, which split a pair of games at the 19th annual Prebis Memorial Classic at LaGrange Community Park. The junior had two hits in a 5-2 opening loss to Division I power Perrysburg, then came back with a huge three-run home run in a 5-3, win over Marlington. Amherst (13-4) is ranked seventh in the state in Division II in the coaches poll, while Perrysburg (13-1) is ranked third in Division I. "Sprague has been seeing the ball very well of late," Amherst coach Lacey Reichert said. "She came up in the fifth inning against Marlington with a huge home run for us to give us the lead. She's been a tough out all year and she's consistently hitting the ball hard for us in the clean-up spot." Sprague blasted a double off the top of the right-center field wall against Perrysburg, missing a home run by a couple of feet. "I thought she'd (Perrysburg pitcher Maddie Van Sacken) throw me a change-up and I was ready for anything," Sprague said. "I'm glad it was a fastball. It worked out." The big difference in the Perrysburg game was the Yellow Jacket first baseman Chloe LaFaso. All she did was drive a three-run homer over the center-field fence in the bottom of the fifth to provide the margin of victory. "It wasn't a bad pitch at all," Reichert said of sophomore Karina Shuster's 1-1 offering. "That girl just dropped her bat head. She put a good swing on it. It was a really good pitch but that's what good hitters do." Reichert was happy with her team's effort. Amherst just didn't come up with the big hit in its opening game, stranding six runners. Amherst loaded the bases with one out in the sixth inning but could only score once on a fielder's choice to short by Isabella Thomas-Friend. "We left girls on base in every inning," she said. "Bases loaded, one out, if we put a crooked number up there, it's a totally different game." "They were tough," Sprague said of Perrysburg. "Defensively, they were solid and they hit the ball well. I think we played a good game. It just didn't go our way at the end." In the second game, Marlington (8-3) jumped in front 2-0 in the top of the first inning and led 3-1 when Brianna Blankenship launched a home run to start Amherst's fifth inning. Navaeh Sadler had an infield single and Allie Jackson a sacrifice bunt before Shuster reached on an error to set the stage for Sprague's three-run blast. McKenna Bottomlee worked a one-two-three sixth and retired the first two hitters to start the seventh but a walk to Justine Duringo and a single by Delaney Martz put the tying runs on base. Faith Savage grounded to shortstop Makenna Dorabek, who flipped the ball to Blankenship to force Martz at second and end the game. Freyja Survance's triple in the bottom of the second drove in Thomas-Friend for Amherst's first run. Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or at timothygeb@msn.com.