High school softball: Key hit by Olivia Bottomlee lifts North Ridgeville over Midview

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — Softball teams usually rely on veteran players to come up with the big hit in a clutch situation but sometimes the newcomers are up to the task. Freshman third baseman Olivia Bottomlee hit a two-out RBI single to center field in the bottom of the sixth inning to spark North Ridgeville to a 3-2 victory over Midview on Wednesday afternoon. Sophomore Avery Truscot scored the winning run. Bottomlee's game-winning hit came on Midview junior Savannah Holcomb's first pitch. It atoned for Bottomlee's throwing error with two outs in the top of the sixth that allowed two unearned runs to score and tie the game at 2. Bottomlee had given the Rangers a 2-0 lead with a two-out, two-run single to center off Holcomb in the bottom of the fourth. "(Holcomb) was giving me a lot of inside pitches," Bottomlee said. "I just turned on it and swung. When I get up in the box, I just remind myself to breathe. If the count or the pitches aren't what I want, I just remind myself to breathe." It was nearly the same pitch that Bottomlee turned on to drive in junior Ella Nichols and Truscot in the bottom of the fourth. North Ridgeville freshman pitcher Brynnley Cole kept things under control on the mound but also helped out at the plate. Cole worked out of pitching jams with runners in scoring position in the second, fourth and sixth innings, and she aided her cause with a long fly out to right in the fourth that allowed Nicholls and Truscot to move into scoring position for Bottomlee. Cole also singled to left in the bottom of the sixth to move Truscot from second to third to set up Bottomlee's game-winning hit. "It was great having my teammates behind me," Cole said. "I thought we played very good defense and to be able to bring home runs really helped me out." Cole scattered five hits, struck out seven and walked two. "My curveball was working very well," she said. "For a little bit it got turned off, which got things a little rough. I started walking people, but having my team behind me got me back in the zone. Having my catcher (Maddie Chinchar) behind the plate really helped." North Ridgeville (2-2, 2-1 Southwestern Conference) appeared to be in the safe zone before Bottomlee's errant throw to first in the sixth off a grounder by Hailey Dye. The overthrow to Truscot at first allowed Nina Ballachino and Savannah Presser to score and allowed Dye to advance all the way to third. Cole worked out of the threat by striking out Mallory Hetchko. "It was tough, but when we came back (in the sixth) that made it very special," Cole said. It was a nice bounce-back win for North Ridgeville, which was coming off a 1-0 loss to Avon on April 2. "It was two young teams that were duking it out," North Ridgeville coach Amy McMillan said. "It was a good game all the way to the end." SWC teams play to a high standard, but particularly North Ridgeville which has won the conference five years in a row. This Rangers version is a bit younger than previous ones as the roster includes six freshmen and seven sophomores. "(The SWC championship) is always a goal for our team every year and every year is a new year," McMillan said. "These girls are getting better every day. They are working hard and it showed up today. Mistakes happen. You just have to stop the bleeding, move on to the next play and that's exactly what they did. (Bottomlee) had her opportunity to come back and that's what she did then. They did it as a team. It's going to take all of them and that's what they did." Holcomb pitched extremely well for Midview despite taking the loss. She scattered seven hits, struck out three and gave up just one walk. "It was good that this happened to us early in the season," Midview coach Cassie Haight said. "These are both very competitive teams. (The Rangers) have multiple championship titles that they are protecting. We wanted it, but it came down to who made the fewest mistakes. That was them." Midview (2-3, 1-2) stranded six runners, including four in scoring position. "We fought through innings one through seven," Haight said. "We had a couple girls that we left on base that would have been key for having a little more cushion throughout the game. It was a tight-knit game and we tried to compete the best that we could." North Ridgeville and Midview have had some tough battles the past two seasons. Three of the last four meetings were settled by one run. The Rangers took three of the four, although the Middies won the last meeting 7-6 in 10 innings on April 23 last season. Contact Paul Heyse at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.