High school softball: Elyria Catholic rolls over Holy Name

PARMA HTS. — Elyria Catholic powered its way past Holy Name on Thursday to stay in the race for at least a share of the North Coast Conference championship. The Panthers hit six home runs in beating the Green Wave 20-9. EC (19-4 overall, 8-3 NCC) needs CVCA to knock off Holy Name (16-7, 8-2) to pull even. Elyria Catholic batted around and scored six runs in the first inning, propelled by back-to-back two-out home runs from freshman Alyssa Winter and senior Allison Bailey. Winter's was a three-run shot, and Bailey cracked hers on a full count. With one out, senior Lillian Ciryak started the rally with a single to center. Juniors Jessica Conner and Kailey Tomasch walked to load the bases, and senior Paytin Baehr singled to drive in two runs. Winter and Bailey, sitting in the eight and nine holes in EC's lineup, finished the rally in style. "Allison Bailey just earned her stripes," said coach Jim Piazza. "She was injured earlier and now she's come through as far as being cleared to play. I told her she was going to get her opportunity, and she made the best of it." After another walk to Tomasch with two outs in the second inning, Baehr's two-run homer put EC up 8-0. Alli Orzech's solo home run in the bottom of the second put the Green Wave on the board, but the Panthers answered with four more in the top of the third behind a two-run single by Conner. Sophomore Cara Gelske drew a walk to start the inning, with one out Ciryak was hit by a pitch and both moved up on a wild pitch. Conner, who recorded her 150th career hit earlier in the week, ripped a single to left to score both. Conner advanced to second on a wild pitch and to third on Tomasch's fly to center. Baehr walked and moved up on another wild pitch. With two outs, freshman catcher Molly Stang singled to score Conner. Piazza couldn't have been happier with Stang for her work behind the plate. "She knows the game as a freshman," Piazza said. "She does a great job behind the plate. She controls it and she tries to talk to the pitcher. She knows what she's doing and that's a key of us. Only being a freshman and know what she knows, that's huge." Down 8-1, Holy Name didn't go quietly. Maura Mihalik hit a grand slam in the third inning to cap a five-run rally to slice the margin to 12-6. EC's power surge continued with Tomasch hitting a pair of homers and Conner adding another. Conner was 4-for-5 with five runs driven in to push her career hit total to 157. "We've been doing pretty good this season so I'm proud of our team for that," said Conner. "There's always room for improvement for me. I'm happy and proud that I've gotten 150 hits, but I could always do more. "Our warm-ups were really good. We were all having fun today." Tomasch came in to relieve starter Meagan Stang in the third inning to quell Holy Name's rally. She finished with five strikeouts but did get touched up for three runs in the sixth inning. She worked out of a bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the seventh to preserve the win. For Piazza, he knew beating Holy Name wouldn't be easy. "I felt really proud that we stayed with the game plan that we wanted to do," he said. "When they do those things and you see the results, you see the smiles on their faces. We have to be consistent with it day in and day out. We've always been hitting all year. It's just that the games we lost we didn't get the crucial hit that we needed. (Thursday) a lot of it was two-strike hits. We hit home runs with two strikes, we put the ball in play, which is good. "That's a heckuva team. They're going to go far in the tournament. We hope we go far in the tournament. Our conference is a juggernaut. You look at it, we're beating each other up. We've got to stay focused and keep doing what we're doing." Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com.