District softball: Keystone upset by Poland

LAGRANGE — That certainly was unexpected. Keystone softball is synonymous with success in the postseason, but the No. 7-seeded Wildcats saw their season come to an abrupt end Monday after a 9-0 loss to Poland Seminary in the Division V district semifinals. The 17th-seeded Bulldogs, out of Mahoning County, improved to 15-14 and will face top-seeded Norwayne on Wednesday in the district championship game at Dalton High School at 5 p.m. "I have to give credit where credit is due, (Seminary) came ready to play," Wildcats coach Anna Sexton said. "There is a difference between being winners and competitors ... I don't know if we showed up to be competitors today." The Bulldogs got the only run they needed right out of the gate when Leanna Boccieri doubled off Wildcats freshman starter Macie Banks, advanced to third and scored on a pair of ground ball outs for a 1-0 lead. After Bulldogs freshman starter Ali Blinsky struck out the side in the first, Keystone (19-6) had an opportunity to get the run back when Bristol Foster and Ava Armitage drew walks to open the next inning. After a Kailey Zealley fly out to left, Rylin Barrett dropped down a sacrifice bunt and Corrine Lamb was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Blinsky got out of the jam by getting a pop-up to third, one of seven fly outs in the game. Seminary tacked on a pair of runs in the third with back-to-back doubles to open the inning by Avery Jakubovic and Cassie Blanch, whose hit bounced off the top of the fence in dead center and fell into fair territory. Blanch trotted home on a Medison Medvec hit to make the score 3-0. Keystone's Tatum Holzhauer started the third with a single to left but got doubled up on a line-drive smash back to Blinsky in the circle. Anna Wright followed with a hit but a fly out to center ended the Keystone threat. "It's always nice to go on the road and get a win, but especially to win here," Bulldogs coach Jim Serich said. "(Blinsky) never let the moment get too big (in the second and third innings), she walked a pair and got out of it with a double play. Those are the growing things we need to see from her." After the two hits in the third, the Wildcats bats went silent the rest of the way with the only hit being an infield single by Rylin Bennett to start the seventh inning. Seminary put any thoughts of a comeback away in the sixth sending by 10 batters to the plate and scoring five times on five hits and one big Keystone error that seemed to open the floodgates. "We knew going into this that if we lose, we are done," Sexton said. "I hope that this affects us in a way that it lights a little fire and our drive to not let this happen again. It gets to a point when you have to look in the mirror, because nothing is given to us and it has to be earned." Contact James Brady at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.