High school softball: Last blast for seniors at all-star game

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — One more time. Eighteen local softball seniors were able to wear their high school uniforms one last time Tuesday in the Lorain County Softball Coaches Association All-Star game. The team coached by Black River's Scott Nadar (EC, Amherst, Midview, Keystone, Black River, Avon lake, Vermilion) fell behind early to the team coached by Firelands' Chad Parsons (Firelands, Columbia, North Ridgeville, Lorain) but came back to score 10 unanswered runs in the final two innings, posting a 15-5 five-inning victory. A pair of Lexis got things going for the Parsons team as Lexi Schrader (Firelands) and Lexi Miller (Columbia) started the game by reaching on a single and a walk off Avon Lake's Erin Dean. A throwing error and a wild pitch sent the first two runs home and a ground out by Alina Jones (Columbia) put the team up 3-0. Team Nader answered in the bottom of the first, sending eight to the plate and scoring five times. Lillian Ciryak (Elyria Catholic) singled off Jeanette Crawford (Firelands), Makenna Dorobek (Amherst) walked and 2026 Miss Softball winner Leah Sprague (Amherst) singled to load the bases. Two runs came home on a Nina Ballachino (Midview) single and a subsequent throwing error, Keystone's Anna Wright got a run home with a ground out and Rylin Barrett (Keystone) had a sacrifice fly to center to make it 4-3. With the bases empty, Black River's Remi Dieter picked a great time to have her first career home run, blasting a ball down the right-field line that eluded a diving defender and skipped all the way to the corner. Dieter started slowing down going to third, but coach Nader kept waving her home for the inside-the-park homer. "I really thought I was going to have to slide at home after slowing down around second base," said Dieter, who will be in the Ashland County softball all-star game today and will be playing volleyball at Mount Union this fall. "It was great to put on the uniform one more time and go out to compete against a bunch of great players." Team Parsons fought back to start the second with a little two-out magic as Schrader (3-for-3, two runs) tripled and came home on a Miller single through the right side. Evelyn Tucker (Columbia) sent the team's final run home with an infield single to tie things at 5. After scoring the five runs off Dean, Sprague went to the circle and allowed just two hits while striking out three over the final three innings of the game to pick up the win. Team Nader put the game away by scoring five runs in each of their last two turns at the plate. In the fourth inning, Rylin Barrett (Keystone) tripled and Dieter walked ahead of Dean, who sent them both home with a double. Vermilion's Abby Gawry singled her home to go up 8-5. "There were so many girls here that we just don't see during the year," said Gawry, who went 3-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored. "The only people I've really seen were the Firelands girls. I like having a fresh palate against pitchers I've never seen." Gawry came home when Ciryak doubled to right-center, bringing Columbia's Alina Jones to the circle. "I'm just glad to make the most of an opportunity like this," Ciryak said. "It was nice to come out here and just have some fun and not stress about the playoffs and end on a good note." Contact James Brady at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.