Throughout this season, the Aurora Greenmen softball team has conquered almost every hurdle they have face. The one hurdle they hadn’t faced was how to respond after a loss, but they crossed that item off their list when they overpowered Green 10-2 last Saturday afternoon in Uniontown.
“It was a long week,” noted Coach Sam Petrash. “We said we have one more game this week and are going to fight through this and are going to play because adversity strengthens you so to fight through the loss and come back with a win is impressive for our team.”
The Greenmen (19-1, 12-0) engineered a dominating regular season by going on an 18-game winning streak but suffered their first loss when they were defeated 10-9 against Medina in a road game last Friday. Although it stung to finally lose a game, Petrash acknowledged that no longer being undefeated before the start of the playoffs was one less distraction his squad needed to worry about.
On Saturday, Aurora got back to business with a two-run first inning, sparked by a pair of RBI-doubles to left field by senior first baseman/pitcher McKennah Metzger and junior catcher Sophie Schechterman respectively.
“It was good to see because all year long we have been putting up runs in the first inning,” said the seven-year coach. “You want to do that as a team and want to take control early, regain momentum and hold onto it. After a loss on Friday, to be able to come back and continue what we do was refreshing to see.”
The Bulldogs responded in the bottom half of the first frame when senior first baseman McKenzie Collinsworth belted a two-run home run to center field, tying the score at 2-2.
After Collinsworth’s game-tying blast, sophomore hurler Lailah Bohanan dominated by throwing five innings, surrendering only two runs on three hits while striking out four and walking two.
“What was nice about Friday and Saturday was that we have been using McKennah all year in our big games and we needed to get our other pitchers some work to give us some depth during the playoffs in case something unforeseen happens,” added Petrash. “It was good to see Lailah come out and throw as well as she did on Saturday.”
Aurora responded in the top half of the second inning when it erupted to score three runs, one on a RBI-single to right field by junior shortstop Ryan Unverferth and two more on a fielding error by Bulldogs’ freshman third baseman Natalie Spada on a ground ball off the bat of junior right fielder/first baseman Sophie Retton, propelling the Greenmen to take a 5-2 advantage.
With Bohanon in command on the mound, the Greenmen’s offense was relentless against freshman pitcher Annie Liszewski, scoring at least one run in the next four innings to take control of the game.
“The difference between Saturday and Friday was that we found gaps on Saturday and found holes and on Friday we were hitting the ball just as hard but right at people,” Petrash said. “Sometimes you have a game where you are hitting the ball right at people and sometimes the ball is going through and finding gaps.”
Having played its final game before the beginning of the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division II playoffs, the Greenmen are holding all of the cards, with an 18-0 start fueling them to dominating the Suburban League American Conference en route to snagging at least a share of the conference championship for the fourth straight season.
According to Petrash, it was a pleasant surprise but not totally unexpected given how well the junior core group has meshed since playing together in their youth.
“This has been a long time coming,” he added. “This group has been together for a long time. The hope was that they would come into high school as this core group and then try to make a push to create some memories during their time here and they have done that and are looking to create more memories by winning another conference and then try to go as deep as we can in the state playoffs.”
Metzger and fellow senior left fielder Madeline Dalessandro now become only the second graduating class in program history to be members of a conference-winning Aurora squad for all four years of their varsity careers.
“We always talk about leaving a little piece of us behind at Aurora and one way to do that is to put your year up on the banner,” Petrash said. “This way every time you come back to the school and visit, you get to see a little bit of what you left here for the Aurora Greenmen legacy.”
Following a road game against SLAC foe Medina Highland on Tuesday, ff Aurora wins the OHSAA Division II Northeast 1 sectional championship on Thursday, it will advance to compete in the district semifinal on Tuesday at the Jefferson Little League Complex beginning at 5 p.m.
