The Garfield G-Men softball team did not plan on their first extra innings affair of the season coming in a game when they held a five-run advantage in the seventh inning. After their five-run lead turned into a one-run deficit, the G-Men rallied to walk off Mineral Ridge 8-7 in nine innings last Thursday at Garrettsville.
“I tried to tell them we have to add more, we can’t let up, but we were pretty comfortable until the sixth inning, but man, did things change and go back-and-forth,” said Coach Tina Faulhaber.
Thursday’s victory marked the second straight win for the G-Men (5-7, 2-6), which is the first winning streak they have experienced since the start of the season when they had a 2-0 record. After a stretch of five consecutive losses against Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Grey Tier rivals, Garfield got a nice boost with an offensive outburst in their last two games.
On Thursday, the G-Men were in control and took a 6-1 lead into the seventh inning. Mineral Ridge’s big inning started with a fielding error by senior third baseman Juliana Genovese and the 16-year coach acknowledged that the G-Men further compounded their problems with several other fielding mistakes.
“We had some players run a long way just to drop a ball that we needed caught or to not communicate with each other when we needed an out or could not dig a ball out of the dirt and stuff like that,” she added. “When a team has the momentum hitting, you cannot compile errors on top of errors. It is not going to go well. It did not go well for us.”
Mineral Ridge scored three runs before recording an out on a RBI-single to left field by sophomore Sullivan Sandy and a two-run double to left field by junior Laney Riley, trimming the G-Men’s lead to 6-4.
Even after freshman right-hander Olivia Bailey recorded the first out, the Rams continued cutting into the lead until senior Maggie Collins delivered a go-ahead two-run single to left field, pushing Mineral Ridge to a 7-6 advantage.
According to Faulhaber, the G-Men have not been a poor defensive team this year but have allowed the small mistakes to build up and eventually result in bigger errors.
Garfield struck back in the bottom of the seventh frame when senior catcher Kolby Fresch knocked a game-tying RBI-double with two outs to left field, knotting the score at 7-7 to send it into extra innings.
“She did what a true captain does,” Faulhaber noted. “We talked about what we needed to do. We talked about cutting through the middle of it and hitting hard line drives through and hard ground balls through instead of sky-high pop-ups and that enabled us to tie it up.”
After a challenging seventh frame, Bailey silenced Mineral Ridge’s bats by allowing only one hit over the next two innings. Once again down to their final out in the ninth inning, the G-Men prevailed when freshman shortstop Emily Knerem drove a game-winning RBI-double into left field, sending Garfield home with a clutch victory.
“She is a very grounded kid, and she just went up there and I told her she just has to let it travel a little bit further and let it come to her,” Faulhaber said. “You just need to let the ball get to you and she did exactly that. She waited on it, cut through the middle of it and hit a perfect scorcher down the left field line.”
It was a thrilling finish to a game where Garfield assumed control at the beginning with a four-run first inning by recording three hits. Faulhaber said it was a welcome sight to see her squad jump ahead early as they had been plagued by slow starts throughout most of the season.
Despite having a tough time against the MVAC Grey Tier this year, Faulhaber said that all the makings are there for Garfield to build momentum in the final weeks of the season.
“They have talked about that too,” she said. “What is done is done, those games are over. We can learn from that and that is it, so what is ahead of us is what we can control so it is really important going into tournaments that we get every win that we can and we play to the level that we can.”
After a home game against MVAC Grey Tier rival Crestview on Tuesday, a road game against Portage County rival Ravenna on Wednesday and another road contest against Canton Central Catholic on Thursday, the G-Men will return to the diamond to face MVAC Grey Tier foe Brookfield in a road duel on Monday at 5 p.m.
