High school softball: Elyria Catholic blows lead, loses to CVCA

ELYRIA — Jim Piazza has to be scratching his head over Tuesday's loss to CVCA in North Coast Conference play. The Elyria Catholic coach saw his Panthers lose 8-7 to the Royals after jumping in front 7-1 after four innings. CVCA (11-5, 6-2 NCC) now owns two wins over the state's Division IV No. 4-ranked Panthers (16-3, 7-2) almost by identical fashion. Freshman Leah Vojtko's home run in the top of the seventh put the Royals in front Tuesday. She belted a two-run homer to give CVCA a 6-4 win April 8. "It's been the story of our season," Piazza said. "We get content and then things start going bad and instead of fighting, we give in. It's one of the things we're talking about right now. We've got to fix this." The loss was critical for the Panthers, who play Holy Name on Friday. Had they won Tuesday's game, a win over the Green Wave could have wrapped up a league title. Now, it'll be a scramble. Elyria Catholic spotted CVCA a run in the top of the first but tied it on the first of two home runs off the bat of senior Paytin Baehr in the second inning. In the third inning, junior Jessica Connor drove a deep fly to right that wasn't handled for a three-base error with two outs, she scored on junior pitcher Kailey Tomasch's infield single off the glove of shortstop Ainsley Davis. Beahr then led off the fourth with another solo homer to right field for a 3-1 lead and the Panthers rallied for four more runs after two outs to push the margin to 7-1. Sophomore Cara Gelske reached after being nicked by a pitch to start things, bringing the top of the order to the plate. Junior Nadia Pagan singled and freshman Alyssa Winter drew a walk to load the bases. Conner beat out a grounder to short to score Gelske and Pagan. Winter alertly scored on a wild pitch and Conner scored on a single by Tomasch. Things looked pretty good. Tomasch seemed to have things in control. She struck out six through five innings, allowing just one hit, but CVCA didn't give in. In the fifth, a walk, a throwing error and a single by Haddy Knapp plated one run for the Royals but they put four on the board in the sixth on four hits and a Panthers error to slice the lead to 7-6. With one out in the seventh, CVCA sophomore pitcher Shaya Tepley whacked a home run to left center, setting the stage for Vojtko's homer to almost the identical spot to give the Royals the lead. Tomasch walked the next hitter bringing in freshman Megan Stang, who retired the next batter on a force play, with EC turning it into a unconventional double play with the runner being tagged out trying to advance on the throw. "We're really young," CVCA coach Jeff Johnson said. "We've got six freshmen on this team. We only have one senior. We sort of learn as we play. These kids just don't give up. We didn't have a good game (Monday) against NDCL and for these kids to come back and win this game after being down was just exciting to see." EC went quietly in its half of the inning — a pop up and two ground balls sealing its fate. "How many runners did we leave on base — second and third — with one out?" Piazza said. "We don't come up with a hit or we hit a weak grounder or we strike out. You've got to be able to produce in those situations." EC left seven runners stranded over the course of the game — four in scoring position. Each team had eight hits. Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or at timothygeb@msn.com.