Sectional softball: Elyria's Braylee Beckham dominates in win over Normandy

ELYRIA — Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood have nothing on Elyria freshman softball pitcher Braylee Beckham.Beckham completely dominated Normandy in a Division I sectional championship game with a Lorain County record-tying 20 strikeouts in a 4-2 win over the Invaders.Beckham, who had a string of 16 straight strikeouts, tied Keystone's Amie Leffew who also struck out 20 batters in a seven-inning game in 1999. The Lorain County record for strikeouts in a game beyond seven innings is held by Caitlyn Minney, who had 34 in Keystone's 15-inning win over Black River in 2010.The 12th-seeded Pioneers improved to 14-9 and will now hit the road Monday when they head east to face No. 3 Mentor."I never thought I would be able to do something like that," Beckham said. "At the start, my change-up was a little rough. My rise was really working well and after the first couple of innings, my curveball started working really well.""I have never seen a 14-year-old with that poise and command before in my coaching career," Elyria coach Keenan Williams said. "She is definitely one-of-one and has a really bright future. You saw her at her very best today."Normandy (5-8) only touched Beckham a few times in the game with the two biggest hits coming with two outs in the first when Invaders starting pitcher Ava Ramirez tripled to deep right-center and walked home on a two-run homer to center by Aubrey Kuhn for a quick 2-0 Invaders lead.The Pioneers came back with their own two-out magic when Camille Dunlap and Hannah Quayle reached on infield singles.Kaedence Niemeyer singled home the first run and when the throw from center to third hit Quayle in the back and bounced away, she scampered home with the tying run.After that first inning, Beckham was simply unhittable, striking out the next 16 Normandy batters with five of the strikeouts looking.While Beckham was setting down batters left and right, the Pioneers were able to scratch out a couple of runs to take the lead.In the third, Ja'Nyiah Pierce's speed provided the first run with a single to shortstop, she then stole second and put Elyria up 3-2 after a couple of wild pitches.Dunlap provided the final run of the game after hitting a two-out triple in the fifth and scoring on another wild pitch.The first two Normandy batters made contact in the seventh when Ramirez fittingly hit a ground ball back to Beckham and Kuhn came up with her second hit, a double down the line in left to bring the potential tying run to the plate for the Invaders.Beckham responded by striking out the final two batters to cement her place in Lorain County history."Getting those runs in the first with two outs really was huge for (Beckham) and for the team," Williams said. "We want to be aggressive and getting the last two runs the way with did is what we want to do as a team."Contact James Brady at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.