District softball: Elyria pushes Mentor to brink before falling

MENTOR — Could anyone blame Keenan Williams if he wished the next high school softball season started today? The Elyria coach saw his own version of the Fab Five (the Pioneers have six freshmen in the starting lineup) nearly pull the upset of the tournament season Monday at Mentor. The No. 12-seeded Pioneers lost 5-4 to the No. 3-seeded Cardinals but pushed the envelope to the brink of victory — or at least a tie. Elyria answered Mentor's big fourth inning with four runs in the top of the fifth and had the tying run in scoring position when the final out was recorded on a pop foul along the first base line in the seventh. Elyria finished the year with a 14-10 record with a number of tight losses. Mentor (17-7) moves on to play No. 10-seeded Brunswick (14-10) in the district final at Solon on Wednesday. "One inning," Williams said. "We preach to stop the bleeding if we can and keep that number as small as you can. We hung a pitch out there, she got it. It's as much on me as it is on the pitcher. One long fly, one shot got us." Freshman pitcher Braylee Beckham, who struck out 20 Normandy hitters in a 4-2 tournament-opening win last Tuesday and fanned 13 in a 7-0 win over Magnificat to close out the regular season, threw three perfect innings at Mentor before the Cardinals put it all together in the fourth. Mentor scored all five of its runs off Beckham in the fourth. Other than one bad hiccup, she was light's out, striking out nine and walking just two. Senior Sophia Smalley's three-run homer was the big blow off Beckham, who surrendered five hits in the inning. Mentor had only two other hits — a single to left by Peyton Willis to start the firth and a bunt single by Kathryn Bouffard in the sixth. "I don't know," Beckham said when asked what the difference was in the fourth inning. "My fastball wasn't working. My curveball wasn't working, but I got it back. This whole experience has been a lot of fun. I love all the girls." Beckham, catcher Lexi Poulus, shortstop Camille Dunlap, first baseman Hannah Quayle, center fielder Karli Niemeyer and twin sister Kaedence Niemeyer at second base are all part of the freshman class that has Williams optimistic for the future. Dunlap, who plays terrific defense at short, drove in the first two runs with a single to the gap in right-center, bringing Quayle to bat in the cleanup position. Quayle socked her third home run of the season deep over the center field fence to trim Mentor's lead to 5-4, but Elyria couldn't score again. Beckham's sacrifice bunt in the top of the seventh moved sophomore Madi Lesko to second after she had walked to start the inning but a strike out and a pop foul finished the game. "I was really happy that we didn't give up," said Quayle, saying the home run came off an outside fastball. "We kept our energy high the whole entire game. I think that's what helps us get our hits in." "That's the first thing I said to them in the (postgame) huddle," Williams said. "I'm so proud of them. It's 5-0, we could have rolled over and got run-ruled. For us to come back and do what we did — to get the four back, I'm very, very proud of our fight. "We were right there. Last inning we had the tying run in scoring position and we're one hit away." Lesko, in addition to the walk in the last inning, had two singles and scored Elyria's first run. Sophomore JaNaiya Pierce also had a single and scored in the four-run fifth. Mentor coach Josh Kobetitsch was relieved to get the win. He knew what Elyria could do. "They fought through it," he said. "Their pitcher did a great job, their defense made the plays. We had a big inning but they answered right back. They put the pressure on us. They hit a home run and it was a tight game. "We had a scrimmage against them early in the season. They probably pitched a couple different girls, we did the same thing. We knew they were tough and they like to bunt. We knew they'd bunt with two strikes and we knew their pitcher would throw a lot of rise balls and mix in the change-up. It took us a while to figure it out." Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com.