Canfield dumps Clyde; Celina on deck

By Tom Williams

The Cards seized control immediately, then benefited from the bat of Melissa West and the arm of Tricia Bettura

AKRON — The heartbreak from being eliminated the last two seasons by the eventual state champions paid dividends Friday morning for the senior-laden Canfield High softball team.

Against much-younger Clyde (24-3), the tournament-tested Cardinals (22-4-1) made their state debut by pouncing on freshman pitcher Brooke Billings for two runs in the first inning.

Melissa West’s two-run homer in the third inning and Tricia Bettura’s four-hitter propelled the Cards to a 4-1 victory in the Division II state semifinal and earned them a date in today’s title game at 3 p.m. against Celina (24-3).

“It’s a tremendous feeling for us, this is the furthest we’ve ever gone in school history,” said Canfield coach Ronie Haurin. “To make it to the final game, we all are elated and anxious.”

Clyde coach Marc Marshall called West’s homer the “difference in the game, but we battled back. Canfield is one of the best-hitting teams we’ve played.

“That being said, our little freshman pitcher only gave up six hits. She did a great job of battling.”

But she was no match for Bettura’s four years of varsity experience.

“She was a very good pitcher,” Marshall said of Canfield’s left-handed ace. “She did a nice job of hitting her spots with velocity. She did a nice job of keeping it off the middle of the plate. She did a nice job of keeping it in on our hands.”

The Cards seized control of the game immediately when leadoff batter Rachel Melewski, another of Canfield’s eight seniors, bunted her way on and moved to second on Brittany Danilov’s sacrifice bunt.

Haurin said the Cards wanted to test the Fliers infield with their speed.

“Rachel started it by laying down a bunt perfectly,” Haurin said.

West singled to score Melewski and reached second when Fliers shortstop Kaila Strausbaugh held the relay. Bettura smacked the ball off first base for an RBI single and 2-0 lead.

“Our hitting is amazing along with our defense, so to get two runs in the first inning was huge,” said Bettura (16-2).

Melewski jump-started the Cards again in the third inning when she walked and stole two bases.

“We like to steal second a lot to get into scoring position so when Brittany or Melissa come up and they get a single, we’re going home,” Melewski said.

With one out, West sent Billings’ 3-1 offering over the center-field fence for a two-run homer. Center fielder Kaylea Griffin fell into the temporary fence, knocking it down trying to get the ball.

West wasn’t sure the ball had landed beyond the broken fence until she had passed first base.

“When I was still running, I thought she had caught it,” the Bowling Green recruit said. “The umpire was giving the signal, but I thought he was kidding.”

Bettura limited Clyde to two base runners in the first three innings.

In the fourth, Strausbaugh and Kay Elfring led off with singles and the Fliers had the bases loaded with one out.

Nikki Bryant grounded to shortstopDanilov who erased Strausbaugh at the plate by throwing to catcher Mandy Moliterno, Bettura lost her shutout when West bobbled Aubrie Burkett’s ground ball and threw late to first.

Bettura ended the threat by striking out Griffin.

“I got tired, but you push through that with your adrenaline,” Bettura said. “By the seventh inning, the adrenaline really kicks in.”

Down the stretch, Bettura retired nine of the final 10 batters she faced. Her 10 strikeouts included retiring the side in the seventh inning.

“We can’t ask for anything more out of that girl,” West said of Bettura. “I get goose bumps thinking about how well she’s doing.”

Bettura said the Cards were caught a little off guard by Billings’ speed.

“We had to be our toes — we were expecting a faster speed,” Bettura said.

williams@vindy.com