Staff photo / Neel Madhavan. South Range senior Samantha Susany puts the ball in play during the Raiders regional semifinal game against Wooster Triway on May 24 at Willig Park in Canton.

All season long, South Range has had the confidence that it can hit off of anyone.

As a result, the Raiders’ ability to consistently hit the ball is one of the main reasons that South Range finds itself in this week’s Division III state semifinals at Firestone Stadium in Akron.

“We’ve played up all season long on purpose for this exact reason,” said head coach Jeff DeRose. “We’re not afraid of somebody that can throw in the low-60s and spin the ball and have a nice offspeed and all that stuff. It really helps us to have confidence up at the plate.”

In its 30 games this season, South Range is scoring 9.3 runs per game off 10.01 hits per game, with a team batting average of .365. In just the playoffs, the Raiders are averaging 11.6 hits per game.

During regionals, South Range faced two of the top pitchers in the state in Triway’s Georgia Tech-commit Carter Wachtel and Champion sophomore Gabby Gradishar.

Wachtel and the Titans came in only allowing 1.70 runs per game, while Gradishar has had a 0.94 ERA this season and has only given up 2.3 hits per game. The Raiders tallied six hits and four runs off Wachtel and then scored eight runs off 10 hits against Gradishar.

“We knew (Gradishar) was a great pitcher and we just saw (Wachtel) on Wednesday,” DeRose said. “They’re very similar to be honest. It took us a few innings to get moving, but it’s almost contagious when the girls start hitting the ball.”

DeRose said South Range’s ability to hit the ball all starts with repetition.

“It’s a lot of practice and a lot of repetition,” DeRose said. “We have girls come in sometimes and throw to us so it’s not just hitting off a tee, but it’s a ton of repetition and seeing live pitching an awful lot. Even early in the season, we go live like the second or third day of the year in like early February in the gym because that’s where it starts. We have our pitchers throw live against our hitters and we’ve been doing this since February and we’re almost into June. We’re seeing a lot of pitches throughout the year and it’s paying off.”

Clutch hitting has also been a key to South Range’s success, and has helped the Raiders advance throughout the postseason tournament.

During the district final, South Range trailed Poland by three runs, but rallied to tie the game heading into the seventh inning, and then walked it off in the bottom of the frame.

Then against Triway, the Raiders trailed the Titans by one, but tied the game heading into the seventh inning and plated two runs in the top of the inning to put the game away.

Finally in the extra innings regional final against Champion, South Range scored four runs off five hits in the top of the eighth inning to seal the deal.

“We just have to keep our minds clear when some things don’t go our way,” said senior Juli Stachowicz. “We just have to come out in the field, and show up at the plate when needed.”

South Range is unique in that it is capable of getting hits from anyone in the lineup, top to bottom, at any given time, in any given game.

“I think that our lineup is just so greatly balanced,” senior Kelly Szolek said. “We have people at the top of the lineup who are going to produce hits and who are going to produce runs, but if we’re off and we’re not producing like we need to, we have girls in the middle to the end of the lineup that are going to produce hits and runs, as well. Just like they did (at regionals). So it’s really special. It takes some of the pressure off of the defense, knowing how balanced the offensive lineup is.”

In fact, the winning runs against Triway came on a two-run home run by freshman Anna Aey, who bats in the No. 8 spot. Junior Gretchen Bartels, who bats in the No. 6 spot, had the walk-off hit against Poland. Then against Champion, the Raiders got four straight hits and two runs to lead off the eighth inning from the bottom four hitters in their lineup.

“When I’m standing on first base and I see who’s on deck, way back in the day, I used to go, ‘oh man, I can’t wait till we get back to the top,’ — those days are over,” DeRose said. “We’ve proved the last few games that we can hit from top to bottom. It’s a great thing for me because I’m a nervous person when it comes to that stuff. But these kids, the whole entire team, even the girls on the bench, they can all hit. Unfortunately for them, the players in front of them are upperclassmen. But, even when this year is over, whenever it may be — hopefully in two more games — we’re still going to be solid (with hitting) next year.”

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com