Staff photo / Preston Byers Crestview’s Emma Snyder delivers a pitch during the Rebels’ loss vs. Champion in Columbiana on Monday.

COLUMBIANA — Amid heavy wind and some rain, Champion softball superstar Gabby Gradishar threw a perfect game Monday as the Golden Flashes defeated Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference foe Crestview 11-0 in six innings in Columbiana.

Gradishar, a Penn State commit, struck out 14 of the 18 batters she faced, which led her coach, Cheryl Weaver, to comment that Monday’s performance was just ‘Gabby being Gabby.’

While they eventually pulled away, the Flashes did need Gradishar’s greatness in the circle early on. The two teams remained in a scoreless tie after the first two innings, and through the fourth, Champion held just a 1-0 lead.

Besides a hard-hit Jonna Strock RBI single in the top of the third, neither of the teams’ pitchers – Gradishar and Emma Snyder – gave the opposing batters much to work with.

“That’s what you have to do, is rely on [Gradishar],” Weaver said. “That’s very important when you run into that where you’re just not hitting.”

While the Flashes’ bats did eventually heat up, the Rebels’ defense proved to also be an unfortunate difference-maker.

In the fifth inning, after Snyder surrendered a single and walked Gradishar, an errant throw to third base resulted in the Flashes scoring their second run of the game. Two batters later, Champion scored a pair of runs on a dropped flyball in right field, which would have been the third out of the inning. Further capitalizing on the mistake, Ava Sylvester sent a pitch over the center-field fence for a two-run home run, giving Champion a 6-0 lead.

The Flashes widened the gap in the top of the sixth inning as the Rebels, who replaced Snyder with Lilly Beaver in the circle, continued to commit errors and allow untimely hits.

Following a leadoff single and subsequent infield error, Sam Strock singled to drive in a run. Two more dropped fly balls in the Crestview outfield then scored the eighth and ninth runs of the game. Adalyn McIntosh, the next batter, drove in another two runs with a single to right field.

“You can’t make mistakes against a good team,” Crestview head coach Melvin Miller said. “A six-out inning goes from a 4-0 game to an 11-0 game real quick.”

Gradishar then took the field for the final time Monday amid rain, which lightened up just enough for the pitcher to strike out the side and complete the six-inning perfect game.

“[I felt] good. Trying to get it in quick before the rain came,” Gradishar said of her performance.

While the senior pitcher admitted that she does not keep track of how many perfect games she has thrown, her reputation is well-known, which was wholly evident when the Rebels attempted on multiple occasions to lay a bunt down rather than take swings at her pitches. Miller said that the bunt attempts were not only to get on base, but also so his players could “pick up that speed.”

Monday’s win came just two days after Champion (10-1, 8-0 in MVAC) suffered its first loss of the season; the Flashes fell to Boardman 2-1 in eight innings on Saturday.

Weaver praised her team’s performance in the loss and said that she did not sense that it had been affecting the players coming into Monday’s game, but Gradishar said that it did serve a purpose.

“We feel that fire under us [to keep] pushing throughout the season and is really keeping us motivated, and we don’t want to feel like that again,” Gradishar said.

With the loss Monday, Crestview is now 10-4-1 on the season and 6-2-1 in league play. The Rebels will get a chance to split the season series immediately, though, as they will travel to Warren today for the second leg of a back-to-back with Champion.