The Steel Valley All Stars, a 14U softball team with players from Canfield and Poland, lost in the Junior League Central Region championship game Sunday to Illinois in Pendelton, Ind. Representing Ohio, SVAS, which reached the finals of the Junior League World Series a year ago, lost 11-4 Sunday after previously falling to Illinois 8-0 on Friday in the quarterfinals.

“It was very strange to us that their pitching wasn’t as good as we’ve seen from other teams,” team manager Jeremy Mollenkopf said of the team from Evergreen Park, Ill. “But one thing that stood out with them was top to bottom of the lineup, they did the little things. They hit the ball extremely well. They were very, very well coached. It looked like they played together for quite some time. They just seemed like a good group of girls, good defense, turning double plays. They just did the little things that you need to win the games.”

Unlike the meeting earlier in the weekend, Ohio’s bats got going early, scoring three runs in the first inning. However, from there, things fell apart.

Illinois responded with three runs of its own in the second inning and scored four in both the fourth and fifth innings en route to the 11-4 victory.

In the loss, Milana Mollenkopf recorded a pair of hits and drove in a run, while Ali Blinsky had two RBIs.

“Truly, they left it all out on the field,” Jeremy Mollenkopf said. “They had a great weekend. Played together. Had a lot of good moments, some ups and downs. But truly just played for each other and had a great tournament.”

To get to Sunday’s championship game, the team had to quickly recover from the shutout loss to Illinois on Friday. Hours later, Ohio was back on the diamond facing Missouri in a win-or-go-home game.

After a 10-3 win vs. Missouri, Mollenkopf’s team returned for, they hoped, two games on Saturday. To ensure that happened, they needed to first defeat Indiana to qualify for the elimination bracket final against Michigan.

Fortunately, they did just that; after beating Indiana 13-2, they similarly crushed Michigan 14-4 later in the evening to secure a rematch vs. Illinois.

Unfortunately, they were unable to repeat as regional champions and go back to the Junior League World Series.

“That was tough because you knew what the ultimate goal was: to get back exactly where you were the year before,” Jeremy Mollenkopf said. “But it’s definitely an uphill battle, a lot of challenges along the way. You never knew what the competition was going to be, and there was good competition this year, especially with Illinois. But overall, they played well, they played for each other, and they did the best they could.”

CANFIELD LL TEAM DROPS REGIONALS OPENER

Also on Sunday, a team from Canfield, after winning the state championship last week, began its Little League Softball Central Region tournament run. As Ohio’s lone representative, the Canfield group lost their opener to Illinois 12-4 in Whitestown, Ind.

Due to the nine-team format, Ohio is next scheduled to play at 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday vs. the winner of Missouri vs. Wisconsin, who play today.

The tournament is being broadcast on ESPN+, with the exception of the elimination bracket final and championship game, both of which will be broadcast on ESPN.