ROCKY RIVER — Human beings hadn’t yet set foot in the uncharted vastness where Tess Sito launched a softball on Thursday afternoon.
Without regard for their personal safety, young women stationed in the Magnificat outfield ventured into this dark and forbidding region to recover the ball and prevent, if possible, Elyria High’s Sito from circling the bases two or three times.
By the time one of them picked it up, Sito was around third on her way to a three-run home run and the Pioneers were on their way to a 6-0 non-conference victory in a season opener for both teams.
Sito, who finished with four RBIs, also earned the pitching victory. She allowed three hits over the first four innings, struck out seven and walked two. Lefty Megan Bashak hurled three no-hit innings in relief, fanning three and walking one.
“I think it was a fastball,” Sito said of the pitch she ripped into left-center field. “I just knew I wanted to get a hit after I popped up in the first inning. It was our first game and I needed to get a hit.”
Her blast came with two out in the third inning at a time when the Pioneers had managed just one hit — Sarah Bracey’s second-inning single — off Mags starter Mary Kate Cleary. Jessica Mandula, who had walked, and Jess Bellottie, who was hit by a pitch, were on base when Sito unloaded.
Bellottie scored again in the fourth inning after she walked and went to second on Bashak’s infield single. With one out, Sito singled sharply to center, sending Bellottie home. Bellottie injured her right foot sliding home on the play and was helped off the field. But it turned out to be nothing more than a broken toenail and she returned.
Freshman Kristen Boros created the final score when she mashed a long triple to center with two out in the seventh. The blast sent Kristen Fyffe and Bracey dashing home ahead of her, although Boros was out at the plate trying to make it a home run.
“I wasn’t really nervous in school,” Boros said of the time leading up to her first varsity start. “But after we got here, I got some of the warming-up jitters.”
Bashak, Elyria’s starter in the last two Division I state championship game, looked sharp when she entered the circle in the fifth inning.
“I was thinking, ‘Wow, this is my last year and I don’t want it to end,’” said Bashak, who’s headed to Cleveland State on a softball scholarship. “But I felt good when I got out there. My change-up worked pretty well and I threw the screw and it worked for a while.”
Coach Ken Fenik liked what he saw in his pitchers.
“I was real happy with the way Tess and Megan pitched,” he said. “They really complement each other. We can show the other teams a righty (Sito) and a lefty (Boros) and two pitchers who get a lot of movement on the ball. Megan’s movement is more horizontal. Tess’s is more vertical. We also got some timely hitting today. Those were real shots by Tess and Kristen (Boros).”

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