Folks wondering where Elyria Catholic came from should be just as interested in where the Panthers are going. It could be deep into the postseason.
Despite sleepwalking through a North Coast League loss to St. Peter Chanel on Thursday, EC is off to its best start in years. Even with the 2-1 loss to Chanel, the Panthers are 8-2 heading into a scheduled home-field doubleheader with Clearview today. The 2007 team won only seven games.
So, where’d they come from?
Coach Brian Daw has put together a core of seniors in his up-the-middle positions to go with a group of good younger players, four of whom are freshman starters.
“These kids are enthusiastic and excited, and they want to play softball,” Daw said. “I wanted to give them the day off (Friday), but they said, ‘No, we need the practice.’ That’s the kind of attitude they have.”
The team is anchored by seniors Katie Svat, the starting catcher; pitcher Jackie Tirbaso and center fielder Natalie Kaczmarczyk. Svat’s homer was the only Panthers run in the loss to Chanel. The freshman starters are outfielders Lexi Kaczy and Jasmine Filiaggi, and infielders Molly O’Malley and Emily Taylor.
“Lexi might be swinging the hottest bat in Lorain County right now,” Daw said. “She was 2-for-3 in (Thursday’s) game. I don’t have the numbers right in front of me, but she must have been batting close to .600 before that.”
In short, EC fans have reason to be optimistic, not only about the rest of this season, but also about seasons to come.
“Our defensive work has been real good,” Daw said. “They are strong fundamentally and they have a good idea what to do with the ball when they get it. We have a strong outfield; a fast outfield. Our catching is very good. Katie (Svat) was hurt in the second game, but Sam Spencer filled in the next five games and did an excellent job. I think we have a solid base for the next two or three years.”

A big Saturday

With favorable weather, two big high school tournaments will conclude today.
The 10th annual Elyria Classic opens at 10 a.m. at the old West High softball complex. Elyria, the state’s top-ranked Division I team, takes on North Olmsted on Field 1 and Wellington challenges Mentor on Field 2 in the openers. In games scheduled for 11:30, Midview tangles with Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary and Oberlin meets Fairview.
In LaGrange, where the Prebis-Holiday Inn Memorial Classic opened Friday, host Keystone — the top-ranked team in Division II — takes on Uniontown Lake in a 1 p.m. opener on Field 5 at Community Park. The Wildcats come back at
4 p.m. against North Canton Hoover on the same diamond.

SWC lead on line

Amherst can take a giant step toward the Southwestern Conference championship when it hosts Avon Lake at 4:30 p.m. Monday at Sliman’s Diamond. The Comets hold a two-game lead on the defending champion Shoregals by virtue of their one-run victory in the first game of their home-and-home series earlier this month.

Tough Tess, Jess

Elyria coach Ken Fenik said he has never before been part of a streak like his Pioneers put together starting April 16 and continuing through Wednesday. With Tess Sito — The Chronicle’s player of the week — performing an iron-person act, Elyria went
7-0 in the stretch to improve to 11-0 for the season.
The top-ranked Pioneers defeated a series of tough opponents, including Hudson and North Canton Hoover and three out-of-state teams in the prestigious Wendy’s Spring Classic in Ashland. Elyria topped it off with victories over Lakewood on Monday and Wednesday this week.
It was a grind for the junior Sito, who became the Pioneers’ No. 1 pitcher by default after southpaw Megan Bashak was injured three weeks ago.
“I don’t know, it was just really tough and we had to work hard,” Sito said. “It was the biggest accomplishment because we beat two of the teams that we lost to (in the 2006 and ’07 state championship games) and teams from other states we knew absolutely nothing about.
“Sometimes we were losing, or we had to go into extra innings, but our people pulled through when they needed to. I just had to pitch my game.”
One who came through was senior second baseman Jessica Mandula, who hit the first home run of her varsity career on Friday night — a two-out, walk-off seventh-inning blast that lifted the Pioneers to a 3-2 victory over Lake Park, Ill. It cleared the left-field fence on Field 1 at Brookside West in Ashland.
There were two out and no one on base when Mandula walked to the plate.
“The first pitch was a strike, so the count was
0-1,” Mandula said. “The next pitch was the one I hit. I don’t know what it was, I just remember it being high. At first, I thought it was just a pop-up to left, like a dinker like I usually hit. Then I heard them yelling, ‘Go 2,’ so I went 2, then I saw it was over.”

Run at your own risk

Top-ranked Keystone tried twice to steal against Columbia and catcher Emily Nagle in their big Patriot Athletic Conference game on Monday. Nagle, a sophomore, nailed both runners.
“That’s something I like to work on,” said Nagle after the Raiders came up short, 2-0. “It all starts with the feet. I don’t really look at the runner, because I can see her out of the corner of my eye. I just try to be quick on my feet and get a quick release. If the defense can do something for us, then I like to do something for them.”
Nagle and Raiders pitcher Jen Solanics have been working together since they were 9.

Demon slayer

Amherst’s Megan Krueger got her 10th win in 11 decisions Wednesday, a 6-0 victory over Westlake. The senior right-hander missed a perfect game because of a seventh-inning bunt single. No one was more impressed with her performance than Westlake coach Tom Shiban.
“We noticed that she got stronger as the game went on,” Shiban said. “She just pitched an outstanding game. She’s obviously one of the best pitchers in the area. She dominates the game. For a lot of our girls, this was their first time seeing a pitcher who’s that dominating.”

Caged up

Two batting cages on concrete pads have been installed near the third-base dugout at Elyria’s varsity diamond on the old West High School grounds. The cages cost about $7,000. They were a gift of the school’s Friends of Softball and the Pioneer Club. Another concrete pad was added just east of the dugout to accommodate the team’s concessions trailer.
Over the past several years, other gifts have included the red-and-white, fully roofed block dugouts themselves, an outfield fence and electric scoreboard.

Unforced error

 Columbia plays its home games at Cole Ross Field. Your genial author, seated within 10 feet of the sign that says so — and with an unobstructed view of it — nevertheless got the name wrong the other day.
The facility is named in memory of Cole Ross, who was fatally injured in a farm-related accident several years ago.
Contact Daniels at 329-7135 or softball@bobdaniels.info. 

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Tess Sito, Elyria, pitcher

YEAR: Junior
LAST WEEK: Having pitched and won six games in six days, Sito had a day off Tuesday. Thus rested, she bounced back Wednesday with another victory, this a 10-strikeout four-hitter against Lakewood in which she blasted two fence-clearing home runs. It was the top-ranked Pioneers’ second win over Lakewood this week. During last week’s marathon, she posted wins over both North Canton Hoover and Hudson, which defeated Elyria in the last two Division I state championship games, plus two teams from Illinois and one from Indiana.
BIO: Became the Pioneers’ No. 1 pitcher when southpaw Megan Bashak was injured three weeks ago. In that time, she has gone 11-0 with 117 strikeouts in 71 innings. Her ERA was 0.39 through Wednesday’s game. In addition, she’s batting .368 with a double, two triples, three homers and a team-leading 10 RBIs for the undefeated (11-0) Pioneers. She is also a three-year varsity letterwinner on the basketball team and expects to play volleyball as a senior. She’s a member of Youth 4 Youth, the student council and Spanish Club. Her summer travel team is Elyria SunDogs.

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