ELYRIA — It was the kind of softball game that makes winter seem worth the trouble, a classic played before a large and vocal crowd on a nearly perfect spring afternoon.
In a memorable pitchers duel, unheralded Columbia took Elyria’s top-ranked Pioneers into extra innings Tuesday at the old West High softball complex.
Then with a display of the timely offense they can produce, the Pioneers nipped the Raiders 1-0 on Sarah Bracey’s single in the eighth. Elyria had the bases loaded with no one out at the time.
It was a non-conference matchup that saw the Division I Pioneers improve to 18-0. The Division III Raiders lost for only the second time in 17 games. The game was scheduled just last week.
Bracey, Elyria’s junior right fielder, hit the first pitch thrown by Raiders star Jen Solanics. The ball blooped safely just beyond the Columbia infield and pitcher Tess Sito ran home for the win. It was Bracey’s fourth hit of the day.
“I had a good night’s sleep and I concentrated,” Bracey said of her perfect day at bat. “I had my teammates behind me and when I went to bat, I knew I could hit.”
Neither pitcher issued a walk. Sito finished with a dozen strikeouts, Solanics with two. At one point, Sito retired 15 straight batters. The string ended when the Raiders’ Christa Wodarczyk singled to right in the seventh for her second hit of the day.
“I felt good about playing (the Pioneers),” Wodarczyk said. “We tried to think of them as just another team and wanted to play our best. They’re an awesome team and I think we did really well against them.”
On the other hand, Sito wasn’t thinking of Columbia as just another team.
“We knew coming in we were going to have tough competition,” she said. “We knew it was going to be a battle and thought that maybe one run would do it; whoever scored the first run was probably going to win the game. It seemed weird playing a Division III team that was that strong, but they were.”
Solanics had similar thoughts about facing the state’s top-ranked Division I squad.
“This was definitely a challenge and it made me work harder,” she said. “It makes me better and it makes our whole team better, holding them like that,” she said. “We played tough, and I’m really proud of us. Now we know we can go against anybody. That only makes us better, which is good because we have tournament starting next week.”
Neither pitcher allowed a runner to reach third until Nagle, the Raiders catcher, got there with one out in the seventh. She led off with a single to center, her second of the game. Nagle moved to second on Courtney Traut’s sacrifice, then stole third. But Sito bore down and got the next two hitters on swinging strikeouts.
Sito ignited the Pioneers’ winning rally when she led off the eighth with a long double to the gap in left-center. She went to third on Brianna Wade’s single to left, and Elyria loaded the bases when Kristen Boros tapped to the left side and reached on a fielder’s choice.
Bracey followed with her heroics.
“Earlier this year, we had a play where she hit a grounder through the gap for a win,” Pioneers coach Ken Fenik said of Bracey. “When she gets her at-bats, she usually makes something happen.”
Elyria second baseman Jessica Mandula also had a big day, with two singles in three at-bats. She also started the only double play of the game when she snared a liner off the bat of Traut and tossed to Wade at first to double up Nagle.
“Facing a pitcher (like Solanics) is only going to help us against Brunswick next week,” Fenik said. “They’re good. We had a few hits, but they made the plays.”
Raiders coach Ken Richardson liked the way his team played.
“Jen stayed focused and took care of her job,” he said. “The kids were very strong behind her defensively. (Freshman shortstop Danielle Riolo) came through. She backed up our third baseman and made that long throw (on Sito’s hard grounder in the third). That was huge.
“I was very proud of them,” Richardson said. “They came ready to play. When we didn’t score, they were ready to play ‘D’ and went out and played defense. That was important, because (Sito) is the toughest pitcher we’ve seen.”

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