AKRON — The name is Russ, McKenna Russ, and her hobby is beating Elyria in state championship softball games.
Russ, whose home run defeated Elyria 2-0 in the 2006 state title game, did it again Saturday night.
This time the score was 1-0 in the Division I state final at Firestone Stadium. And this time the North Canton Hoover senior did it not with a home run, but with “little ball.” She caught the Pioneers by surprise with a bunt single facing a 1-1 count with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning. She then stole second and ran home on a single.
She also made a spectacular 10th-inning catch of a ball hit by Kristen Fyffe that looked like it would go for extra bases and drive in a run.
It was the third straight heartbreaking loss for the Pioneers (28-2) in a Division I final. Last year, the assailant was Hudson. The Explorers exploded for four first-inning runs and Elyria never got the offense in gear.
In fact, dating to the 2002 championship game — in which Elyria defeated Cincinnati Sycamore, 2-1 — the Pioneers have gone 25 consecutive scoreless innings in state finals.
“You know, the bottom line is it’s still only a game,” Elyria coach Ken Fenik said. “There’s a lot of important things going on in the world. The girls were obviously really sad. But they got nothing to be ashamed of. When you play tournaments, it ends up this way. Somebody wins, somebody loses. I think this was a classic.”
It was. The Pioneers’ Tess Sito and the Vikings’ Jessica Simpson engaged in a pitchers’ battle high school softball fans will remember years from now. This was a battle played before a large and active crowd that began in late afternoon and finished under the lights as darkness fell on the neat old ballpark.
It became a three-up and three-down marathon that saw Sito turn in one of the finest pitching jobs in the history of the Elyria program. The junior pitcher-slugger struck out 14 and walked only two. Simpson fanned six and walked one.
“It was such a close game, we knew the first team that scored would probably win,” said Sito, who finished the season 27-2. “I wish (Russ) hadn’t gotten on and the hit was never hit, but someone’s gotta win and someone’s gotta lose. I’m so proud of our team.”
The game also marked the end of the high school careers for the Pioneers’ five seniors — Megan Bashak, Jen Bower, Jessica Mandula, Jessica Bellottie and Amy Bally — four of whom played in three state championship games and a regional final.
Bashak had the Pioneers’ only hits, both singles. She was stranded at second base after she broke up Simpson’s no-hitter with one out in the seventh.
And she singled leading off the 10th and ran to second when the Hoover outfield misplayed the ball. It looked as though the Pioneers were in business with a runner at second and no outs. It was as far as she got.
“It was good that the girls were putting the ball in play a lot, but frustrating that (Hoover’s) defense was making the plays,” Bashak said. “It was hard. But it was fun.”
Simpson got the next batter to pop up, Russ made her highlight-film catch on the next play and Simpson retired the side with her sixth strikeout. Hoover improved to 32-2.
Elyria got a spectacular catch of its own when freshman Cynthia Woodard raced back to the fence to make a leaping backhanded catch of a shot by Jessica Meleg. It looked as though the ball would have cleared the fence had Woodard not been there. But even if it hadn’t, it would have gone for extra bases.
“All year, (Fenik) has been pushing me to track the ball down and get to it and it just came down to the steps that I took,” Woodard said. “At first I was coming in, then I started going back because I saw it was over my head. I just jumped, because I knew the fence was right there.”

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