ELYRIA — Defense continued to be a strong suit for Elyria’s Little League Softball Major All-Stars on Wednesday night at Vic Janowicz Memorial Park.
It just wasn’t strong enough.
The infield had 21 chances in an extra-inning district tournament matchup with Tallmadge, an old nemesis. It handled 18 of them flawlessly. The other three led to Elyria’s downfall. Two throwing errors and a misplayed ground ball gave Tallmadge its runs in an eight-inning, 4-3 defeat.
All is not lost. This is a double-elimination tournament and Elyria gets a chance to stay alive at 6 p.m. today in a rematch with Avon on the road. Elyria defeated Avon 9-3 on Tuesday. Tonight’s winner travels to Tallmadge for a must-win game on Monday.
“They hung in there and I was proud of them,” Elyria manager John Dixon said. “That was a tough game, win or lose. We didn’t hit. (Tallmadge pitcher Kirsten Lightel) probably had a dozen K’s (she had 16 strikeouts) and you can’t win if you don’t hit. It’s a hitter’s game, and I don’t think we really timed her up the whole game.”
Which is true, although Elyria outhit Tallmadge, 7-4. Just not when it counted. The Elyrians stranded two runners in the third and fifth innings and one in the eighth.
Lightel struck out the side in the fourth and sixth innings and she nailed two Elyria batters in the first, second, fifth and seventh.
Also, the bottom of the Elyria batting order went hitless. No one below the cleanup spot had a hit. Morgan McNulty, Carlie Grunda and Patty Davis — the 1, 2 and 3 batters — each had two hits and Woods, batting cleanup, had the other.
Meanwhile, not only did Elyria have Lightel to contend with, there was also Tallmadge center fielder Demi DeLorenzo, who went 4-for-4, had the game’s only extra-base hit — a fourth-inning double — and scored three times, including the eventual winner in the Tallmadge eighth when she ran home on an error.
Elyria, trailing 1-0, took a 2-1 lead in the third after Ally Barbee reached on an error, moved to second when Katie Shawver grounded out, then scored on McNulty’s first hit. McNulty, the second baseman, scored on Grunda’s infield single.
McNulty scored Elyria’s final run in the fifth after she singled with two out, went to second on Grunda’s single, then scored on a Tallmadge error. Davis followed with another single, but Lightel got out of the jam when she induced a routine infield grounder that forced Grunda at third.
“We’ve faced (Lightel) three years in a row now,” Dixon said of the Tallmadge right-hander. “She’s a tough pitcher. She gives you almost no walks (just one on Wednesday and not until the final inning), so you gotta hit her. But we’re still alive. Hopefully, we can go to Avon and put some hitting together.”

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.
You must be registered and logged in to post a comment. If you aren't already registered, click here.
If you are registered, click here to log in.
Need help? Email Us.