There’s no lack of championship fastpitch softball this weekend right in our own backyards.
Little League state tournaments in two age groups kick off this afternoon at Elyria’s Vic Janowicz Memorial Park and the Ohio Girls Softball Organization state finals are this afternoon at Wellington Community Park.
Elyria is hosting Little League softball state tourneys for the first time. Elyria has a team in each age group.
Six teams from as far as Poland in Mahoning County on the Pennsylvania line and Portsmouth on the Ohio River will be in town for the 9- and 10-year-old state finals. Play continues through at least Thursday.
The Final Four in the 10- and 11-year-old tournament come from Elyria, Kingsville in the far northeast corner of the state, Wheelersburg in Scioto County on the Ohio River and Bucyrus in Crawford County. Play in this age group will continue through at least Tuesday.
The Elyria teams advanced to the state tournament when they wrapped up district championships  Wednesday.
The state tournament site is determined on a rotating basis that includes both girls softball and boys baseball competition. Elyria was awarded this year’s softball tourney at Little League’s statewide meetings late last year when another district passed on the opportunity.
Elyria is in the rotation to host the tournament again next year and will accept it, said Chris Sito, who heads the softball division of Little League East.
First-round games in the 9-10 age group will be held today and Sunday on Field 1. They are: Today—Portsmouth vs. Poland, 1 p.m., Clyde vs. Englewood, 3:30. Sunday—Elyria vs. Portsmouth-Poland winner, 1 p.m.; Ashtabula vs. Clyde-Edgewood winner, 3:30.
Two games are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at 3:30 and 6 p.m. and one game each on Wednesday and Thursday at 6 p.m. If necessary, a final elimination game will be played at a time to be announced.
Games in the 10-11 age group will be on Field 2. Play kicks off today with Kingsville taking on Wheelersburg at 1 p.m. and Elyria meeting Bucyrus at 3:30. Sunday games —Kingsville-Wheelersburg winner vs. Elyria-Bucyrus winner, 1 p.m., and first-round losers meet at 3:30.
Single games are scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, with the final, if necessary, to be played at a time to be announced.

OGSO wraps up

The final day of the OGSO state tournament kicks off with consolation play starting at 1 p.m. today in Wellington. Championship games start at 4.
Title game pairings: Class A (10-and-under) — South Amherst Slammers vs. Windham True Value, 4 p.m., Field 2; Class B (12-under) — Midview Royal Sports and Fitness vs. Mogadore, 4:15 p.m., Field 3; Class C (14-under) — Keystone Ford Builders vs. New London, 4:30 p.m., Field 4; and Class D (18-under) — Oberlin Ohio Action Images vs. Randolph, 4:45 p.m., Field 1.
Coach Rick Twining’s Oberlin team is gunning for its third straight state championship. Lorain County teams won three of the four state titles last summer.

A sad loss

The Lorain County softball community lost a good friend with the death of Jim Malinkey last weekend. Malinkey, a longtime fixture at Keystone softball games and other sporting events, had been in declining health for several years. He was only 48.
He was the father of Kristie Malinkey, a former first-team All-Ohio pitcher and second-team Louisville Slugger All-America selection at Keystone in 2006. That’s the year the Wildcats won their second Division II state championship as Kristie pitched the first and only perfect game in a state final.
I got to visit with him for the last time at a graduation party in LaGrange last month. He will be missed.

Road to finals

Oberlin’s Action Images won its third straight district crown on Tuesday night with a 9-4 victory over the Lorain Xplosion. Oberlin’s Kelly Eberhardt struck out 17 and allowed just four hits. The Xplosion’s Nicole Myers fanned 10.
Oberlin’s Alyssa Garcia slammed a home run, and Amari Foster and Angela Dougherty each had two hits. No Xplosion player had more than one hit. The game was originally scheduled for Sunday, but was moved because of a scheduling change that put the Xplosion in a district semifinal the same afternoon.

Gritty pitcher

Incidentally, Eberhardt is pitching despite a painful injury. The Black River graduate suffered a stress fracture in her back and missed the entire high school season.
“Just playing,” said Eberhardt explaining the cause of her injury. “This is the third time it happened. I went to one doctor right before the high school season and he said I couldn’t do anything. So I (recently) went to another doctor and he said, ‘Go ahead and play, do whatever you want.’ So I played because I really wanted to.”

Still loyal

Four former players showed up last weekend to cheer the Oberlin Class D team to victory over LaBrae. Hayley Reeves, Brianna Stevenson, Kari Gerhardinger and Stephanie Clawson saw some fireworks. Toward the end, the umps chased the LaBrae catcher for allegedly decking an Action Images runner in a play at the plate. So the LaBrae coaches pulled their team and the game ended 15-0, Oberlin.
Contact Bob Daniels at 329-7135 or softball@bobdaniels.info. 

---

Print this story
Report an inappropriate comment

---

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.

Need help? Email Us.

---