Granville takes down No. 1 Greenville
MASON - With her high school sports career almost finished, Granville senior left fielder Olivia Simon knew she was down to her last chance when she woke up on Saturday. She wanted to make a difference.
When it was Simon's turn in Saturday's Division II regional championship, she delivered — multiple times. The senior had the two biggest offensive plays of the day with a safety squeeze to score the game's first run, and a two-run homer in the third to help the Blue Aces pull away for a 7-1 win over the No. 1 ranked team in the state coaches poll, Greenville.
Granville will face Jefferson at 3 p.m. Thursday at Firestone Stadium in Akron in the state semifinals.
Simon also made a couple of tough catches in left field, including one at the top of the wall for the final out of the fifth inning.
"This is going to be my fourth time going to the (state) final four for sports (softball and soccer)," Simon said. "Today when I woke up this morning, I realized that this was a big deal. It's a fourth chance, and I've gotten second, third and fourth; never first."
She finished the game 1-for-2 with three RBIs and a walk, and was just one of multiple standouts in an impressive overall performance by Granville. Seven of the nine batters in Granville's lineup hit safely, and four of them finished with multiple hits.
"It feels amazing," Granville coach Rae Stuart said. "I couldn't be happier with my girls right now. From the top to the bottom of the lineup, we hit the ball hard. The freshmen stepped up and did their jobs. We just did everything right today."
Senior pitcher Abby Barker scattered four hits and walked three Greenville batters while striking out nine. Saturday's performance marked the fifth straight postseason game in which the Blue Aces held their opponent to two runs or less, including posting shutouts in the first two rounds against Columbus Independence and Caledonia River Valley.
"I was just throwing my game, and throwing like I know how," Barker said. "My defense was amazing behind me as always. We just played well together."
While Greenville had the ranking and hype surrounding it coming into the game, it was Granville that showed poise and executed in the biggest moments. Two freshmen — second baseman Rose Sawyers and catcher Hallie Garman — were particularly clutch for the Blue Aces.
After Barker retired Greenville in order to start the top of the first, Sawyers led the bottom of the inning off with a triple to right field. She scored when Simon pushed a perfect safety squeeze down the first base line to make it 1-0.
"We talked about it all week," Stuart said on the importance of scoring first. "We knew coming in that Greenville had a great season and they have a great team, so we told our girls that the only way to make it happen would be to come out early and jump on them to quiet their fans, quiet their team and try to rattle their pitcher with our bats."
Granville added a second run in the second inning when junior Shelby Sprouse singled into left field, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by senior Maddy Richardson, and scored on a single into left center by Garman.
The Blue Aces broke the game open in the bottom of the third. Sawyers led the inning off with a single, and then Simon launched a two-run bomb that cleared the right field wall by 10-plus feet.
"I haven't been swinging at the greatest pitches, but that one was right down the middle," Simon said. "Coach had told me to start my swing earlier, so I did that and ... I don't know ... that went really far. I'm not sure how. That was big for me."
Barker restarted the rally with a single up the middle, and scored moments later on a single up the middle by Sprouse. Garman doubled in Sprouse to make the score 6-0 after the third.
"We said before the game started that we're scoring in the first inning," Barker said. "We wanted to get three that first inning and we didn't, but we came back in the third inning and did. We just wanted to keep adding and adding, because we know if we're hitting no one can beat us."
Barker was rarely in trouble throughout the game, and often found a way out of it when Greenville did get runners on base. She stranded runners on second and third with one out in the third inning. Greenville scored its only run in the fourth, but Barker stranded a runner on second in that inning, runners on first and third in the sixth, and she spoiled a leadoff single for the Wave in the seventh.
The Blue Aces added one more insurance run in the fifth when Sprouse led off the inning with a triple to right field. She came home a batter later on a single by Richardson. Sprouse finished the game 3-for-4 with three runs scored and an RBI.