JERRY CITY — Marissa Lee pitched brilliantly on her home field Tuesday.
Her bat made sure the gem didn’t go to waste. PHOTO GALLERY
The senior pitched a perfect game and homered in the bottom of the second inning for the game’s only run
to give Elmwood a 1-0 win over Fostoria in a Division III sectional softball championship game.
Lee’s heroics were enough to send the top-seeded Royals, 16-4 overall, to the district semifinals May 17
against Suburban Lakes League rivals Lake or Genoa in a 5 p.m. start at Bowling Green High School.
Fostoria is 5-16.
Lee was dominant as she struck out 12 less than 48 hours after the right-hander suffered a deep cut on
the index finger of her pitching hand. The cut happened Sunday night when she closed a car door on the
finger. The cut was about the width of her finger, near the top.
“It felt a lot better today than it did yesterday, but I still didn’t know how the game would go,” said
Lee, who pitched a three-hitter and struck out 11 Monday in a 1-0 win over Eastwood.
Lee kept the Redmen off-balance with an overpowering fastball and effective change.
She had excellent movement on both pitches and used both sides of the plate, throwing 56 of her 81
pitches for strikes.
“I felt good warming up and it carried over to the game,” Lee said. “This is probably one of my best
games ever and I hope it continues. I got ahead of pretty much every hitter.”
The game lasted just 70 minutes as Fostoria sophomore Casey Babb threw a terrific game as well, allowing
just two hits with two strikeouts and no walks.
Lee went to a three-ball count on just four of the 21 hitters she faced, the last coming on a 3-0 count
with one out in the sixth. But Lee rebounded with three straight strikes to retire the hitter.
“That was tough, but I had to battle back and throw strikes,” Lee said.
Elmwood left fielder Ragan Yarnell made two key defensive plays in the game.
She had a nice running back-handed catch in foul territory for the last out of the third inning and then
saved the perfect game with another catch for the second out of the fifth.
Yarnell originally broke in on Karlee Grine’s fly ball in the fifth, but she hustled back and reached up
at the last second to snag the ball in deep left.
“When she caught that, it was a big relief,” Lee said.
But as dominant as Lee was, the game still was in doubt.
“I knew I had the perfect game, but I was just trying to throw well,” Lee said. “Being a close game kept
me on my toes even more. I was really focused on the game and you don’t get as comfortable, knowing one
bad pitch or one bad inning can cost you the game.”
Lee is one of seven returning letter winners from last season when the Royals were 20-10 overall, won the
SLL title and advanced to the Division III regional final. Lee and catcher Morgan Arnold are four-year
players.
“It’s tournament time and (Lee) always seems to turn it up a notch at tournament time,” Elmwood coach
Matt Hoiles said. “That’s what good pitchers do and that’s why they become great. She did a whale of a
job. Her focus was there all the way through. We’re a very strong defensive team and she challenges the
hitters. She was definitely on.”
Lee’s homer came on a 1-0 pitch inside that she crushed over the left-field fence.
“I got my pitch and hit it hard,” Lee said of her first homer since her freshman season. “It felt great
because I’ve been waiting a while for that to happen.”
“Thank goodness, Marissa showed up today,” Hoiles said.
Brittany George had Elmwood’s other hit, a line-drive double to left to lead off the first. The Royals’
only other runners reached on errors, a dropped fly ball in left with two out in the third and a
throwing error by the shortstop with one out in the fifth.
Babb didn’t throw as hard as Lee, but the right-hander did a nice job of changing speeds and locations.
Forty of her 53 pitches were strikes.
“She kept us off balance.” Lee said.
Elmwood had just five hits Monday.
“We haven’t been hitting and we’re a good hitting team,” Hoiles said. “Our bats were kind of lazy today.
That’s something we’re going to have to change going down the tournament trail and I think we will.
Pitching and defense can take you a long way, but to have a long run on the tournament trail, you have
to be able to hit and score runs.
“We’ve got too good of hitters up and down that lineup to look as bad as have the last couple days. We
just have to make some adjustments and put the ball in play.”
ELMWOOD 1, FOSTORIA 0
FOSTORIA 000 000 0—0 0 2
ELMWOOD 010 000 X—1 2 0
BATTING LEADERS
HITS — (E) George, Lee. 2B — (E) George. HR —(E) Lee. RUNS — (E) Lee. RBI — (E) Lee. SB —(E) Yarnell. LOB
— Fostoria 0, Elmwood 3.
PITCHING SUMMARY
IP H R ER BB SO
Fostoria
Babb (LP) 6 2 1 1 0 2
Elmwood
Lee (WP) 7 0 0 0 0 12