By Yaneek Smith
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
OAK HARBOR — “That’s one of the best hitting teams I’ve seen in a long time.”
That was Elmwood coach Emily Reynolds’ take on the Oak Harbor lineup, which put up a dozen runs in the Rockets’ 12-3 win over the Royals.
Elmwood, which is now 5-6 on the season, took an early lead at 1-0 in the top of the first inning when Mariela Garcia drove in Trinity Sander on a groundout to the pitcher.
But in the bottom of the second, Oak Harbor (9-1), which is a member of the Northern Buckeye Conference, scored four runs on RBIs by Morgan LaLonde, Alyse Sorg, Reese Adkins and Porter Gregory.
The Rockets pushed the lead to 5-1 when LaLonde hit a double to drive in Tatum Baumgartner in the third, but the Royals responded in the top of the fourth and cut the deficit in half when freshman Addi Hoffman drilled a 2-2 pitch over the wall in center field for a two-run homer.
In the bottom half, Allyie Reynolds got the first two batters but Gregory hit a double, Ava Geyer drew a walk, Karder Haas hit a blooper to the shortstop, who couldn’t handle it, and Gregory scored. Then Baumgartner singled to left, which scored Geyer and Haas, pushing the lead to 8-3 and effectively putting the game out of reach.
Oak Harbor added three runs in the fifth. LaLonde had an infield hit, and following a pop out to second, Sorg walked, Adkins tripled to right field to score two runs, and Gregory drove in Adkins with a base hit up the middle. Kaitlyn Meloche added an RBIs in the sixth to account for the final run.
“Oak Harbor is a great-hitting team, there’s no break in the lineup. One through nine, they can hit doubles, triples,” said Emily Reynolds. “Their hitting put the pressure on us, and we folded. When you can hit the ball like they do, they’re tough to beat.
“I told (my team) that we beat ourselves, (but) I’m not taking anything away from Oak Harbor. Energy-wise, when they’re hitting like that, they’re tough to beat. When they started hitting, we lost our oomph.”
Oak Harbor coach Cami Haas talked about her team’s approach at the plate.
“Our offense started somewhat slow early on in the season from what I knew we were capable of and what led to a lot of our success last season,” she said. “We have since really settled into a more aggressive approach at the plate, taking the ball to where we are pitched and doing what is necessary to manufacture runs.”
Reynolds credited Sander for her play as the lead-off hitter as well as Hoffman for her home run and coming in to pitch the final two innings in relief of Allyie Reynolds.
The rest of the season will feature its share of challenges with the Royals being in their first season in the Blanchard Valley Conference.
Currently, Elmwood is 3-0 in the league, having beaten McComb, Arcadia and Arlington.
Emily Reynolds says playing Oak Harbor helps her team when taking on BVC opponents, which brings some new opponents to them after the Royals were charter members of the NBC and had played virtually the same teams in the NBC and former Suburban Lakes League for over 50 years.
“A lot of these teams have not been on our schedule (in the past),” she said. “I know that Vanlue hasn’t lost a league game, Riverdale is well-coached, McComb gave us a run for our money. It’s a different league. Sometimes it’s hard to get as pumped up (as it was in the NBC).”
But the goal remains the same: to win a league title.
“Our goal is to hang a banner. We want to win the league. We fell just short last year,” said Reynolds. “These girls want it. We want to show the BVC that Elmwood is something.
“We struggled a little bit in some other sports in our first year in the BVC, so hopefully the softball and baseball teams will change that.”
