Eagles dribble way to W

Star Beacon

May 14, 2008 03:33 am

— GENEVA — In the end, after nearly three hours, 12 innings and on the 357th pitch of Tuesday’s Division II sectional final between Northeastern Conference rivals Conneaut and Geneva, it came down a a dribbler that rolled 40 feet.
And it was the difference in the Eagles’ 5-4 win, their eighth straight, which catapults them into a fourth meeting with NEC rival and top seed Edgewood today in a sectional final.
“All I was thinking was, ‘Make sure it’s in the zone,’” Geneva’s Nicolette Cunningham said. “I wanted to make sure if I was swinging, at least make it a strike.”
With the bases loaded and one out in the home half of the 12th and speedy pinch-runner Aimee Jones on third, Cunningham, who had singled and walked twice in her five previous plate appearances, just wanted to make something happen.
“In that situation, we want them to have to make a play if they’re going to get an out,” first-year Geneva coach Roberta Cozad said. “I told Nicolette before she stepped in, ‘Make sure it’s a strike.’
“It was and she did her job.”
Cunningham’s roller was fielded by Conneaut third baseman Kierstin Wiedler, who charged and threw home. But, then along came Jones, whose hard slide into the plate jarred the ball away for the winning run to end the marathon.
“It came down to who was going to make a mistake at the end, and we didn’t have a good inning there,” Spartans coach Mary Holdson said. “We didn’t make the plays we needed to in that inning, which is a shame because the girls played a good game and hung in there.”
“After I made contact, I just put my head down and ran,” Cunningham, a senior, said through a laugh. “When I heard everyone screaming and cheering, I turned around and looked.”
After a strikeout to start the fateful 12th, Colette Scharf hit a popup behind first, a ball that dropped for a hit as three Spartan defenders got caught looking at one another.
“That started it,” Holdson said.
With Jones running for Scharf, Amber McGonnell (2 hits, 3 RBI), hit a comebacker, but Jones beat the throw to second. Pam Acord then reach on an infield error, loading the bases and setting the stage for Cunningham’s game-deciding dribbler, which came on the fourth pitch she saw.
“Contact, that was the idea,” she said. “Put it in the play.”
The Spartans (4-13, 3-5 in the NEC), who were not sharp the night before in a 7-0 loss to league co-leader Jefferson, played a nice ballgame up until the 12th.
In fact, when April Holdson, Amanda Furmage and Becky Betteridge smacked hits after Marissa Olmstead drew a walk to lead off the top of the seventh (Betteridge’s being a clutch two-run double to right-center), Conneaut put together a stirring three-run rally to break a 1-1 tie and take a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh.
“Things were going very well for us, to that point,” Mary Holdson said.
But, as they have for the past two weeks, Geneva proved to be a never-say-die squad. Megan Eller and Shannon Cummings drew back-to-back walks to begin the home half of the seventh. After a foul out, leadoff hitter Brittany Stevenson (2 hits, 2 runs, 2 SB) reached on an infield single.
Senior shortstop Brittany Powers smacked an RBI single to short center and, after a strikeout, McGonnell, the Eagles’ cleanup hitter, stepped in. She blasted a 2-0 pitch deep to right-center to score a pair and send the game into extra innings.
In other words, somehow, some way, Geneva (12-10), which will go big-game hunting again today against Edgewood, a team it shocked, 1-0, last Thursday, won.
“We’ll be ready... I can’t wait!” Cunningham said. “We really wanted to play Edgewood again and now we get that chance.”
“I can’t say enough about these girls,” Cozad said. “I give Conneaut all kinds of props because they came out and played a very good game, but my kids now, finally, really believe they’re winners.
“When they get down, they never give up. They know they can come back, no matter what it takes.”
Even a 40-foot dribbler.

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