Lakeside earns share of PAC crown

Star Beacon

May 16, 2008 03:56 am

— WILLOUGHBY — Lakeside softball coach Kerri Weir though the Dragons were playing for sole possession of second place in the Premier Athletic Conference entering Thursday’s battle at South.
Following a 7-5 win over the Rebels, Weir & Co. found out they had, in fact, been playing for a share of the league championship because Madison was in the process of shocking North, 3-1.
“I will say, coming into tonight, I thought we were playing for sole possession of second place,” Weir said. “But we did talk about the fact Madison puts the bat on the ball quite a bit and that they were capable of upsetting North. Hearing the news was just icing on the cake.”
Because the Blue Streaks (13-10, 5-5) pulled off the upset, the Dragons (14-5, 8-2) moved up into a tie with the Rangers (16-10, 8-2) for the PAC championship on the final day of league play in their first season in the league.
“It was a tough-fought game,” Weir said. “(South) hit the ball as well (as we did). We struggled in the field a little bit. After we pulled it out, to hear the news that Madison beat North was pretty exciting. Everything kind of fell into place.”
Both the Rebels (15-7, 7-3) and Dragons entered the final conference game of the season with two losses in league play and South had won the previous matchup.
Lakeside avenged that loss on the strength of nine hits.
“We were aggressive at the plate,” Weir said. “The last time we played them, we dropped the game, 2-1. We struck out 10 times and scored only one run. I think we sat back and had a lot of caught-lookings.
“Today, we were a lot more confident than we were at the beginning of the year. We came through today.”
The Dragons tallied five runs in the top of the fifth to take a 6-2 advantage.
Dianna Moore reached on an error to start the rally, Erica Villa followed with a single and Mallory Zappitelli brought Moore home with a single to tie the game at 2-2. Christina Hutchison followed with a single to score Villa and Zappitelli scored on an error.
After a strikeout, Christine Misinec walked, Maddie Messner flew out and Brittany Morrison smacked a two-run single that scored Hutchison and Misinec. The inning ended with Tila Ernst flying out.
“We struggled to hit the ball last week,” Weir said. “Today, we came up big with nine hits. When we hit the ball, we’re tough to beat.”
— Bob Ettinger