SANDUSKY – The Fremont Ross softball team’s four-game win streak came to halt Thursday afternoon.
But it’s only natural to wonder what could have been in the Lady Giants were full strength.
The Lady Giants have been battling several key injuries of late, but Thursday saw three more starters taken from the lineup due to food poisoning, leaving Ross playing shorthanded in a 15-5 loss to rival Sandusky.
“We had to play some girls in spots they’re not normally used to just to get a game in,” coach Tony Hill said. “I normally carry 14 (players)…I had 10 today.
“It was kind of a perfect storm. “
Freshman MeKayla Logan saw her season end last month with an elbow injury. Two weeks ago, leading hitter Braelyn Horn suffered a knee injury and her season is likely over as well. This week, freshman Mya Lenke injured her knee at Lima and missed the last two nights and Hill doubts she will return this year.
Thursday, Morgan Englund, Malayah Horn and Paige Risch were out with food poisoning, forcing Ross to dig deeper into its bench.
“It’s one of those things where when it rains it pours,” Hill said. “It’s unfortunate, but we have faith in these girls going forward, the healthy ones. As coaches we’ll put out the best team possible and we’ll see what happens.”
The silver lining came in the form of an opportunity for Maci Figley (second base), Laura Syzmanowski (right field) and Jordan Relford (catcher). Hill was pleased to see all the players pressed into duty were eager to meet the challenge.
“The kids that we put in today, I got more of the vibe like, ‘Great, I’m getting a shot,’ as opposed to, ‘Oh, man, I have to play.’ I don’t think it’s too big for them.”
The game may not have been too big for the Lady Giants, but the Blue Streaks’ offense was.
Sandusky scored two runs in both the first and second innings to jump out to the lead and added three more in the third to grow the advantage to 7-1.
Ross, however, tried to battle back. Kayla Rich hit a 2-RBI triple as part of the Lady Giants’ four-run top of the fourth to trim the deficit down to 7-5. Sandusky answered, however, with a big inning of its own, scoring three runs in the fourth to pull back ahead 10-5 then scored four more in the fifth to put the game out of reach.
“It just didn’t click,” Hill said. “We were down six runs, we brought it back to 7-5, had a real nice inning and were looking for that shut-down inning and then they scored three more and it was too much. At that point, we were playing just to keep the game going.”
Gabby Zuniga went 2-for-3 at the plate, including a pair of triples, and an RBI. Relford drove in a pair of runs.
“I thought Audrianna (Melchor) pitched well,” Hill said. “We knew from the first game Sandusky was a good hitting team. Hailey Taylor played really well at third, she’s played there before but that’s not really her comfort zone. She’s caught, I want to say, 85 percent of our innings. Jordan Relford did a real nice job behind the plate.”
Hill is hopeful Englund, Risch and Malayah Horn will be feeling well enough to play Friday as the Lady Giants host St. Ursula Friday at 5 p.m.
2022-2023 Wrestlers
| Name | Grade |
|---|---|
| Aidan Autullo | 9 |
| Broderick Barth | 10 |
| Dominic Brown | 11 |
| Jayden Daugherty | 9 |
| Luke Durbin | 11 |
| Gabriel Elder | 12 |
| Bryce Estep | 10 |
| Amir Fleming | 11 |
| Jordan Frederick | 9 |
| Andre' Freeman, Jr. | 12 |
| Jayce Frymire | 10 |
| Preston Green | 12 |
| Mason Hartung | 9 |
| Cameron Henderson | 9 |
| Cooper Hetrick | 10 |
| Brandon Hottinger | 10 |
| Rhien Hottinger | 11 |
| Dayne Howey | 9 |
| Grant Mies | 11 |
| Lincoln Ollom | 9 |
| Glendon Patrick | 9 |
| Aidan Pitts | 9 |
| Jacob Ratliff | 10 |
| Christian Rawlins | 11 |
| Cayden Reamer | 9 |
| Cade Reineck | 9 |
| Stephen Reiter | 9 |
| Gage Ross | 12 |
| Brenton Sabo | 9 |
| Anthony Salazar | 9 |
| Angel Sanchez | 10 |
| Bakari Scott | 12 |
| Owen Shanahan | 11 |
| Elijah Simms | 11 |
| Jaheim Stratton | 10 |
| Logan Tucker | 9 |
| Mason Villarreal | 12 |
| Elijah Ysaguirre | 10 |
| Peyton Zeiter | 9 |
| Zebediah Zucker | 10 |