Division II Regional Championship
Logan Elm 7, Dover 3
PICKERINGTON — Diplomas were awarded to Logan Elm’s six seniors before the start of Friday’s regional championship game.
Two-and-a-half hours later those seniors joined the rest of their team in having gold medals placed around their necks after beating Dover 7-3 to win the school’s second regional title.
The Braves had built a 7-0 lead after four innings but saw Dover try to claw back in with a run in the sixth and a two-run homer to start the seventh.
The Braves then got a fly ball to senior Taylor Fowler in center and a fly ball to freshman Lucy Caplinger in left. The final out came when senior first baseman Jaycie Clifton caught a popup in foul territory to send LE to the final four for the first time since 2012.
“It’s probably the best feeling in the world,” Clifton said. “I just genuinely knew I needed to step up for my team because I want to go all the way.”
Clifton also stepped up for her team at the plate. She had an RBI single in the second inning to give her team a 4-0 lead and then had the biggest hit of the night in the fourth inning.
Senior Lynsay VanHoose and sophomore Sadie Binkley had back-to-back one-out singles.
After a strikeout for the second out of the inning, Clifton came to plate. On the eighth pitch of the at-bat, she crushed one past the batting cages over the left field fence to give LE a 7-0 advantage.
“It was a scary situation, and I knew I had to step up,” she said. “I hadn’t had the greatest at-bats recently and I just knew I had to do something about it.”
“Jaycie is so strong,” coach Jamey Binkley said. “I was in the (batting) cage, and we had the pitching machine cranked up. I came out and told our assistant coaches, ‘Jaycie is scaring me because I don’t have a glove on, I’ve got no screen’ – she’s scary.
“When she hits it, it goes.”
The Braves got the bottom of the first started when VanHoose drew a walk thanks, in part, to a couple of illegal pitches being called on Dover’s Jenna Molk. Binkley followed with a single to right and VanHoose advanced to third on the hit. Ryleigh Wolfe then laid down a bunt. The Tornadoes tried to make the play at home, but VanHoose came in with the game’s first run and Wolfe was safe at first with Katie Wilson (running for Binkley) at third. A wild pitch allowed Wilson to come home for LE’s second run.
The Braves mixed in a couple of walks around strikeouts to load the bases and Tia Fowler then hit a ball to shortstop that was misplayed allowing Wolfe to score for a 3-0 Logan Elm lead.
The Tornadoes struggled for hits early as they went down 1-2-3 in the first, managed to load the bases on a walk and two errors in the second but couldn’t produce a run and went down 1-2-3 in the third.
Charlie Reese had Dover’s first hit of the night to start the fourth. Avery Contini put down a bunt toward first that catcher Tia Fowler fielded and threw to second baseman Addison Smith covering first on the play. She, in turn, fired the ball over to third where shortstop VanHoose took the throw and tagged out Reese for a double play.
“It was a bunt and run and the girl was going first to third. Addie threw to third with a hose and Lynsay was there,” coach Binkley said. “You talk about a play where the entire team was doing their job, we had the left fielder backing up on that play. There were a lot of kids involved. Just about every kid on the diamond had a place to be and had a stake in that play. So that was a big momentum swing.”
The fifth inning saw Dover go down 1-2-3 again.
In the sixth, Dover hit three singles to load the bases with one out. A hard-hit ball toward third saw Wolfe field the ball and throw home to easily beat the runner for the force.
“Ryleigh Wolfe at third base has really done a good job at taking the other team’s short games away,” coach Binkley said. “That ball went hard to Ryleigh. She comes forward immediately, and Tia is there just like we practiced. I think they had one of their faster kids on third base and she came right away and was able to cut that run down.
“I think if you’re going by the book, you probably say get your out at one there and give up the run, but our kids are just fighters. They want to put up a goose egg.”
A walk – only the third of the game issued by Binkley – forced in Dover’s first run before the inning wrapped up.
A hit batter started the seventh for Dover and then Molk hit the first pitch she saw over the fence to make it a 7-3 game before the Braves finished out the championship.
Binkley gave up the three runs on five hits with the three walks and she struck out seven for the Braves.
“Sadie pitched a heck of a game there,” coach Binkley said. “I think she’s got one pitch there she’d like to get back.”
Having a post-season run like the Braves have put together didn’t seem likely when the team dropped six of its last nine regular season games to fall to 16-8.
But getting some players back from injuries and playing the type of teams LE faced prepared them for the postseason.
“Iron sharpens iron,” coach Binkley said. “All-in-all, we had five teams from our eight-team league that were in the district finals, we had three district champions and we’ve got two teams going to state.”
(Liberty Union was a 9-7 winner over Miami East Friday to advance to the Division III state semifinals.)
The tournament run has improved the Braves’ record to 21-8 and earned LE a date with Bryan at 12:30 Friday at Akron’s Firestone Stadium. The Golden Bears (21-5) are riding a 16-game winning streak after beating Lexington 4-1 Friday.
Kenton Ridge (28-4), a 6-2 winner over Granville, and Canfield (25-3), a 3-0 winner over Medina Buckeye, play in the other Division II semifinal at 10 a.m.
Tickets for the state softball championships can be purchased by clicking here.
