Lady Leps Cage the Lions, but Still Disrespected Statewide
SOFTBALL
Louisville 11, Minerva 0, 5 Innings
Brittany Flanigan pitched a five-inning shutout and the Leopards smacked Minerva for a 10-run second inning en route to an 11-0 mercying of the Lions. Driving rain played a big part in the Leopards big inning, which helped them stay in sole possesion of first place in the NBC. West Branch beat Carrollton 8-6 yesterday handing Carrollton their third NBC loss, while West Branch’s only two NBC losses were courtesy of the Lady Leps. Flanigan, Jordan Monnot, and Chandler Rice all had two hits for the Leopards in the victory.
STATE POLL
I looked over it, I blinked twice, and I looked over it again…No Louisville listed. And if that’s all it was, then perhaps I would understand, but the fact that Hoover and even more absurdly Perry are listed in the top ten and the Lady Leps aren’t is borderline criminal. As most of you know the Leopards beat the Vikings 3-2 (with one less at at-bat mind you) and then swept Perry in a doubleheader 4-3 and 6-5. No, it wasn’t Louisville that lost by a single run, it was the Lady Leps that won all those games by a single run and it could have been a lot more lopsided than that.
Perry had one great inning against Louisville in the second game against our freshman pitcher, while we rallied for three runs in the seventh against their state champion pitcher. Also, how many runners did we leave on in the Hoover and Perry games? There were several missed scoring opportunities for our offense in those games, for example against Perry the bases were loaded and a tag out at third ended the inning with no score and later a well-executed double play by the Panthers ended a Louisville scoring threat in which Rice sat at third with no outs. Besides, its Perry that has three losses, two to us and one to Lake, while we have had one fluke loss to Carrollton. We clobbered Lake in a doubleheader 9-1 and 11-6, while the Panthers fell to them. It is one thing to put Hoover ahead of Louisville, but not Perry.
The Leopards remain 5-0 in the Federal League and have already played the top three teams in the league. What more do these voters need? It is kind of absurd anyways that Stark County is getting the shaft after the unranked Perry Panthers mauled #1 Grove City 10-0 in 6 innings during last year’s state title game. We may have the top three or four teams in the state right here in Stark County, but the polls will never tell you that because we beat each other up so much.
But, maybe its a good thing…Maybe it is great that we are flying under the radar. After all, that’s what Perry did last year before they stormed to Firestone. I will tell you this though, whoever comes out of this district has a serious chance to win it all in Akron on June 4, which will once again prove how bias, absurd, and uncredible the Ohio High School Softball Coaches Association poll is.
Here’s a look at the Top 10 team’s in the DI Coaches Poll with first place votes in parenthesis and total votes last:
1, Lakota East (9) 111
2, Elyria (2) 92
3, Gahanna Lincoln 78
4, Glen Este 65
5, Central Crossing 57
6, Anthony Wayne 39
7, Grove City 33
8, Stow 29
9, Lebanon 24
10, Hoover (1) 22
10, Perry 22
BOX SCORE:
LEOPARDS 11, LIONS 0, 5 Innings
Louisville 0(10)0 01 — 11 11 1
Minerva 000 00 — 0 1 1
Flanigan and Isla. Amatangelo and Mihok. WP—Flanigan 9-1. LP—Amatangelo 0-3. HRs—none.
Records—Louisville 12-1, 7-1; Minerva 2-9, 1-6.
NEXT UP: Louisville will host Canton McKinley today (Wednesday, April 27) at 4:30 PM. JV will also play at home during the same time.
JV RESULT: Louisville 12, Minerva 1, 6 innings.
