BOWLING GREEN — Stingy pitching and one big inning of offense were the main ingredients for Anthony Wayne on Friday night, as the third-ranked Generals captured their fourth straight Division I district softball title with a 7-0 victory over Mansfield Madison at Bowling Green State University's Meserve Field.
Anthony Wayne (25-1), which had clinched a Northern Lakes League Buckeye Division championship with a resounding 15-5 win at Perrysburg on Monday, made it 3-for-3 with tournament shutouts so far by blanking the Rams (20-6) from the Ohio Cardinal Conference.
Senior right-hander Kat Meyers, who will pitch next year for the University of Michigan, followed her seven-inning, 18-strikeout perfect game from the Generals 4-0 district semifinal win over Start on Tuesday with five innings of two-hit shutout pitching versus Madison.
“I felt pretty good today in warm-ups,” Meyers said. “The field was a little wet, but that's all right. You've just kind of got to work with it and dig it out a little bit. “Our defense was great. I always have my full confidence in them. I had the same mindset as I did on Tuesday — one batter at a time.”
Junior Molly Conner worked the final two hitless and scoreless innings in the circle to close out the win and send AW to a regional semifinal matchup versus Brecksville-Broadview Heights (21-6) at Clyde at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
“We're very blessed with our pitching here at Anthony Wayne,” Generals coach Ron Myers said, “with our combination of Kat Meyers starting and Molly Conner closing it out for us today.
“We were able to put things together [offensively] in that fourth inning. We already had two on the board in the second, and to be able to put five more on [in the fourth] pretty much seals the game with the pitching we have.”
The Generals, who were D-I state runners-up a year ago, scratched out two second-inning runs on a walk to Allie Meyers, a Rams error on twin sister Kat's sacrifice bunt attempt, and a sacrifice fly from Gabi Nowicki.
In the pivotal fourth inning, the Generals got six of their eight hits off of Rams senior pitcher Layla Azmoun.
AW's fourth-year catcher Trinity Nowicki sparked a five-run rally with a single to right-center, which was followed by Allie Meyers' line single to center.
Gabi Nowicki then smacked a one-out RBI single to center, and freshman first baseman Piper Phillips delivered the second run on an infield single.
After a bunt single by senior Abby Kennelly loaded the bases, senior center fielder Essence Dobbelaere-Buchman brought pinch-runner Abby Ziegler home on a sacrifice fly. Sophomore third baseman Megan Sumner capped things with a two-run double that one-hopped the fence in center for a 7-0 AW lead.
Kat Meyers struck out six and walked four in her five innings, and Conner, who has committed to pitch at Notre Dame, then retired all six batters she faced, including two strikeouts.
“Our pitchers do a wonderful job of hitting their spots, throwing hard, and being amazing overall,” Trinity Nowicki said of her battery mates.
It was the first time Madison was shut out in 26 games this season.
“We wanted our girls to lay off the rise ball, which I thought they did a really nice job of,” Rams coach Ron Niswander said. “It was just attacking the other stuff and, when the other stuff is 68 miles per hour and moves, it's not an easy ask.
“The kids played hard. We didn't play clean. We had a couple mistakes, and had a couple chances to score early that might've changed the game, but we didn't. We knew coming in that if we could manage their pitching we would be OK, and they just overpowered us.”
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