New London's softball district title hopes come to an end by Monroeville

GALION — Going into Thursday's Division III district final, No. 1 seed Monroeville had two pretty good options as far as who was going to start against No. 2 New London. They could either roll out Veanna Helmstetter or Emily Scheid. Either choice would work.

The Eagles (21-6) went with Scheid and they happened to guess right, as she pitched a whale of a game (seven strikeouts, two walks, no earned runs, six hits in seven full innings pitched) and thwarted New London's district title hopes with a 6-1 victory.

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New London coach Joe Thomas knew his team would be facing Scheid, and she delivered the goods against a Wildcats lineup that has been hitting the long ball well of late.

"We're obviously very familiar with Monroeville. I knew they were not going to pitch Veanna Helmstetter," Thomas said. "They were going to pitch Emily Scheid, who does a great job of keeping us off balance and keeping the ball low and away. It was just very hard today to stay back and be patient. I think we had six hits and Gracie (Thomas) was 3 for 3. That means we had only three other girls who had a hit. When you have only four girls who hit, it's hard to get runs."

New London had their No. 1 starter Emilee Rowland (seven strikeouts, two earned runs, eight hits, one walk in six innings pitched) in the circle against Monroeville, and the Eagles were able to get an early 3-0 lead after the first inning.

"When they got those first three runs in the first inning, it was tough," Thomas said. "Monroeville strung hits together. They did have a couple of hard hits but they were just finding the spots."

If there's anything that stood out in the third meeting between the two Firelands Conference opponents (they split the first two meetings), it was how sound, sharp and quick Monroeville's infield of shortstop Abbi Poths, second baseman Taryn Tyler, first baseman Destiny Saam and third baseman Madison Reiber were. They scooped up anything on the ground to make out after out, including two huge double plays that Poths and Tyler turned together that killed any chance of New London scoring when they had multiple runners on.

"Their infield is sound," Thomas said. "They have the best shortstop I've ever seen in high school softball in Abbi Poths. Taryn Tyler at second base does a phenomenal job and turned two double plays to ruin our rallies."

After New London collected their district runner-up trophy and medals, Thomas analyzed the Wildcats season. This was the first time in 10 years the program had been to a district final. He talked about how much the team will miss ace Emilee Rowland next year.

"Obviously, you're not going to replace Emilee Rowland. She had 234 strikeouts on the season. Just a great pitcher and great athlete. She's not just a pitcher, she does a great job at the plate, too," Thomas said. "It was a great year. I told our girls I don't know how many people expected us to be 17-7 and be in a district final but I did. We worked our butts off from Day 1."

jsimpson@gannett.com

Twitter/X:@JamesSimpsonII

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: New London's softball district title hopes come to an end by Monroeville