Escanaba Jr. Girls Advance To Regional Semifinals

AKRON, Ohio---The Escanaba Junior Girls (age 13-14) continued to roll along on Monday at the Central Regional Tournament in Akron, Ohio.

After heavy rains forced the girls to play their second double header of the tournament, the girls kept their focus in the morning game and pounded the Kentucky State Champions, 11-0. The girls were in complete control of this game as they took advantage of numerous London, Ky., errors.

Then the girls topped the host team, Elyria, 12-9, in a game that looked like it would be laugher early on but turned out to be a tight one at the finish.

Kayla Van Portfliet scores a run during Monday's win.

"They battled back and hit the ball hard against us," Escanaba Manager Jamie Segorski said. "I was expecting a game like 6-4, or 6-5, not 12-9. But our defense was solid and they had some seeing-eye singles. And we got on it (offensively) real quick, just like in the state tournament."

Escanaba came out swinging in the game against the hosts. Callie Heller led off with a triple and scored on a single by J.J. Laviolette. Then Sam Connor doubled over the center fielder's head to bring home Laviolette and it was a 2-0 game.

After Becca Piron was safe on a fielder's choice, Michelle LaFave ripped a triple to the center field fence to score two runs, and it was 4-0.

Kayla VanPortfliet drove in the team's fifth run with a ground ball, and then Laviolette, batting for the second time in the first inning, got a single to left field Escanaba was ahead, 7-0 before Elyria even came to the plate.

The local Ohio team got a run back in the bottom of the first inning, but Escanaba scored four more runs in the third inning. Heller drove in one run with a ground ball, Connor had an RBI single, and the other two runs scored on two errors.

But this Elyria team is good, and they started to fight back. They had four straight hits off of starting pitcher Connor to plate three runs in the bottom of the third inning, making it an 11-4 game. Then in the bottom of the fourth, with Katie Ross now pitching, Elyria's Carly Bachna launched a three-run homer over the left field fence.

"Yeah, that was a hard-hit ball," Ross admitted.

"She really pounded that thing," Segorski said. "It cleared the fence by a lot, a 250 foot shot at least. It was a bomb."

Nice running catch by Emily LaFave.

Escanaba's lead was down to 11-7, and it was 12-8 entering the bottom of the seventh inning. Bachna came to the plate again and ripped an RBI double to make it 12-9, but Connor returned to the circle in that inning and put the game away.

But not without some help from Laviolette.

"That was one of the toughest catches I've ever made at second base," Laviolette said. "It felt really good when I caught it, though."

"I was really nervous coming into this game, but I know our defense is really good," Connor said.

The game was billed as perhaps the top two teams in the tournament, and ended up being a slugfest rather than a tense, 1-0 type game.

"I was definitely expecting a close game," Connor said. "I think we were really hard-hitting teams and that's why the score was so high."

Escanaba enters the semifinals as the Number One seed, and will face the Chet Wagoner Little League out of South Bend, Ind., in Tuesday's semifinal. The host Elyria team will face Poland, Ohio, in the second semifinal.

Earlier in the day, the Escanaba girls had an easy time of it against London, Kentucky.

Becca Piron gets an RBI single in the first.

Becca Piron had an RBI single in the first inning, and then in the second inning, Makenzie Leisner had a bunt single to drive home a run. And Callie Heller smacked a two-run single to give Escanaba a 6-0 lead after two innings of play.

Taylor Segorski had a sacrafice bunt to score a run in the third inning as Escanaba scored three times and took a 9-0 lead. Then in the fourth inning, Escanaba scored two more runs, with Michelle LaFave driving one of them home with a base hit.

Heller pitched the first four innings, allowing two hits and two walks. She struck out four batters. Kayla Van Portfliet threw the final inning and allowed one base hit. She appears to be recovered from the eye injury that saw her miss most of the state tournament.

That victory gave Escanaba a 3-0 record in pool play, and clinched a spot in Tuesday's regional semifinal round. The winner of the tournament advances to the Junior Softball World Series in Kirkland, Wash., next weekend.

You can listen to Escanaba's semifinal game Tuesday morning, live on WGKL-FM (105.5) starting with the pre-game show at 11:30. The Internet stream on www.rrnsports.com will begin with the first pitch at 12:00 noon.

Click the thumbnails in the "ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS" box to see photos taken during the game by Jean Muleag, Deb Leisner, Margie Heller, and Karen LaFave. Thanks, ladies!