Fastpitch hotbed
Area loaded with talented players, teams this season

Bob Daniels
The Chronicle-Telegram

The story goes that a guy from somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line called Lorain County last year looking for information.
He was moving here, he said, and had daughters who played softball. He wanted to know the best place in the county for them to live and play their favorite sport.
What he learned is unknown. But he might reasonably have been advised to hang a Lorain County map on the wall and throw a dart. Where the dart stuck was the best place for his girls to live and play softball.
If that’s a stretch, it’s not much of one.

Lorain County had the distinction last spring of sending three high school teams to the Sweet 16 — Elyria in Division I, Keystone in Division II and Wellington in Division III. The Lady Dukes eventually lost a regional semifinal, the Pioneers a regional final and the Wildcats a state semifinal — all by a single run in extra innings.
The county also had the Pioneer Conference Heritage champ in North Ridgeville, which won 16 games, and the Southwestern Conference runner-up in Amherst, which won 19. And right next door in Cuyahoga County, Westlake won a school-record 21 games and the SWC title.
But that was last year. What’s it look like this spring? Hang a map on the wall and get a dart. They’re all loaded again.

Which doesn’t mean there aren’t questions.
An obvious one: Can Elyria, Keystone and Wellington — all of which lost outstanding seniors to graduation — make it back to the Sweet 16 or farther this spring?

KEYSTONE
And can Keystone win a second state championship in the last hurrah for the Wildcats’ senior pitching-slugging duo of Kristie Malinkey and Jessica Burt? The Wildcats have advanced to the Final Four three straight years, 10 times in 14 years, have been state runners-up five times, but have won just one state title, in 1999.
Keystone lost Sarah Miller, perhaps the area’s best outfielder last spring, and first-team All-Ohio and Miss Softball runner-up Katie Bell. But the Wildcats are strong again, led by Malinkey and Burt, who also earned all-state honors last season.
They also have one of the area’s top catchers in junior Sarah Stromack, a group of significant sophomores — among them Amanda Jones, Ginger Slone and a healthy Kate Yeo — and a group of promising freshmen. Yeo missed her freshman year with an ACL tear, but Jones and Slone played roles in Keystone’s run to the Final Four in 2005.
Confidence abounds in LaGrange this spring, and the 2006 Wildcats might be even better than last year’s team, said third baseman Erica Reid.
“This year, we have so much talent,” Reid said. “I think we have a much better chance of winning state this year just because we have so much talent. We’ve been playing together for so long and we mesh so well together and communicate better than any of the teams I’ve been on before. We probably have 15 girls who could start for any varsity team anywhere.”
Senior Courtney Piwinski agreed, “This year, we do have a lot of talent,” she said, “and I think we feel really comfortable with each other.”

ELYRIA
Elyria lost three senior starters, including first-team All-Ohio and Miss Softball Alex Boros, from a team that won 26 games. But the Pioneers will be strong for the foreseeable future.
They have no seniors on the roster. But they do have three experienced juniors and that bunch of tiny sophomores — Megan Bashak, Jess Bellottie, Jen Bower, Jess Mandula and Erin Sunagel — who as ninth graders were prominent in Elyria’s run to the Elite Eight.
“I definitely think we can go that far again,” said Andrea Stolarski, junior first baseman-outfielder. “We lost three key people, but we brought some new ones in and if we work hard and concentrate, we can go back. We have good defense and good bats that we’ll put to use.”
No argument from Andrea Nagy, junior shortstop and second baseman.
“We have a lot of talent, we work hard and we all have the same goals,” Nagy said. “We want to prove that our (youth) doesn’t make any difference. It’s OK if we don’t have any seniors.”

WELLINGTON
As for Wellington, the Lady Dukes lost just two starting seniors, Shea Monschein and Lydia Shaw. But everyone else returns, including senior Ashley Kies, one of the top pitchers in Lorain County, plus sophomores Melissa Sawyer, a .476 hitter, and Melanie Conklin.
‘”I’m really excited about this year, because I think we’re going to do really well,” Kies said. “We have basically the same team back. We had some freshmen last year (Brittany Gow, Conklin and Sawyer) who really stepped up for us and they’re back. We’re all working very hard and we want to make it back to the regionals this year.”

Meanwhile, Keystone fans have come to expect tournament success.
“I think that because we make it to state every year, people expect us to make it,” said Malinkey, a two-time first-team All-Ohio selection and the youngest Keystone pitcher ever to earn the honor.
“Sometimes people take it for granted. I remember last year, some people were like, ‘Oh, we won’t be (at the state semifinal in Ashland), but we’ll be there for the championship game.’
“But last year we lost our first game (3-2 to Hamilton Ross in 10 innings). And I think if we ever didn’t make it to state, people would just be in shock. So I think there’s some pressure on us to at least make it there. But there’s no guarantee we will or that we’ll make it all the way.”
Malinkey, who has accepted a softball scholarship from Butler University in Indianapolis, has been on a Final Four team every year of her high school career.
If the Wildcats don’t make it back to Ashland, it won’t be for lack of effort, according to Burt, a second-team All-Ohio choice last season.
“Everybody’s working hard every day,” said Burt, who’s headed to Cleveland State on a softball scholarship. “I think we’re going to do well as long as we can stay together, which I don’t see being a problem. Everybody’s working very hard and that’s really all you can ask.”