High school softball: Brunswick wins wild one against St. Joseph

BRUNSWICK — Maddie O'Malley was preparing to lead off the bottom of the 10th inning Monday when she turned back from the on-deck circle, smiled and said to a few nearby fans, "This game is crazy!" Add intense, topsy-turvy, emotional and unpredictable and that still doesn't do justice to the Brunswick softball team's 9-8, 10-inning win over St. Joseph Academy in the Brunswick Division I District semifinals. The seventh-seeded Blue Devils (21-6) will face second-seeded Brecksville (24-3) in the district final Wednesday at 5 p.m., but how they got there against 17th-seeded but highly underrated St. Joseph (8-14) almost defies description. Brunswick was up, it was down, it was up, it was down, it was deadlocked, it was nearly dead, it was deadlocked again and then, finally, at almost exactly 8 p.m., it celebrated. "This whole game had high intensity," said designated player Maddy Hicks, who was 5-for-5 with a double, home run and three runs scored. "We were up, then we were down, but we fought until the end." With darkness only another inning or two away, the game appeared headed to the 11th when O'Malley (2 doubles, 3 walks) fouled out for her only out in six plate appearances and Morgan Kinney grounded out. But Katie O'Malley belted her second double — the first put Brunswick up 2-0 in the first — and No. 5 hitter Elena Osowski ripped her third single in 2½ hours to start a wild Brunswick celebration. Osowski easily could have gotten to second on a blast that rolled to the fence in left-center, but Katie O'Malley had already scored the game-ending run. "I was just trying to hit a line drive, put it in play and give Katie a chance to score," Osowski said. "This whole game was quite stressful, but it also was exciting." The game was tied 5-5 going to the ninth, which began with St. Joseph leadoff hitter Hailey Hampu reaching on an error by Brunswick reliever Ellie Germano, who wild pitched her to second and third. Sydney Ollie then walked and didn't stop running until she got to second base. That brought Blue Devils starter Aaliyah Radwan, who pitched the first 5 2/3 innings, back into the game. Radwan promptly gave up a two-run single to Jordan Kohut to put the Jaguars up 7-5, and St. Joseph stretched its lead to three on a single by starting pitcher Maddie Booth. Game, right? Wrong. Osowski opened the bottom half of the inning with a single that barely eluded Jaguars center fielder Hampu. After Sam Timar fouled out, Hicks failed to hit the ball hard for the first time in five at-bats but still singled when her bleeder barely reached the grass in right field. That brought up No. 8 hitter Emily Savage, who already had two singles but was just getting warmed up. Savage blasted a no-doubt-about-it home run to tie the game, sending the Brunswick bench into hysterics. "I was looking for a meatball down the middle," she said after her third home run of the season. "It was a little inside, so I took it to left, but it hit the sweet spot. I knew it was gone. I saw it soaring." At that point, so were the spirits of the resolute Blue Devils, who were up 2-0, down 3-2, up 4-3, down 5-4, tied at 5 and down 8-5. Yet in a game where Brunswick banged out 18 hits, very few of them soft, its defense — and some horrible baserunning by the Jaguars — helped save the season. St. Joseph scored three times in the second, but it would have had four had a runner not stopped running from third on a slow roller and eventually been retired 1-2-5-2. The Jaguars scored twice more in the sixth to go up 5-4, but that came after they ran themselves into a 9-2-5 double play with the bases loaded and no outs. Savage made a strong throw from right on a shallow fly ball, the runner on third got way too far off the bag trying to draw a throw and Maddie O'Malley threw to twin sister Katie for an easy out. With one out in the seventh, No. 3 hitter Jordan tried to stretch a double into a triple and was throw out 9-6-5, with shortstop Faith Vlcek alertly fielding a throw that went past the cut-off. And with one out and runners on second and third in the eighth, St. Joseph failed to send the runner from third on a fly ball to left fielder Osowski, whose throw was solid but came after she bumped into center fielder Kourtney Abshire and temporarily lost her balance. "It was huge to make those plays," Maddie O'Malley said. "That's a reflection of what we do in practice. We're always practicing on our relays." Radwan (10-2) ended up going 7 2/3 innings over her two stints, giving up seven runs, all earned, nine hits and four walks while striking out a pair. Booth (5-11) went the distance for St. Joseph, giving up nine earned runs and three walks — two to Maddie O'Malley were intentional — while fanning three. "That," Maddie O'Malley said again in her postgame interview, "was crazy!" Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on Twitter. Brunswick 9, St. Joseph 8 (10 inn.) Brunswick Division I District Semifinal ST. JOSEPH 030 002 003 0 — 8 12 1 BRUNSWICK 200 201 003 1 — 9 18 2 Two outs when winning run scored. WP — Aaliyah Radwan (10-2) 7 2/3 innings, 7 runs, 7 earned, 9 hits, 4 walks, 2 strikeouts. LP — Maddie Booth (5-11) 9 2/3 innings, 9 runs, 9 earned, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts. St. Joseph (8-14) — Jordan Kohut single, double, 2 RBIs, run; Olivia Lopez 2 singles, 2 walks, run; Maddie Justice 2 singles, 2 runs; Ella McCabe single, double, 2 walks, RBI; Booth single, double, RBI; Tori Hirsch 2 runs. Brunswick (21-6) — Maddy Hicks 3 singles, double, home run, RBI, 3 runs; Emily Savage 2 singles, home run, 3 RBIs, 2 runs; Maddie O'Malley 2 doubles, 3 walks, RBI; Katie O'Malley 2 doubles, 2 RBIs; Elena Osowski 3 singles, RBI, run; Faith Vlcek double, RBI.