Norwalk rallies to reach district title game

WILLARD — The ending only made sense to a softball game between Norwalk and Tiffin Columbian. There was time to think, it was now or never for the Truckers. Two critical errors by overthrows from Columbian allowed for Norwalk's Maddie Gamble to slide into home plate on a single by teammate Reagan Mooney in the bottom of the seventh for the 8-7 win over the Tornadoes in a Division III district semifinal on Friday at Willard. "All I knew was that I had to go," said Gamble of the run. "The adrenaline kicked in, and I knew that I needed to win it for my team." It was the third time this season that games between the Truckers and Tornadoes were decided in the final at-bat. Columbian won the first matchup 3-2 on April 15 in Tiffin before Norwalk answered with a 9-8 home win on May 12. With the win, the No. 2-seeded Truckers (13-11) face No. 1 Mansfield Madison (19-6) at 1 p.m. Saturday for the district title back at Willard. The Rams beat Ashland, 8-0, in the first game Friday. The Truckers and Rams were scheduled to play a non-league game on May 1 at NHS, but it was rained out. "Going through my mind 'it's now or never'," Norwalk coach Julie Schmidt said. "I saw the bobble in the outfield, and it's got to be a play. A clean play for them, and either they get the out or they don't. "We sent her (Mooney) out, and played the odds. This time it paid off." For the first two innings, Columbian had the lead 6-0. Olyvia Steinmetz got a double RBI on a fly ball to center field that went over the fence for a home run. She not only scored, but so did Camryn Haman. Later, Addison Smith hit a ground ball out to third base and because of an error, Smith reached second base, and Maize Mellott ran to home. Smith scored on the next at bat as Haman bunted to the pitcher Kenadee Lesch. Norwalk decided it was time to switch from Kenadee Lesch to Saige Viock in hopes that it would minimize the damage. The Truckers eventually switched back to Lesch before the end of the second inning. "We wanted to switch it up even more then what we did," Schmidt said. "Both of them are great pitchers. With the way the game was going though, we needed to end with Kenadee." Columbian didn't let the change in pitchers rattle them. Haman stole two bases on a passed ball before going to home plate due to a pass from Viock to Scarlet Schneider being overthrown and not caught in time. After an Emma Daugherty walk, and Steinmetz stealing second base, Breanna McNutt was at bat. Steinmetz stole third on a wild pitch, and Daugherty followed suit. Daugherty waited, and then took her chance to go for third when Steinmetz scored on a wild pitch. The Truckers were in the hole 6-0, but they didn't count themselves out. Viock hit a ground ball to first base, and that allowed Mooney to move to third base. Mya Prochnow then hit a pop fly out to left field and in the time it took for the ball to be thrown back in, Mooney ran third base and sprinted home. Prochnow made it to second base. Schneider then hit a double line drive to left field in the gap, which brought Prochnow home. If that wasn't enough, Prochnow got her seventh home run of the season as she hit a fly ball to center field over the fence and got two RBIs as Schnieder ran into home. To tie it up between the two teams, Lilly Farmer singled on a line drive to center field and Alexxis Dellisanti, who came in as a courtesy runner for Lesch, scored on that single. To tie the game back up again after Haman hit another home run in the on a fly ball in the fourth inning, Lesch hit a single pop fly out to the left field, and while the ball was being passed back and forth, Schneider took the advantage once again and scored. "They are a competitive team and we know that we can't count them out," Schmidt said of TC. "We knew that we had to be competitive, too. We have scored nine runs on them in the past, so we took that confidence and success against them and decided not to be down early, which we very easily could have." The Truckers got a huge game from Prochnow, who went 3 for 4 with four runs batted in and two runs scored. She was 10 for 13 with a double, three home runs, seven RBIs and five runs scored in three games this season vs. Columbian. Columbian 240 100 0 — 7 4 3Norwalk 060 001 1 — 8 11 3WP: Lesch. LP: Haman2B: (C) Mellott; (N) Schneider. HR: (C) Haman, Steinmetz; (N) Prochnow