By RYAN WALKER
MONTICELLO — Norwell’s magical softball run came to a close Saturday in the opening round of the Semi-State, dropping 12-5 to the No. 2 ranked Western Panthers.
Western (27-2) advances to the Semi-State championship against No. 5 New Prairie (22-6) on June 3, a make-up from Saturday’s rainout.
The Knights (18-8) knew what they were up against with the Panthers — a group that can mash. And they were met with it right away in the first inning.
An error and a walk with nobody out created a golden opportunity to Brynley Erb, who is hitting .640 on the season. She took the first pitch she could smack and belted her 13th home run of the season and put Western up 3-0.
A few batters later, Kamryn Garber went deep with another three-run blast.
That first inning was just about enough for Western to pull through for a win going up 6-0. It put Norwell into shell shock, a team that hasn’t given up more than five runs in a single game of the entire state tournament.
A perhaps anxious Knights squad made two defensive errors following a 1-2-3 first inning on offense, and the Panthers put a hurt on them in a hurry.
“We’ve got some young girls out here on this team — nerves ended up being a factor for us,” Norwell head coach Kevin Baird said. “(We) definitely got some nervous kids making nervous mistakes and to be expected a little bit. It’s a big game — a big situation for us not being there for 21 years. Just one of those things where you live and you learn, and we’ll do better next time.”
The Semi-State lights were the brightest any Norwell Knight had played under in softball. Western, on the other hand, has hit for the moon this season. The Panthers are hitting over .400 with 38 total home runs and have scored over 300 on the season now.
“We had a plan with certain kids, especially with Erb,” Baird said. “We threw a ball that shouldn’t have been anywhere near the plate. But it was like, ‘I had a bad sign I read it wrong.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, that’s something we just need to grow softball IQ stuff where a pitcher should know when you face a good hitter, you don’t throw that ball anywhere near the plate.”
Though that first inning stung, Norwell got back off the mat and fought back for six more innings.
For the rest of the game, the Knights didn’t commit another error or allow another home run, and chipped away at the deficit for three straight innings.
In the third inning, Jordan Markley plated in the first run on a double, and Kara Brown drove another in on a sacrifice fly.
In the fourth, Leah Werling hit the warning track and brought home another run. And in the fifth, Kaydance Clark knocked in two more with a base hit.
“For our team being young, we always settle down right after we get our first hit and we can run,” Baird said. “If we score a run, we settle down. I do think that once we plated a run it kind of settled a the nerves little bit and people start making plays. It just kind of started falling into the flow of the game.”
Unfortunately, Western’s bats were enough to elude any serious comeback. But after the first inning, it was only a 6-5 advantage for the Panthers, but the sticks kept them too far ahead.
“And hats off to their team. I mean, they hit the ball. There’s a couple of spots where our pitcher threw it exactly where we wanted it, and they still hit the ball hard,” Baird said.
Norwell’s season coming to an end in the Semi-State was the first time it went that far since 2003. The path wasn’t easy, either, defeating all winning clubs in the four-game win streak in the sectional and regional, including a win over No. 6 Yorktown.
The Knights will return a healthy core of players to the roster next season that had meaningful innings, including Brown, Reese Frauhiger, Clark, Leah Werling, Kayla Watkins, Makayla Young and Teagan Lesley.
The losses will be tough to replace with an all-conference centerfielder in Markley and pitcher Sami Lemler, along with starters Nevada Lenwell and Addison Keller.
Baird was quick to mention the Knights will be hit by graduation hard, but the four seniors were also a lot of fun to have around.
“Our seniors have such a good attitude, and this team are really good friends,” Baird said. “We’re top to bottom pretty close, and this team just has a lot of fun together top to bottom.”
ryan@news-banner.com
