Greenville sophomore pitcher Ella Oswalt shut out Bloom-Carroll after allowing two first-run innings. She is determined to lead her team back to state next June. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie Wright-Daniel)
Greenville’s only baserunner was a home run in the seventh inning, not enough to overcome Bloom-Carroll’s two-run first inning that ended the Lady Wave’s state title dreams and 31-game winning streak.
Akron, OH – Ella Oswalt couldn’t conceal her feelings. To do so would be counter to her competitive soul.
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If you’ve watched her notch a clutch strikeout, you know her fire is sure. She stomps her right foot, she yells, she leads.
Could she push down her emotions after her Greenville softball team was nearly the victim of a perfect game? Or after the Lady Wave lost 2-1 to Bloom-Carroll on Friday afternoon in the Division III state semifinals?
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No.
In the interview room underneath the grandstand of 101-year-old Firestone Stadium, Oswalt – the sophomore fast becoming a junior – nearly shook the old bricks with her impassioned response. What will she, as the face of the team, do to ensure her young team makes it back to state and achieves more when they get here?
“Just knowing that we’re all going to come back, and we all know what this feels like because it sucks … it sucks,” she began.
Then she referenced last year’s regional final loss, which, two weeks ago, she called the worst day of her life.
“Last year losing to Western Brown I didn’t sleep or eat for days because it sucks,” she continued.
Now, there is a new worst day she never wants herself or her teammates to feel again.
Greenville gets psyched before its state semifinal game against Bloom-Carroll.
“Everyone has a taste of how this feels, and they all know it sucks,” she said. “And it won’t be the wanting to win so bad, it will be not wanting to lose and not have to feel like this for four days.”
Her head coach, Jerrod Newland, didn’t shout “Amen,” but he could have.
“Well said,” he responded. “You’re 16 now, you’re a little more mature now. You’re growing up on us.”
The throw to Greenville third baseman Kendall Cromwell wasn’t in time to get Bloom-Carroll’s Madelyn Gates on a first-inning leadoff triple. She soon scored on a triple by Emma Brandt.
The Lady Wave (31-2) arrived at state for the fifth time under Newland on a 31-game winning streak. Oswalt’s earned run average was 0.36. The team carried a .400 batting average and averaged 10 runs a game. But this is state.
No pitcher had come close to muting their bats like Bloom-Carroll junior Emma Brandt. Three weeks ago Bulldogs coach Chris Lucas wouldn’t have promised Brandt would be his state starter. But two weeks ago Lucas stopped using multiple pitchers because Brandt was locked in and gave the Bulldogs the best chance to make it to Akron.
Brandt knocked in one of the Bulldogs’ two runs in the first inning. She took that as a sign.
“I was so excited,” she said. “I was like, this is our game, we got this in the bag.”
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Brandt retired the first 18 batters she faced. She struck out nine in six innings and induced ground balls and popups that her defense handled flawlessly. She said her curveball played great. Oswalt, however, took part of the blame for her 0-for-3 day.
“Wasn’t difficult … we just didn’t do it,” she said. “Kudos to her. She did a great job, but we just didn’t make adjustments quick enough, and sometimes it happens.”
Greenville shortstop Leah Force catches a popup in the first inning that turned out to be a sacrifice fly and plate Bloom-Carroll’s second run.
Brandt entered the seventh inning three outs from the fifth perfect game in state tournament history, which dates to 1978. But Lady Wave leadoff hitter Leah Force hit Brandt’s second pitch over the left-field fence to spoil the perfect game, no-hitter and shutout.
“My first at-bat the first pitch was a strike, so I was just looking for that strike,” Force said. “My favorite pitch is a little inside, so I was looking for that pitch and just hitting it as hard as I could.”
Force renewed Greenville’s hope. But Brandt finished the inning like she had all day, retiring Oswalt on a comebacker to the mound, striking out Lizzie Shaffer for No. 10, and getting Lily Brubaker on a fly out to right.
“Hats off to them, and they made every play,” Newland said. “But if you tell me Bloom-Carroll scored two runs, Greenville would have won the game two out three times, and unfortunately today we didn’t. They were the better-coached team today, and I guess I’ll have to look in the mirror.”
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Newland often made eye contact with his batters and took a deep breath, encouraging them to do the same.
“Slow down, be yourselves,” he said was the message. “Because when you’re out there in front of 2,500 people, it’s a little different, bigger stage than if we played on the parking lot, the Pony Field, or Bloom-Carroll, or Greenville. The score would have been 5-4, but here on the big stage it maximizes. We did everything but win, and I’m very proud of these kids.”
Leah Force turms toward home on her seventh-inning home run that gave Greenville hope.
Bloom-Carroll’s 2-0 lead after one inning seemed tenuous at best. But Lucas had seen Brandt’s recent success.
“Our pitching and catching was spot on,” he said. “I knew that two runs with them out there, it was pretty much a good deal.”
In the end, because of the early runs, 2-0 was a done deal.
Bloom-Carroll leadoff hitter Madelyn Gates had three hits and lined a rope over center fielder Carlee Yundt’s head. Gates flashed sprinter speed all the way to third. Oswalt struck out the next batter, but Brandt duplicated Gates’ triple to the same place for a 1-0 lead.
Then, as it turned out, the Bulldogs scored what stood up as the winning run. Addy Brown hit a popup into shallow left field. Force, the shortstop, and left fielder Halle Fourman nearly collided. Force tumbled to the ground making an over-the-shoulder catch, allowing Brandt to tag up and score easily.
In the little-things-make-a-difference department, had the ball been hit a couple steps deeper Fourman could have made the catch and held Brandt at third to keep the score 1-0. The next batter popped up for the third out.
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“We knew they were going to hit, and we knew they were going to hit it to the outfield, so I wasn’t really surprised when they hit those first two,” Oswalt said. “First batter’s hard to get out, but just trust my spin and trust that my defense was going to make some plays.”
For the next five innings, Oswalt’s defense made every play, stopping the Bulldogs from taking advantage of the next three leadoff batters reaching base. But Brandt, other than the Force homer, didn’t give in and sent the Lady Wave home with a second state semifinal loss in four seasons and third in their last four trips, beginning in 2010.
Greenville catcher Jordyn McMullen and her teammates played errorless defense.
“It’s our fifth final four, we’ve played in 12 regional championships,” Newland said. “I guess we’re the Buffalo Bills of high school softball.”
Not completely. The Lady Wave won state on trip No. 1 in 2007.
And, as Oswalt said, they plan on making it back. Newland agreed without reservation.
“You’re damn right,” he said. “Anything less would be a disappointment.”
The team’s two seniors, second baseman Lily Brubaker and third baseman Kendall Cromwell, played on the 2023 state team. They finished their career with 114 wins and 14 losses.
“I hope that they push to come back, and I hope that they push to come back and win it,” Cromwell said. “It’s an incredible feeling to play in the stadium, and it’s an incredible feeling with the crowd, and it’s just a great atmosphere to be put in.”
The loss and how it happened wounded Oswalt. But something else hurt worse, something that she can’t experience for at least a year.
“This whole time we’ve been here, all I’ve thought about was all I wanted was one more day with all my girls because I love them to death,” she said, choking back her emotions. “And now we have to wait to come back, and all I wanted was one more day.
“But, you know, failure is good. We’ll be back.”
Bloom-Carroll junior Emma Brandt carried a perfect game into the seventh inning. Greenville’s Leah Force broke it up with a home run.
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