AVON — Keystone graduates Jessica Burt and Sarah Stromack went on different paths after high school. However, timing and a little fate allowed them to play together one final time.

The duo, which was on the Wildcats 2006 state championship team, got a chance of a lifetime playing against the National Professional Fastptich Akron Racers in an exhibition series as members of the Ohio Collegiate All-Star team.

The series finale took place at All Pro Freight Stadium. Though the Racers won the game 14-2, the experience for the two players was a memory for the ages.

“It was a great opportunity to get a chance to put your jersey back on, get a few more at-bats and a chance to play against professionals.” Burt said. “A lot of these girls are ones who I have looked up to throughout my career. It was a fun experience to get to play against them.”

It helped that the former Keystone teammates were also playing with other players they have seen over the years.

“It’s always fun to play with people you have played with before,” Burt said. “There were quite a few girls from this team I have played travel ball with. It was a fun experience to get back together with the girls I have known and get to know the ones I have been playing against.”

The Racers, who won all three exhibition games, took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning only to see the All-Stars rally to tie the game in bottom half of the inning on DeDe Justice’s single to center to score Olivia Hegedus.

The Racers broke the game open with four runs in each of the third and fourth innings.Taylor Schlopy, who was drafted this season out of the University of Georgia, went 3-of-5 with three runs. Getting a chance to get play before the start of the regular season was beneficial to her.

“I think it has been a great experience so far,” Schlopy said. “I think these two games have really helped me feel comfortable personally because I am just coming out of college.”

Though neither Keystone player was able to get on base in this game, both played solid defensive. Burt, in her center field position, handled a couple of fly balls flawlessly and showed her arm strength which helped her during her career at Cleveland State University.

Stromack, who played at the University of Akron and started at catcher, was moved to the outfield. Though she never has played the position, she made a nice sliding catch to end the top of the sixth inning and prevent the Racers from tacking on another run.

“It was a shock,” Stromack said. “I always have played the infield. I decided I might as well as go to the outfield just to play. I can still catch a play. It was just a little more territory, but I’m not use to running. But that’s OK.”

Stromack did get a hit in the series, but it was a memory from a camp which made this game even more special.

Going to a camp in Cleveland which featured Crystl Bustos, the duo got to see the cream of the crop up close. Bustos, who played for the Akron Racers in 2005, has also won two gold medals. Stromack remembers the camp and having the hope of one day playing against them. When she got the chance, the moment was also too much.

“At first it was overwhelming and exciting, but I am really glad I did it,” Stromack said. “I really do look up to most of them on the team. They are very classy individuals and very sportsman-like. To actually get a chance to play against people we have looked up to for so long was fun.”

Stromack also had the pleasure of playing against one of her former coaches. Carla Brookbank-Schaal was a coach during Stromack’s freshman season.

When Burt and Stromack walked off the high school field for the last time; it was done as champions. Walking off the field as team mates one last time and playing against a team of professionals makes them champions again in its own way. It is something they will talk about in the years to come.

“I thought it was very fitting that we started in Lorain County together and we get to end it in Lorain County,” Stromack said.

courtesy of SCOTT SOMMERS

Brookside's Salena Kauffman has commited to play softball at Cleveland State University. Brookside will hold a ceremony on Thursday (Nov. 18) at 9:30 a.m.

Kauffman will play her senior season at Brookside this spring. She's been playing varsity softball since her freshman season. She was an All-Patriot Athletic Conference selection Second Teamer last season.

Kauffman has been playing softball since she was five years old and started travel ball in 2005. This past summer in the Queen of Diamond Showcase South, she was a All-QDSS First Teamer, QDSS MVP and Cage MVP.

She was also selected as a catcher for the 2011 North American Select Team for the CUP Tournament in the Netherlands.

Kaufman will join other locals such as Elyria's Tess Sito, Andrea Nagy, Megan Bashak and Ashlee Stolarski. Keystone's Jessica Burt is a senior this season.

swalker@MorningJournal.com

The No. 2 seed Wright State defeated Cleveland State, 8-3 and 6-3, on Saturday to claim the Horizon League Softball Championship.

The Vikings record-setting season ends with an impressive 44-15 record. This was the sixth time in eight years that Cleveland State played in the title game, winning the championship in 2009.

"This was a very tough day for us," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said on the team's website. "I felt like we were out of sync offensively during the tournament and it really hurt us today.

"We’ve had the ability to battle back and overcome deficits all season long, but today we just didn’t have it. Amanda (Macenko) was throwing well, but Wright State is a great offensive team and they were hitting everything she threw.

The day started with CSU dropping an 8-3 decision in the first meeting with the Raiders. The Vikings jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning as Lia Gordon executed a well-placed bunt, sending home Keystone's Jessica Burt. Katelyn Ciminelli provided the second run as Amy Powell grounded out to the WSU shortstop for the RBI.

Cleveland State took little time regaining the lead as Horizon League Player of the Year Tess Sito, of Elyria, jacked a solo homer to right center, her 18th of season, yielding a 3-2 score.

swalker@MorningJournal.com

Elyria's Tess Sito had an amazing freshman season playing softball at Cleveland State University.

Sito was honored for her outstanding season this week as the Horizon League's Player of the Year. It is the first time a freshman has received the accolade in 13 years.

Sito was also named the league's newcomer of the year, along with a All-Horizon League First Team selection and a member of the league's All-Newcomers team.

Sito finished the season with 18 home runs, a school best, along with other school records. She broke the single-season marks for hits (67) and runs scored (37). She is also second in school history in stolen bases, walks and RBIs.

Sito finished among the Top 20 players nationally in four categories and among the Top 30 in two others.

Keystone's Jessica Burt was named an All-Horizon Second Team selection.

CSU head coach Angie Nicholson also nabbed Horizon League's Coach of the Year award for their record-setting 44-15 overall record.

swalker@MorningJournal.com

Elyria’s Megan Bashak had three hits and drove in a pair of runs to lead Cleveland State over Valparaiso, 5-1, completing a weekend sweep on Sunday afternoon at Viking Field in Cleveland.

The win allowed CSU to end the regular season with a 42-13 record and in first place in the Horizon League with a 22-2 record. It is the most wins ever by the Vikings, also setting a league record for conference victories in a season (old record was 17 by CSU last year).

Cleveland State will host the Horizon League Championship starting Thursday at Viking Field, entering the tourney as the No. 1.

"We came out ready to play all weekend and it showed on the field," Elyria native and CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said on the team’s website. "Today's game didn't mean anything in the conference race but our kids have a lot of pride and they wanted to show that they are the best team in the conference.

"We hit the ball really hard today and found the gaps. I don't like that we left nine runners on base, but that shows how many opportunities we had today."

CSU got its second run in the fourth when Bashak led off with a double, went to third on a fly ball by Keystone’s Jessica Burt and scored on a single by Elyria’s Tess Sito.

The Vikings will now have off until Thursday when they open the defense of their Horizon League Championship title when they play the winner of No. 4 Valparaiso vs. No. 5 Green Bay game beginning at 1:30 p.m. at Viking Field.

For the season, Sito and Burt are 1-2 in hitting. Sito is batting .436 (72-for-165) with nine doubles, a triple, 17 home runs and 44 RBIs. The home runs are most ever by a freshman at CSU. Burt is batting .333 (60-for-180) with 16 doubles, four triples, two home runs and 26 RBIs. Sito and Burt are also 1-2 in steals (Sito-39, Burt-28).

Bashak is batting .244 (29-for-119) with six doubles, a triple, three home runs and 22 RBIs. Elyria's Andrea Nagy is also on the team. She has made nine appearance, including seven starts. She is batting . 211 (4-for-19) with a double, two home runs and four RBIs.

swalker@MorningJournal.com

Cleveland State came back from a 7-3 sixth-inning deficit and swept a doubleheader against Wright State, and have now won 17 of its last 18 games, improving to 26-8 overall and moved into first place in the Horizon League with a 7-1 record. The Vikings moved past Valparaiso (6-1), who was idle from league play.

The Viking scored their only runs in the first when Keystone’s Jessica Burt led off with a single and came around to score when Elyria’s Tess Sito blasted her 13th home run of the season to right centerfield. The homer was Sito’s 13th of the year, tying Lia Gordon’s school record set last year. Sito finished the game 2-for-2 in the game, her 17th multiple hit game of the season.

"Tess is having a remarkable year," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "She just went with the pitch and drove it to right center."

Sito allowed just two hits in three innings of work to get the win and improve to 3-0 on the year while Cox was the loser for Wright State, slipping to 3-2.

swalker@MorningJournal.com

Elyria’s Tess Sito continues to impress in her freshman season at Cleveland State, helping the Vikings to their ninth win in a row, defeating Marist, 4-1 and Columbia, 4-3 in doubleheader action on Friday. With the two wins, CSU improves to 18-7 on the year.

Sito was the hitting standout in the first game, going 1-for-4 with three RBIs. She hit a two-run homerun in the third inning, which was her ninth of the season. Her other RBI came on a RBI groundout, scoring Keystone’s Jessica Burt.

Sito added three hits in game two to move her hitting streak to five straight and 23 of her last 24.

The Vikings return to the Midwest and will be idle until playing a doubleheader in Moon Township, PA against Robert Morris on Thursday.

swalker@MorningJournal.com

PENDLETON, Indiana - Angie Nicholson, an Elyria native who coaches Cleveland State’s softball team, led the Vikings to their first-ever Horizon League Championship, defeating the University of Illinois-Chicago, 4-2 on Sunday.

With the title, CSU earns the Horizon's League automatic bid into the NCAA Championships and will play Notre Dame (41-15) in an opening round game of the Michigan Regional on Friday.
The Vikings have won 22 of their last 26 games and currently hold a 35-16 record.

"One of our team goals this season was to win the Horizon League title and earn an NCAA bid,“ Nicholson said through a press release. “Now that we have achieved that, it is time to raise our sights a lot higher and go to Ann Arbor this week ready to play and advance … From the top of the lineup to the bottom, you can find a difference making effort from everybody. That's what it takes to be a champion."

Elyria’s Andrea Nagy preserved the championship win with a diving catch to end the game.

"That was the play of the game," Nicholson said. "If that ball gets down, it would probably go all the way to the wall and tie the game, but Andrea got a great jump on it and was able to sprawl out and make the catch."

This was the fifth time in the last seven years that the Vikings advanced to the title game, but CSU had failed to win a title. The only tournament title in CSU history came when the Vikings claimed the Midwestern Collegiate Conference title in 1997.

Nicholson (formerly McCall), who graduated from CSU in 2000, took over as head coach in the fall of 2006 and is the first head coach to lead CSU to back-to-back 30-win seasons. She was also named the Horizon League's co-Coach of the Year last season.

Nagy, a sophomore, has played in 44 games and has 19 starts. She is batting .250 with seven doubles, two home runs, 11 RBIs and 19 runs scored.

Elyria’s Megan Bashak, a freshman, has played in 33 games with 31 starts. She’s batting .340 with nine doubles, three home runs, 19 RBIs and 19 runs scored.

Keystone’s Jessica Burt started two games and went 2-for-4 (.500) with an RBI and a run, before a season-ending knee injury. Last year as a sophomore, she started all 49 games and hit .294 with 40 hits, six doubles, four triples, three home runs, 19 RBIs and 13 stolen bases.

Another Elyria native that will be joining the Vikings next season is Tess Sito, who was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Ohio last year. Sito is having another impressive season this year after going 27-2 with a 0.22 ERA last season. She was also a second team Louisville Slugger NFCA All-America choice, a two-time first team All-Ohio selection and a three-time All-Northeast Ohio Conference selection. And don’t forget the three Ohio State Championships she has led the Pioneers to.

"Tess is simply one of the best pitchers in the country," Nicholson said. "She throws hard with good location and will become even better once she learns the college game."

swalker@MorningJournal.com