Josie Duncan of North Union, center, stretches out from first base to receive a throw from Avery Clark, far right, during the Lady Cats’ Central District championship win over Bishop Ready.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Sam Dillon)
––––
The Lady Cats of North Union won the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference softball title and were recently crowned the Division III Central District champions.
Now, they move on to the regional tournament with the hopes of adding another title on their way to the state tournament.
But to do so, they must first make it through the Lady Tigers of West Liberty Salem.
The Lady Tigers are also a team that is familiar with winning. They ended their regular season as the Ohio Heritage Conference champions with a 19-1 overall record and made it to the regional stage with a 8-3 win over one-seeded Madison Senior.
The teams will square off today, 5 p.m., at Wright State University in the regional semifinals.
To North Union head coach Dawn Draper, WL-S’s success comes as no surprise.
“WL-S has great coaching as well as great players,” she said. “They are above average in pitching and can hit as well. They have been there before and I am sure they will be ready as well.”
To take on the well-prepared Tigers, Draper said not much has changed at her practices this past week.
“To be honest, nothing has changed,” she said. “We practice hard and fast every day to slow the real game down. We have had great practices and are working hard.”
But there are several keys to success at this level of the game, according to the NU coach.
“We know we are going to have to use both the short and long part of our game,” she said. “We need to start on the mound; Madison (Wedding) is on her game right now and it always starts there.
“Scoring more in the runs column is always a great strategy and that is what we need to do to bring home a win.”
Wedding came back to the team this year after suffering an injury that sidelined her for the entire season in 2017. With her return, she has a league-leading 15 wins inside the circle and an earned run average (ERA) of 0.61.
Her 118 strikeouts were second in the MOAC.
The Lady Cats also have Josie Duncan upon whom they can call to take the circle. Duncan had an eight-win season, while tallying 56 strikeouts and amassing a 2.33 ERA.
Backing up the Lady Cats’ are their explosive bats.
NU has several players who are batting in the .500 range.
Abby Davis led the MOAC with a .600 average and 35 stolen bases on the season.
The ability and talent is there for North Union, now it comes down to the mental game for the Lady Cats. Draper said that is all softball is, once you get past the basics.
“Softball is always mental,” she said. “There is no room for doubt or errors. Walking in with swagger and knowing you belong is half the battle. If you walk in scared, you might as well already consider yourself down in the count and behind by two runs.”
Draper said her girls have this confidence and are ready to play in the regional tournament.
“We are ready, excited to play and we are going into this game like every other game on our schedule this year,” she said. “(It’s) one pitch at a time and if we win every inning, we will win every ball game we play.”