GREENVILLE – Two Darke County 16U teams, the Ohio Wave and Focus battled it out late Sunday afternoon in the Greenville Girls Softball Association (GGSA) Summer Smackdown USSSA National Qualifier championship game held at Greenville’s Stebbins Field.
“Focus is a good team,” said Ohio Wave 16U coach Justine Shilt. “It is always a nail-biter with them so I love playing them and I know they love playing us. It is a lot of girls from Darke County so it’s great to see two teams with all these Darke County girls going at each other – it is awesome.”
The two local 16U teams played to a 0-0 standoff into the bottom of the sixth inning before Greenville’s Ohio Wave found their bats to put the game away.
The Ohio Wave scored a single run to open play in the bottom of the sixth inning before plating nine runs with two outs to earn a 10-0 run rule win and claim the 16U championship trophy.
“We had to just settle ourselves down,” said Coach Shilt. “We got through an 0-0 ballgame – it was a great game going into that sixth inning. All you need is one great hit, that’s all it takes to get a rally going and as soon as that run it started.”
“They just wanted to pass the bat, pass the bat so when you get something like that, it is effective and it’s contagious,” continued Shilt. “That is the one thing that is great about this team, when one person goes then the rest goes.”
Two Lady Wave varsity pitchers from the 2019 season in their season, Kennedy Fashner and Grace Shaffer pitched five scoreless innings each before the Ohio Wave dented the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth bringing a Focus pitching change.
“We were jumping the gun too quick with Kennedy,” Shilt noted. “Kennedy was throwing great. We were swinging at some pitches and she stuck to it. She knew we were staying off balance and it was killing us.”
The 16U Summer Smackdown tournament teams included: DC Flyers, Firestorm – Davis, Firestorm – Chastain, Springfield Heat 16U, Montgomery County Hammers, Ohio Wave 16U, Ohio Attack – Roop, Cap City Force 16U, Freedom Elite 04, West Liberty Force 16U, Focus Fast Pitch 03 and Valley Storm 16U.
“It is always great to come back home and win something here,” Shilt concluded.