Thursday, May 31, 2001
Hamilton sets sights on softball championship
Takes 13-game win streak into state semifinals
By Malcolm C. Knox
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Melissa Bond and Jair Short are planning on spending only a few hours at Hamilton's prom Friday night. And they figure to miss graduation rehearsal. The only seniors on the Big Blue's softball team, are expecting a victory in today's Division I state semifinal game against Whitehouse Anthony Wayne at Brookside Park in Ashland.
A victory would have them resting Friday for Saturday's 10 a.m. final.
“I was prepared to not even go (to the prom),” Short said. “State only happens once.”
Hamilton (24-8) is playing for its 13th consecutive victory. The team will be escorted out of town by police today on its way to Ashland and, with the baseball team also playing a state semifinal today, high school students have been given the day off.
“Everybody's pretty much pumped,” said Short, a senior catcher. “That just makes us work harder.”
Hamilton is entering the state tournament on a roll. Coach Steve Heckman believes the Big Blue's victory against Sycamore, the second of its 12-game winning streak, was when his team realized it was pretty good. Hamilton was able to beat Sycamore 2-0 just two days after losing 1-0 to the Aviators.
“We took a lot of positives from that game,” Heckman said. “I think we grew up. It proved we can play ball.”
Hamilton's 1-0, 11-inning victory over Fairfield in the first round of the playoffs also was special. Before that, the Indians had beaten the Big Blue four times in a row, including two shutouts.
“I think we learned a lot from beating Fairfield,” Short said. “It's not just skill. It's heart and desire.”
But the Anthony Wayne Generals (26-4) also know how to win a close game. They beat Elyria, which was favored to make it the final, 1-0 in the regional playoffs.
The Generals have been hitting well and playing solid defense, coach Carolyn Vogtsberger said, averaging 1.2 errors a game.
Anthony Wayne's No.1 pitcher, junior Lindsay Heimrich, also is a force on offense, hitting .347. Other top Generals hitters are sophomore third baseman Jenn Woods (.354) and Tracy Lehman (.349).
Neither Hamilton nor Anthony Wayne has a player who has played in a state final four. And the Generals are the only team in any sport in Anthony Wayne's history to make it so far in the playoffs.
Hamilton will have the advantage in tradition. It won the state tournament in 1985 and lost in the semifinals in 1987.
Short and Bond say they're taking it in stride, “keeping it real,” Short said.
The Big Blue have three freshmen who start regularly.
“They don't know how important it is,” said first baseman Bond. “We tell them how important it is to us.”
The game is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., a time neither coach is happy about. Vogtsberger called it “ridiculous.”
But it could work to her advantage. “It will be too early to be nervous,” she said.
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