The Remsen St. Mary’s softball team survived a scare from Gehlen Catholic and beat the Jays 5-4 in a regional quarterfinal contest in Remsen on Wednesday night.
While the Hawks got the win, the Jays got the scoring started with two unearned runs coming across in the top of the first inning. Gehlen Catholic head coach Tony Kerkvliet says his team was feeling pumped up to play a good game.
Those unearned runs and errors would become a trend for the Hawks as they committed five of them while still winning the game. Remsen St. Mary’s head coach Erika Bates says waiting to play another game for six days hurt the team in some of the little things on the field.
Once the RSM bats picked up steam, it was trouble for Gehlen Catholic. RSM put up three runs in the bottom of the third and added two more in the fifth inning. Of those five runs, three of them came off the bat of Mia Matgen who went 2-3 for the game. Coach Bates says she has been coming up at the right time and taking advantage of opportunities.
Gehlen Catholic pitcher Kennedy Paulson could never really settle in fully after the big innings and after walking eight batters. Coach Kerkvliet says after a high workload Monday night, Paulson did not have much left in the tank to face a tough team.
The Jays never felt down and out even after going down 5-2 after the fifth. Gehlen turned around and scored two runs right away in the sixth inning and put the tying run on third base in the top of the seventh. Coach Kerkvliet was happy to see his team put up a great fight to the end.
The Hawks had to keep their composure during that time to make sure they could stay on top. Coach Bates says a quick conference helped calm the nerves and allow the Hawks to get the final out of the game.
The Gehlen season ends with a final record of 11-16. The Jays graduate four seniors off the team this year, and Coach Kerkvliet says all of them brought great leadership to the team.
Remsen St. Mary’s advances to the regional semifinal where they will take on a familiar postseason foe in No. 10 Akron-Westfield. Coach Bates says the Hawks have been competitive with the Westerners this year, and they will need to shore up the mistakes to get a chance to return to state.
The Hawks and Westerners play Friday night in Akron with first pitch scheduled for 7:00 PM.
