MOUNT VERNON – The Mount Vernon softball team took a 4-3 walk-off victory in eight innings over Gahanna in a Division I district semifinal game on Monday, May 17.
Mollie Pentz led off the eighth inning with a double; and after back-to-back walks, Layne Cook lined a single to right to give the host Jackets the win.
Pentz had three hits and scored three runs to lead the third-seeded Yellow Jackets (23-3), who will host sixth-seeded Delaware in a district final on Wednesday.
Pentz was almost airborne when she reached for a pitch on the outside. But she still managed to barrel it up enough to make solid contact.
“I got my hands up there,” she said. “I just knew with two strikes that I had to protect anything (close). I had to find a way. I just got my hands up there and got them through enough to where I could get my hips going, and that’s where I could get it out of the infield. I just knew I had to find a way.”
Yellow Jacket coach Ryan Pentz thought the ball was out and the game was over.
Instead, it hit the left field wall flush and Mollie Pentz strolled to second for a double.
Makaylia Schlosser worked a 3-1 count before Gahanna decided to intentionally walk her, and Brooke Radermacher worked a five-pitch walk to load the bases.
In stepped Cook, who was 0-for-2 with a walk before the at-bat. She fouled off two pitches before connecting on the third for a soft liner over the drawn-in infield that had no trouble finding green.
“As I was getting the pitch, I knew it was outside,” Cook said. “I knew I had to wait back on it even more than any other pitch. I already had two strikes on me, so I was scared. I knew it was, so I pulled it.”
“At the end of the day, roping that double was huge,” Coach Pentz said. “It’s what got us going. Then the walks that led right up to Layne Cook. I knew those girls were built for this.”
This was the third consecutive time Mount Vernon and Gahanna have played in the tournament, with the Jackets winning in the 2019 regional semifinal round and the Lions winning in the 2018 district final round.
“Gahanna — every year — is a force to be reckoned with in the tournament,” Ryan Pentz said. “We had to battle it out with them the last three years. So I knew tonight was going to be an extremely tough game.”
Emma Jones is no stranger to carrying the load in extra innings. The Mount Vernon ace struck out 19 batters in a six-hit, 10-inning shutout at Ashland earlier this season.
She retired the first nine batters she faced — six on strikeouts.
Kirnan Bailey led off the fourth inning with a soft pop to no-man’s land in short left. The ball ticked off shortstop Maddy Burdette’s glove and fell in for a double. Kelsey Cripe followed with the first solid contact of the afternoon for the 18th-seeded Lions: a hard liner to center.
After Cripe nabbed second, Jones settled in and retired the next two batters. But Nicole Waters sent a sharp grounder back up the middle, ticking off Jones’ glove along the way to drive in both runs, giving Gahanna a 2-1 lead.
Ella Esterby extended the lead to 3-1 with a solo home run to lead off the fifth.
After that, Jones didn’t allow a hit. She walked one batter and two others reached on errors. She finished with 14 strikeouts in the win.
Mollie Pentz jump-started Mount Vernon in the fifth inning. She hit a sun-aided double to drive in Rae Straight. Then she moved to third on a throwing error and scored on a pick-off error at third, tying the game.
“I just did not want to lose,” she said. “You just have that fight in you. You have this mentality — you gotta know you can do it to do it. And I just went up there knowing I could do it.”
Esterby struck out six and allowed two earned runs to lead the Lions (13-11) in the circle.
