Stars shine in OGFA 11U championship game to complete perfect season

OTTAWA — The girls on the Morris Hospital Stars softball team had a few important things to celebrate this weekend.

From the golden birthday of teammate Emery Ganiere to winning the championship game of the Ottawa Girls Fastpitch Association 11U Division to finishing the season undefeated, it proved to be a pretty momentous day for the Stars after a competitive 13-12, walk-off victory over the Bill Walsh Auto Warriors Saturday afternoon at Peck Park.

The Stars (18-0) — who’d defeated the Warriors twice earlier in the season — fell behind early but tallied the league maximum of five runs each in the second and third innings along with the game winner in the bottom of the fourth frame.

Emily Drake’s run-scoring single to left with one out plated Brynlee Winter, as the Stars walked-off the title tilt after the contest reached its 90-minute time limit.

“It was an amazing day for all of our girls celebrating a championship, an undefeated season and a very special birthday for Emery,” Stars coach and former Seneca High School star athlete Bryanne Callahan said of her team and of her daughter. “It was one heck of a contest considering we had beaten them a couple of times earlier in the season. But they hit the ball so well today and really made us earn the championship.

“I’m so glad it was such a close game worthy of a title matchup, and we all give a lot of credit to the Warrior girls who were so tough today.”

The Warriors were tough from the start, bolting out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Harper Carlson and Brooklyn Cheatham both drew walks to lead off the contest. Kallyn Jobst then laced a two-run triple to right-center that scored Carlson and Cheatham to give the Warriors a 2-0 advantage. Jobst would tally on a Jillian Thrush run-scoring single to right before Ainsley Hilton added an RBI liner to left later that gave the Warriors a four-run advantage.

“I was super proud of the girls and the way we started today against a great team that beat us twice earlier in the season,” Warriors coach Zach Duke said. “We hit the ball well, and we made it close, but they got to us after we scored those first four runs and in the end couldn’t hold them off.”

That’s because the Stars countered with two runs in the bottom of the first to close the gap to 4-2 after RBI at-bats from Piper Coglianese and Addie Blacklaw.

After the Warriors increased their lead to 5-2 in the top of the second via an RBI infield single from Thrush, the Stars plated five in the bottom of the frame to go up 7-5. The big hit of the stanza came off the bat of Lily Hall, who stroked a bases-loaded, three-run double to left-center.

The Warriors tied things up in the top of the third at 7-7, as Carlson and Cheatham both drew bases-loaded walks. The Stars then plated five unearned runs in the last half of the third after a trio of Warriors errors that pushed the Stars ahead 12-7.

But the Warriors were undaunted, rallying for five runs in the top of the fourth to even things up at 12-apiece. Daniela Melendez, Hilton, Carly Stoudt, Adelynn Duke and Carlson all registered run-scoring plate appearances during the uprising.

Unfortunately for the Warriors, the league time limit had been reached for the contest. So all that was left was for the Stars to plate the game-winner in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Winter reached on an infield single, stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. Drake then completed the Stars’ remarkable day with an RBI single to left that scored Winter with the championship-clinching tally.