Austintown Fitch, Canfield, South Range playing Saturday for state softball titles
.jpg "The Austintown Fitch softball team")
Want to know how good of a year it’s been for softball in the Mahoning Valley?
Here’s your answer. Three of the top four teams in the final Mahoning Matters softball poll will be playing for state championships Saturday after easily advancing through state semifinal games played at Firestone Stadium in Akron.
Those teams include South Range in Division III, Canfield in Division II and Austintown Fitch in Division I.
Austintown Fitch
Austintown Fitch, which is the defending Division I state champion, rolled to a 10-0 win over Fairfield in five innings in its Division I semifinal on Friday.
The Falcons blew the game wide open in the fourth, scoring nine runs.
Standout Sydnie Watts was the winning pitcher, pitching a perfect game while striking out nine and walking none. A total of 46 of her 61 pitches in the game were strikes.
Kylie Folkwein, Morgan Roby, and Lily Stevens, who all had two hits each, led the offense for the Falcons, who finished with 10 hits. Watts had a three-run home run and three RBI.
The Falcons (22-1) will play Watkins Memorial (31-1) for the state title Saturday at 6:15 p.m. in Akron.
Canfield
Canfield (26-3) posted a 3-0 win over Springfield Kenton Ridge in Friday’s D2 semifinal.
The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead in the second inning and added two more insurance runs in the sixth frame.
Leading Canfield’s eight-hit attack were Jen Triveri, Marina Koenig and Caylee Ortiz with two hits each.
Malena Toth was the winning pitcher and struck out 13 Kenton Ridge batters. She tossed a one-hitter.
The Falcons will play Bryan in the state title game Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Akron’s Firestone Stadium. Bryan advanced Friday with a 2-1 win over Logan Elm in its semifinal game.
South Range
South Range (29-3), which advanced in the semifinals Thursday (as detailed in Thursday’s mahoningmatters.com story), will play Baltimore Liberty Union (24-6) in the D3 state championship game Saturday at 12:45 p.m. at Firestone Stadium.