PICKERINGTON — Mount Vernon managed to keep Ashley Chevalier at-bay for six innings Tuesday night.
The Yellow Jackets had held the Olentangy Liberty senior hitless through her first three at-bats. She had struck out twice and lined out to center field – far from a normal night for the Bowling Green State University commit, whose power at the plate helped lead Liberty to its second straight Ohio Capital Conference title this spring.
But in the bottom of the seventh – with the game tied at 2, runners on first and second, and a trip to the district championship on the line – Chevalier would step to the plate once more.
She’d get one final crack at the Yellow Jackets, who needed two more outs to get out of the jam and force extra innings.
And this time, Chevalier would not miss.
The senior went yard, hammering a 2-2 outside changeup past the right field fence, and ending an instant classic at Pickerington North High School.
Liberty 5, Mount Vernon 2. Final. After two hours of airtight defense, the Yellow Jackets’ magic had run out.
“She’s a great hitter. She’s committed to Bowling Green,” Mount Vernon head coach Ryan Pentz said of Chevalier. “And I went with a scouting report of, ‘Throw her lots of changeups and keep it off the plate on her.’
“(It worked) for the most part. She hadn’t hurt us all night, until that pitch.”
Chevalier’s shot propelled Liberty to its first district final since 2015. The Patriots, seeded sixth in the Division I Central District, will face fourth-seeded Gahanna-Lincoln in the championship on Saturday.
“We’ve done a great job – and Ashley and her other four seniors have done a great job – of turning the program around,” Liberty head coach Ty Kashmiry said. “We’ve won the league the last two years, and this is our first time in a district final since 2015. So things are on the right track, for sure.”
Ninth-seeded Mount Vernon, meanwhile, will head home following the district semifinal loss.
The Yellow Jackets finished the season 18-9, placing second to Ashland in the Ohio Cardinal Conference with a record of 9-3. They defeated Hilliard Darby in a sectional title game last week to advance to the district tournament.
Pentz said he was proud of the way his team competed, and that he would miss his nine seniors – Olivia Adams, Emilee Burke, Emma Calkins, Addison Christopher, Lilly Erb, Emily Myers, Rhyli Pope, Makaylia Schlosser and Kelly Sullins – who had dedicated countless hours to the program and the sport.
The class contributed to two conference championships and two district championships over the last four years, and five of the nine aren’t done yet, having signed to play college ball next spring.
“First, you turn around and you thank your seniors,” Pentz said. “I mean, (the season) didn’t end the way we wanted it to. But at the end of the day, those girls fought hard, they’ve worked hard. They were truly a great group of kids and ball players.
“I’ll miss ’em. I told them I was proud of ’em. They’re gonna do great things in this world. And I told my underclassmen, 2023 starts today.”
DEFENSE FIRST: Tuesday’s matchup began as a pitcher’s duel.
Pope started on the circle for the Jackets, and she surrendered just one hit through the first three innings. The senior used an array of pitches to keep Liberty’s batters guessing their first time through the order.
But the Patriots would gain traction in the bottom of the fourth.
After back-to-back walks put runners on-base, sophomore Allie Jenkins rocketed a pitch to center field, scoring a teammate from second and giving Liberty a 1-0 advantage.
The Patriots would score again two batters later, with the bases loaded and one out. Pope was able to strike out senior Tyler Krohn, but the throw back to third afterwards went wide, allowing senior Lacy Thompson to scamper home from third and increase the lead to 2-0.
The Jackets struggled early and often Tuesday to score on Liberty ace Lindsey Leeds.
The senior was able to work out of a jam in the top of the second, with runners on second and third and one out. She collected a bunt from Christopher and fired quickly to Chevalier, her catcher, who tagged Mount Vernon sophomore Kenzi Krownapple out at home plate.
Leeds then forced junior Sydney Silvery into an inning-ending groundout with runners on the corners, keeping Mount Vernon off the scoreboard.
The Yellow Jackets would break through in the top of the fifth. Erb hammered a two-run homer past the left field fence, clearing the bases and tying the game.
A single from junior Kennedi Endsley and a double from Schlosser put runners on second and third with two outs. But Leeds kept battling, eventually striking out Krownapple to end the inning and stop the bleeding.
The senior pitcher cruised from there. Leeds retired the final six batters she faced, going three-up, three-down in the sixth and seventh innings. She pitched a complete game – allowing six hits, while striking out four batters and walking none.
“She lived right at the top of the zone,” Pentz said. “I think they questioned it, whether it was a strike or not, and fouled a lot of balls straight back because it was truly at the top of the zone.
“If it was in the eyes, for the most part, most of the girls left it alone. But as soon as she brought it down between the chin and the armpit, that top part of the strike zone, they were questioning it, and we fouled a lot of them straight back.
“I don’t think the speed was overpowering to them, I just think that she located her ball very well up in the zone, and for that, we kept biting on it and fouling it straight back.”
WILD FINISH: Mount Vernon was able to keep pace defensively in the fifth and sixth.
Burke came in to pitch for Pope in the bottom of the fifth, with runners on first and second and no outs. She proceeded to sit down the next three batters – two on fly-outs to center field, and the last on a groundout to Endsley at second base – to end the inning.
Mount Vernon went three-up, three-down in the top of the sixth, keeping Liberty off the base paths. But in the bottom of the seventh, with the top of the order due up, the Patriots would not be denied.
Freshman Izzy Matteo reached base on a called third strike that got away from the catcher. Then, sophomore Brooke Aberle sent a hard-hit grounder to third, which was bobbled, allowing runners to advance to first and second with no outs.
Junior Luci Matteo popped out to the pitcher for the first out of the inning. But the next batter up was Chevalier – and Kashmiry said that as soon as she stepped to the plate, he knew what was going to happen.
“I mean, we have real confidence in Ashley. She’s one of our better players, and she does a great job of putting the ball in-play. And I just knew,” he said with a grin.
“She had a great week of practice; yesterday, she hit really well. I just knew she was gonna come out here today and respond. So I’m super happy for her.”
The rest, as they say, was history. Chevalier homered to right, and the celebration was on. Her teammates swarmed her at home plate, jumping and hugging and high-fiving as the result became final.
The Patriots were headed to the district final for the first time in seven years.
Kashmiry said there was never a doubt.
“The last two years, we’ve had battles like that,” he said. “I knew, once we got to the bottom of the seventh, that we were gonna win the game because we’ve been in so many of these games and we win them all the time. The girls’ confidence is always really high.
“They know how to finish. We go one inning at a time, one at-bat at a time. So I could tell in their eyes, it was gonna be fine.”
