MOUNT VERNON — Perfection is a rare commodity, but the Mount Vernon girls’ softball team achieved just that as they christened their newly renovated softball complex with a 13-0 thrashing of the Northridge Vikings on Wednesday night.
Senior Miranda Oswalt toed the rubber for the Jackets and yielded to closer sophomore Emerson Creech, combining for a no-run, no-hit, no-walk, no-error performance, which is the very definition of perfection.
The game, which ended after four-and-a-half innings in compliance with the OHSAA mercy rule, was dominated by the home team from the first pitch. The Jackets plated four runs in the first inning and never looked back.
“Northridge didn’t have a single baserunner, so you know it’s a good day any time you can get a perfect game,” beamed head coach Ryan Pentz. “Those do not come around very often, and you don’t get to celebrate games like this too often.”
Pwentz was pleased to be able to play some team members who typically do not see as much action as the starters.
“That’s the great thing about this gameI was able to get a lot of our less-experienced players that normally do not get a lot of playing time into the game, and I hope that this will pay dividends down the road,” the MV coach said.
The Lady Jackets picked up where they left off last season, finishing second in the state in Division I.
“We did what we had to do to win tonight,” Pentz continued.
The coach said that the celebration will be short-lived.
“Now we have to change our focus to this Friday night, we play Watkins Memorial, and this has become sort of a rivalry.”
Watkins is 5-1 overall and 2-0 in conference play in addition to being state-ranked.
Looking back to their recently completed trip to Florida, Pentz addressed the two losses the Jackets suffered.
“They were both dogfights,” the coach said, noting he learned more about his team. “This team has a lot of fight in them. Those two games we lost, we had really good competition. And the team never gave up.”
The first pitch against Watkins Memorial is set for 5 p.m. on Friday, the first conference clash for the Jackets.
