'We felt very prepared': Canton Central Catholic softball gets revenge in Mogadore rematch

BEREA — Presley Trbovich was still in middle school when Canton Central Catholic lost a run-rule game to Mogadore in last year's softball district semifinals.

Trbovich, one of three freshmen in the Crusaders' starting lineup, helped set a different tone Wednesday with a diving catch in the left-field gap in the top of the first and a slap single to spark a four-run rally in the bottom of the inning.

Trbovich also provided the game-winning single in the fourth, after the Wildcats had rallied to tie the score, lifting CCC to a 6-4 win over Mogadore in a Division IV regional semifinal.

Brigid Burke, a senior who added a sixth-inning homer for an insurance run, had a feeling the Crusaders were capable of far more in their 2024 rematch with the Wildcats.

"We felt very prepared compared to last year," Burke said. "We'd seen the pitcher once before, and we really spent the time this week putting the work in the batting cage to get ready for that, so we felt prepared as far as batting [that] we should come up and play our best."

Burke (2-for-3, double, homer, two RBIs) and Trbovich (3-for-3) helped permanently shift the momentum toward the Crusaders (11-6), after it seemed to have drifted toward the Wildcats (19-7) midway through the game.

After all, Mogadore had rallied from a 4-1 deficit, capped by two-time all-state catcher Olivia Kidd drilling a two-run single to left field to knot the score 4-4.

"These girls don't quit," Wildcats coach Jeff Fankhauser said. "It's not their nature."

Not only had Mogadore's bats woken up, but ace Katie Gardner had hit a groove after CCC got to her early, having retired six straight with two outs in the fourth.

Mae Axline, another of the three freshmen in the Crusaders' starting lineup, snapped that streak by drawing a walk and senior Violet Ellerbrock lashed a double to right.

Trbovich capped the two-out rally with a comebacker that just eluded Gardner's glove.

The game of inches played in the Crusaders' favor in the sixth as well, albeit on a drastically different type of hit. That's when Burke, a self-described pull hitter, sent an opposite-field shot off the right-field foul pole for a critical insurance run.

"I was watching," Burke said. "I was like, 'Oh, no, it's going foul, it's going foul,' and then to see it hit the foul pole was the best feeling I've had. I don't usually hit [it to] right field, so it was very exciting and different."

Canton Central Catholic's Violet Ellerbrock stymies Mogadore

Both teams made solid contact in the first, with the Wildcats recording three straight hits to score a run and Crusaders seniors Alicia Varacky and Burke rapping back-to-back RBI doubles in response to build a 4-1 lead.

Then, Violet Ellerbrock started stymieing Mogadore.

Ellerbrock wasn't the fastest pitcher the Wildcats have faced. Not in a Portage Trail Conference that featured Miami (Ohio) commit Shelbie Krieger.

But Ellerbrock proved a puzzling pitcher, brilliant at coercing pops and harmless flies. She also proved a highly resilient pitcher.

After Mogadore's three straight hits, Ellerbrock got out of the first inning with just one run surrendered, stranding two runners as she went on to retire eight of the next 11 batters.

After four straight Wildcats batters reached to tie the score in the fourth, starting with Gracie Funk's second hit and capped by Kidd's two-run single, Ellerbrock finished the afternoon with three scoreless innings, retiring the last seven batters.

Five of Ellerbrock's last six outs came on flies or pops.

"It's not overwhelming speed," Fankhauser said. "It's more the spin or the cut that she puts on the ball that makes it move away from the girls or toward the girls, so I think that was the big difference. And then, of course, as it's moving away, we're opening up our front shoulders and popping it up."

The Crusaders' chase for their first state berth continues Friday against Mathews, last year's Region 13 runner-up.

The Wildcats' future is bright as well coming off two straight district championships and four league titles in their last five seasons.

While Mogadore will graduate four seniors — its longtime battery of Gardner and Kidd, along with Bri McQuain and Savannah Thomas — it returns seven of 10 starters.

"Our future is bright," Fankhauser said. "The future is there. It's not going to tail down, and I think the best part was when the girls were in the dugout, the younger girls all the way to the seniors, they're upset, so you know there's that desire. If they were all just happy-go-lucky and it didn't hurt, I'd be worried."

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Central Catholic softball avenges loss to Mogadore, wins regional semi