'I know that you can play this way': Garfield softball shows composure in comeback win

GARRETTSVILLE — Thirty-six hours after Taylor Swift's latest album release, Garfield softball summoned a different Swift hit:

"Shake It Off."

The G-Men shook off lopsided defeats Thursday and Friday.

They shook off another brutal start Saturday.

Four times, they trailed by four runs.

The fourth time, Garfield came all the way back for a 10-9 victory over rival Crestwood.

"They did a good job with it," G-Men coach Tina Faulhaber said. "They really did, especially today after those losses. And I got on them a little bit, I did, but also I told them [it's] because I know that you can play this way. You could play this way. You could play better. You can come back."

Garfield shows composure in comeback win

The G-Men's late rally was remarkable.

Garfield's poise through all seven innings was, too.

The Red Devils jumped in front early, taking a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the third, helped by four G-Men errors. Throughout a disastrous start, Garfield never tossed a glove, slammed a bat or said a cross word.

Faulhaber was equally pleased with the poise her team showed throughout multiple pitching changes, as she made all sorts of substitutions in the field.

"I told them, 'It's what's best for the team, right?'" Faulhaber said. "'When I move you, it's not because I'm mad at you. It's not because you suck. It's not because [of] anything else. It's what's best for the team, that's what I do.'"

Faulhaber made plenty of switches.

Junior Kolby Fresch ended up playing first base for the first time since her freshman season. Senior Maddy Wilson manned the hot corner for the first time this year.

There were no complaints.

Instead, the whole team took on the attitude of junior Juliana Genovese, the G-Men's third pitcher of the day, who strolled to the mound, fired three pitches and simply pronounced, "I'm ready."

"Sometimes, we just have to switch it up," Genovese said. "It's not about you did something wrong. It's just kind of we need to switch it up to get in the right mindset to do what we have to do."

The junior reliever proceeded to toss two scoreless innings, stranding the tying run on third in the seventh inning.

"[It's] just kind of knowing I had to do what I had to do for my team," Genovese said. "Just kind of working with what I got. Doing all I can."

Garfield relies on mixture of patience, aggression to erase four-run deficit

Even as the G-Men's bats got going, the Red Devils kept pulling away, pushing their lead to 4-0, 7-3, 8-4 and 9-5.

Garfield's five-run rally in the bottom of the sixth began with an innocent play, a little chopper toward the mound that Gabriel Groves beat out when no one covered first.

"Well, I saw there wasn't a first baseman," Groves said. "I could see the pitcher while I was running there and I just knew I had to beat her. I got to get there."

After sophomore Kaelyn Tasker absorbed a hit-by-pitch, Fresch smoked a liner between third and short to draw within three.

"She had a very good change-up and I was far enough into the count where I knew it was going to be an off-speed," Fresch said. "Then, it was just waiting on it and getting the hips into it, keeping the hands up, just put my hips into it and see where it goes."

The G-Men (5-3) kept going, staying patient at the plate while showing aggression on the basepaths.

Fresch, in particular, blasted off the bag on a pair of wild pitches, to draw Garfield within a run (9-8).

"She's smart," Faulhaber said. "She watches the plays. She watches if someone's not covering. She watches if the catcher bobbles the ball. She knows on the hit and probably a lot of it is from her catcher's eye. She knows on the hit if it's going through, if it's dropping."

Awareness on the basepaths combined with great situational hitting as Wilson tied the game with an RBI groundout and Olivia Zicari followed with another RBI groundout to give the G-Men their first lead of the game.

Then, Genovese held that lead in the seventh, despite hitting the Red Devils' leadoff hitter, standing her on third.

Per Genovese, "Our energy was on top the whole entire game."

And now going forward, the G-Men's belief in themselves should be as high as ever, even if they fall behind.

"[It's] knowing that we can do it," Fresch said. "Just knowing that there's going to be moments where the bats just aren't cracking, the defense isn't [there and we can rebound]."

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Garfield softball shows composure in comeback win over Crestwood