1A softball: St. Bede uses team ‘Meraki’ to escape with 9th-inning victory

WILLIAMSFIELD – Coach Shawn Sons just had one word to describe his St. Bede Bruins’ walk-off, ninth-inning 4-3 win over AlWood in a Class 1A Williamsfield Sectional semifinal Tuesday night.

Lifting up his sweatshirt to reveal their team slogan on his T-shirt, he said, “Meraki,” which means “doing something with so much soul, creativity or love, you leave a piece of you with it.”

The Bruins certainly used a lot of “Meraki,” and then some, escaping with the extra-innings victory in the 9 o’clock hour to advance to Friday night’s final.

Sophomore Reagan Stoudt sent everybody in St. Bede green home happy with a bloop that fell in front of the shortstop, who couldn’t find the handle, to bring in classmate Ella Hermes with the winning run.

Stoudt said it was all about “Meraki.”

“We just go out there and support each other so much,” Stoudt said. “We always have each other’s backs, and I knew when I was out there [pitching] that my team would have mine.”

And she had their backs, putting the ball in play and doing whatever was necessary to win.

Hermes coaxed a one-out walk and took second on an AlWood error. Bella Pinter forced Ryann Stoudt at second, bringing the sophomore Stoudt to the plate to end it.

“I just wanted to do my job. Anything would work,” Reagan Stoudt said. “I had runners on first and third, and I knew Ella’s a great base runner on third. Just had to do my job.

“The crowd was so crazy, and there was a lot going through my head. Just had to breathe.”

Stoudt also did the job in the circle for the Bruins, pitching five scoreless innings in relief of starter Payge Pyszka for the win.

“I feel great, honestly,” Stoudt said. “I wanted to help my seniors. I didn’t want this to be the end of the road for them. It just feels awesome.”

The Bruins (20-3) will meet West Central in Friday’s championship game at 7 p.m. The Heat had their own 1-0 walk-off win over Newman in Tuesday’s semifinal opener.

The Bruins scored first with a run in the bottom of the third. Grace Maschmann led off with a single, stole second and scored on an RBI hit by Hermes.

The Spartans answered with three runs in the top of the fourth to go up 3-1, all started when Becca Lindsey got in a pickle between third and home and sneaked in safely for the first run.

Maschmann was in the middle of St. Bede’s next scoring when she was hit by pitch to lead off the fifth and stole second. Hermes hit a deep drive down the left field line, which blew foul in the strong winds, before settling for a RBI groundout to second to plate Maschmann to make it 3-2.

The Spartans’ outfielders played incredibly shallow all night long, daring St. Bede batters to hit it over their heads into the strong wind.

Pinter finally burned them with a leadoff double over the center fielder’s head in the sixth inning. Kaitlyn Kobilsek bunted her to third, and she scored on a wild pitch to tie it at 3-all.