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Gael softball team moves on with win

St. Edmond advances past 15-3 GTRA in regional quarterfinals

St. Edmond's Grace Neuberger

TERRIL — Entering Monday’s Class 1A regional opener, eighth-grader Grace Neuberger had only been in the batter’s box eleven times all season.

With the contest tied in the eighth inning last night, Neuberger found herself in a situation that would be hard to handle for any athlete.

With two outs and a runner on third, the St. Edmond youngster came up with the biggest hit of her young career. Neuberger roped a single up the middle to score pinch-runner Elly Berry for the first RBI of her career.

The run gave the Gaels a 3-2 lead. St. Edmond (5-9 overall) then tacked on an insurance run for the eventual 4-2 victory over Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven Ayrshire (15-4).

“Grace played a lot of JV and had been hitting the ball well recently, so we brought her up,” said SEHS head coach Bill Shirbroun. “We (inserted Neuberger) into the lineup, and she has been putting the ball in play.

“She came up big in a pressure situation.”

The Gaels will now face MMCRU (4-6), who knocked off Remsen St. Mary’s (10-3) by a 9-4 final in their postseason opener on Monday. The contest will be held on Wednesday in Cleghorn.

First pitch in the regional semifinal is slated for 7 p.m.

“Our schedule going into this game helped us tremendously,” Shirbroun said. “We are at the point where we can’t use being young and inexperienced anymore. It was time to step up.

“We had some jitters early on, but we got through that and the girls played a great game.”

The Titans entered the contest on a three-game win streak.

“I knew we could pitch to them if Ella (Vratny) was hitting her spots,” Shirbroun said. “At the plate, we had to be patient. I definitely thought we were.”

Alyson Nieland started the eighth with a single up the middle, and Berry came in to run. Anna Kolacia bunted Berry over to second. Ashlyn Headlee then popped up for the second out.

Kaili Henning advanced Neuberger to third and then stole second. St. Edmond’s lone senior, Jocy Timmerman, then delivered an insurance run with a single.

“Jocy hit the ball hard,” Shirbroun said. “The at-bat before the eighth inning, she hit a line drive that bounced off the pitcher’s glove.

“She was seeing the ball well and hit the ball very hard.”

Nieland, Henning and Neuberger finished the contest with two hits each.

Junior Ella Vratny (5-9) picked up her seventh career postseason victory in firing a three-hitter. Vratny pitched an efficient game for the Gaels, walking zero and striking out nine.

“Ella worked hard in the offseason to get where she’s at,” Shirbroun said. “She is very confident. She was consistent and threw strikes.

“Ella has a lot of postseason experience. When you have that and if you can play defense behind her and put the bat on the ball at the plate…I like our chances.”

Playing in her 10th career postseason game, Vratny also came up big at the plate, recording two hits and driving in a pair.

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