Fully energized: Austintown Fitch's battery of Sydnie Watts and McKenna Hogan show off their pregame ritual
CANFIELD, Ohio - Before stepping onto the field to finish off the regular season against Canfield on Monday, Austintown Fitch sophomore pitcher Sydnie Watts and senior catcher McKenna Hogan had to fuel up.
For this duo, that means shotgunning a Ghost blue raspberry sour patch kids energy drink about an hour before the game. The two went behind the dugout, hit the energy drink can on their cleats, popped the top and started downing the drinks.
Watts and Hogan had been drinking an energy drink before games all season but the new routine came about last week before the Falcons played Madison in the district semifinals at Youngstown State University, a game in which Watts threw a no-hitter with 15 strikeouts as the Falcons won 11-0.
"We both just came with it almost every game at the same time," Hogan said. "I just got bored before the one tournament game and I asked if we could shotgun it and we just started going from there."
The pitcher and catcher have created quite the partnership, even stretching and warming up together before every game.
"It's just with being a pitcher and catcher thing," Watts said. "You have to be close to your catcher."
The game against Canfield was supposed to be for the All-American Conference title, as the two teams had tied 3-3 in nine innings earlier this season and had gone through the rest of conference play undefeated.
But on Monday, it was more of the same as the two teams tied 1-1 through seven the teams and conference agreed to let it end in a tie and name conference co-champions. Watts struck out 14 hitters and had Fitch's only RBI and Hogan walked in all three of her plate appearances.
Fitch face Berea-Midpark on Wednesday in the OHSAA Division I regional semifinals at Youngstown State University at 2pm.
If you get there early enough, you can watch the Fitch battery charge up.
