"Blessed" Anthony Wayne advances to Division I state championship with 2-1 win over Watkins Memorial

AKRON, Ohio – Anthony Wayne catcher Trinity Nowicki knew as soon as the ball hit her bat in the third inning of the OHSAA Division I state semifinals on Thursday morning that Firestone Stadium wasn’t holding it.

When the ball landed behind the left field fence for a solo homer, the Generals had a 2-1 lead over Watkins Memorial, a score that ended up being the final.

“What I always tell people is hitting a home run kind of feels like slicing paper.,” Nowicki said. “It just feels like you're swinging at nothing. You see the ball, you make contact and then you just continue to swing and it's just so free.”

Pitcher Brooklyn Patchen took the circle with the Generals trailing 1-0 in the first inning and kept the Warriors off the board the rest of the game. She worked her way out of jams all day long, as Watkins had runners on in each inning and had multiple runners on base in four different innings, some because of four errors committed by the Generals.

“I just told my defense to flush those errors,” Patchen said. “I told them it's fine and we're gonna get out of it and I just take deep breaths before each pitch.”

She finished the game throwing 6.1 innings and allowing three hits and three walks with six strikeouts.

She took over after Watkins jumped out early on Molly Conner, who got the start in the circle.

Jordyn Wycuff led off with a double and was followed by Taylor Gerhardt, who laid down a bunt that led to an error and Wycuff scoring to take a 1-0 lead. After inducing a popup that turned into a double play, Conner walked the next hitter and Anthony Wayne head coach Ronald Myers made the switch.

“We're playing for two days, we're playing for today and tomorrow,” said Myers of the decision to start Conner over Patchen. “We have four college quality pitchers on our staff and we're going to use them on any moment.”

Anthony Wayne got the run back in the bottom of the third on an RBI single by Abby Kennelly that scored Teya Marshall.

Watkins had a chance to take the lead again in the fourth, but aggressive baserunning took the Warriors out of the inning. With a runner on first, Christina Kilkenny hit a ball that was fielded and thrown away on the play attempt at first base. The ball bounced towards the first base dugout and was grabbed by Nowicki, who saw the runner trying to score. She sprinted to the plate and beat the runner by 25 feet.

“When I knew that ball was overthrown and she was coming to third, I knew she was going to come home because obviously there was nobody covering home,” Nowicki said. “And then I got the ball and I saw she was like halfway and I'm like, ‘Oh, I can get her out.’ So I just like ran up there and I talked her out.”

After not being here last season, the Generals are not taking this opportunity for granted as they will play either Austintown Fitch or Lebanon in the Division I state championship game on Saturday at 3 pm.

“Anthony Wayne is blessed to be here in the state championship tomorrow,” Myers said. “There are 180 some schools that would like to be here. We feel we're very blessed we are here.”