Edison rallies for walk-off win against Margaretta

MILAN TWP. — There was no beating around the bush. If Edison wanted to have even a shot at the Sandusky Bay Conference Bay Division championship, it almost certainly had to beat Margaretta on Thursday. When the Chargers fell behind after a big sixth inning for the Polar Bears, things looked bleak. But the feeling it was going to win never left Edison. Stella Brown roped a game-tying two-run double in the bottom of the seventh and later scored the game-winning run as the Chargers stunned Margaretta 5-4. "We didn't feel too much pressure coming into this game because we knew the pressure was on them," Brown said. "If they wanted it outright, they would have had to beat us. We were playing loose. We wanted to have fun and have energy." Edison improved to 10-3 overall while the Polar Bears fell to 11-3. Each team sits at 5-1 in league play with four games to go. Brown acknowledged her team was none too pleased with how it played in an 11-1 five-inning loss to Margaretta on April 6 in Castalia. "I think I really wanted it. I wanted it for the team," the senior said. "We all wanted to beat Margaretta. We knew the first time we played, we didn't play the way we wanted to. I knew I had a job that had to be done." Brown was hitless in three at-bats — all infield groundouts — before coming up with the biggest hit of Edison's season to this point. "Here's the deal with Stella. When she gets on base, she scores 85 percent of the time," Edison coach Jason Caponi said. "I've done the math. When she gets on, she has a nose to score. I was feeling really good. "It was 4-4. If I screwed up and she got thrown out, it's on me, but we'll play on. It worked, so we're happy with that." Cassidy Lane tallied her 12th strikeout of the game for the first out of the seventh. Delaney Fields then drew a walk before stealing second. Macari Harris followed with a grounder and reached on a bad throw to first. Fields hustled home and Harris reached second on the play. Leadoff hitter Natalie Desautels followed with a single to left before stealing second. Brown followed with her poke to left field to score two and tie the game at 4. Brown then used her speed to swipe third base. That brought No. 3 hitter Peyton Taylor to the plate. She was jammed on a pitch inside, but got enough of it. The ball only went about 25 feet in the air, but it fell on the left side of the Margaretta infield and began spinning. Brown made a break for it, sliding in safely to secure the wild win. "We made a couple mistakes there," Margaretta coach Mike Williamson said. "We didn't finish the game like we wanted to. We were in a good spot. That's a good team. You can't give them any extra outs." It is the second walk-off win for the Chargers in four days and third in less than two weeks. Peyton Bissell singled with the bases loaded Monday to defeat Port Clinton. That came after Bissell's hit to beat Perkins on April 11. "I had been getting one girl on at the bottom of my order almost every inning," Caponi said. "My thought process was if I got one of them on, we could get back to the top. We had been fouling (Lane) off all day and having good at-bats against a great pitcher." Lane and Abby Cloud were tremendous all day. Margaretta got to Cloud in the third inning. Ellaynah Schaefer reached on an error, getting to second on the same play on another error. She advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Ellianna Young before scoring on Lucy Edwards' sacrifice fly. The Chargers evened the game in the bottom half of the frame. Harris singled, stole second, went to third on Desautels' infield single and scored on Brown's groundout. Both pitchers bore down and put up zeroes until Margaretta struck in the sixth inning, exploding for six hits. Edwards and Lane each singled. After a strikeout, Kenadee Lesch singled up the middle to score two runs. Lesch took second on the throw home and scored on Elie Grime's single into left. Tessa Lane and Schaefer added singles, but Cloud limited the damage with a groundout. "We had been working on making adjustments throughout the game," said Williamson of the big sixth inning. "We did a great job of that." It was the final game of the season for Lesch. The sophomore transferred from Norwalk and must sit out the second half of the season due to OHSAA rules. She was able to be a solid bat and be a formidable starter in the circle on days where Lane didn't pitch. "She's taken a lot of pressure off of Cassidy," Williamson said. "We have a couple other girls that are going to step in and take her spot in the pitching lineup. She's a great role model and team player." Margaretta is back in action Friday when it travels to Lakota. The Polar Bears hit the road to face Ottawa Hills in a doubleheader Saturday before returning to league play Monday at home against Port Clinton. "We still have an opportunity to achieve our goals," Williamson said. "We can't let this one loss hurt us. We have to keep playing hard and have short memories." The Chargers struck out nine times in the first four innings and struggled a little bit defensively. But Edison shook off those tough moments. "Before the game, we talked and I told them we had a 10-second rule," Caponi said. "You strike out and you're mad? Go ahead, go in the corner, say whatever you have to say and you have 10 seconds to get rid of it. You make a mistake in the field? You have 10 seconds to get rid of it. They bought into it tonight. We didn't hold our heads for nothing." Cloud was sick and didn't pitch when the two teams faced 17 days ago. This time, she struck out six in a complete-game effort, but something bigger stood out to Caponi. "Abby was huge. She had zero walks today. No freebies," Caponi said. "That's the first time this year she's had zero. She's bounced around with one or two, but never had zero. We were throwing some different pitches we hadn't thrown all year." The Chargers are off until Monday when they host Vermilion. Edison travels to Huron on Wednesday. "This game helped us in more ways than one," Caponi said. "We're getting ready for the tournament coming up. We're not going to see anybody better than (Lane). That was great for us." Margaretta 003 003 0 — 4 8 3 Edison 001 000 4 — 5 7 3 WP: Cloud. LP: Lane. 2B: (E) Cloud, Brown