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Joey Arrietta has been a driving force behind amateur, high school, college and professional fastpitch softball remaining prominent in Summit County.
AKRON, Ohio -- Refuse to lose.
It's an inspirational phrase that has been tacked on to many teams' locker room bulletin boards before the big game. And it was definitely the theme as the Walsh Jesuit Warriors and Mentor Lake Catholic Cougars colllided in an Akron Division II Regional semifinal softball game on Wednesday and again on Thursday at Firestone Stadium.
So tenacious were the two teams that it took 14 innings over two days before Walsh survived with a 4-3 victory.
The Warriors (17-11) advance to the regional championship game at noon Saturday at Firestone Stadium against the winner of the other semifinal matching Poland Seminary and Beloit West Branch.
Walsh and Lake Catholic battled their way through 11 innings on Wednesday before lightning, tornado warnings and rain brought a halt to the contest and forced its conclusion on Thursday. Finally, with one out and runners at first and second in the 14th, Warriors third baseman Kaleigh Cupka ended the suspense with a single to center field scoring Lauren Hurley with the winning run.
Hurley had started the rally by beating out an infield hit, and advanced to second when Lauren Cianciolo reached base on an error.
In fact, two of Lake Catholic's three errors led to Walsh runs.
"I was so determined. I was so ready to hit it," Cupka said of her game-winning single. "I was afraid their second baseman would catch it, but when it went over her head, I saw Lauren round third and go home. It was the greatest feeling.
"We're a big family, and we're going to do everything we can to win a championship."
Cupka's big hit ended a game that featured a never-say-die-attitude by both offenses, and great pitching by Walsh's Katarina Davis and Lake Catholic's Bonnie Zappitelli.
The two juniors extricated themselves out of jam after jam and put up zeros on the scoreboard until the bottom of the sixth inning when the Warriors broke through with the game's first run. It came when Courtney Iacobacci's sacrifice fly plated Cupka.
Lake Catholic came right back to tie it at 1-1 with a run in the top of the seventh inning on a hit that bounced off Davis' leg.
When the game went into extra innings, the Cougars' Zappitelli gave her team a 2-1 lead with an RBI single in the eighth, but allowed Walsh to tie the score 2-2 on a single by shortstop Jackie Ammar in the bottom of the inning.
On to the top of the 11th as Lake Catholic moved out in front 3-2 on an RBI single by Nikki Higey, only to see Walsh bounce back to score in the bottom of the inning on a two-out infield hit by Lexi Noonan.
That's when the weather turned ugly and gave the two pitchers a break, and a chance to recharge for Thursday's conclusion.
It was also a bargain for those buying tickets, expecting to see one game and being treated to one memorable marathon.
Walsh Jesuit coach Bill Davis says his team has had one mindset all season.
"Our whole concept the whole year was to get ready for the tournament, so that worked out very well," he said. "The girls are really strong-minded, and just real tough kids. They buy into everything we do here."
"We also made some adjustments in our hitting today, and it paid off for us."
He added that having the game extend into a second day also helped both teams make adjustments.
"We both had it in our hearts -- both teams," said wnning pitcher Kararina Davis, the coach's daughter. "I had a great team behind me, helping me out every inning. We all had confidence in each other, picking each other back up every inning. We all had faith."
Davis said she and her teammates are well aware of what happened the last time the Warriors got this far in the post-season. They went on to win a state championship in 2004.
"It feels so great that our whole team came together and we made it this far, and we're going to keep going," Davis said. "I feel really blessed."