SPRINGFIELD ATHLETICS / THE SUBURBANITE
The Springfield Spartan softball team won the Portage Trail Metro Division last month after sweeping Norton to end the season. Springfield returns eight starters in 2012.
SPRINGFIELD TWP., Ohio – Summit County has not had a state semifinal softball team the last two years -- the county's longest dry spell in the 34-year history of the OHSAA tournament.
It might take the most successful program in Ohio high school in history to end the drought.
The Springfield Spartans -- winners of nine OHSAA titles with the last coming in 2005 -- are one of the early favorites to make it to Firestone Stadium in 2012.
This year, Springfield (18-7, 12-2) ended Field’s (17-7, 11-3) four-year lock on the Portage Trail Conference Metro Division, and did so with a largely underclass lineup.
The Spartans had eight players earn All-Metro accolades and seven of the eight return next spring.
“(Winning the league) was our goal this year, and we caught Field right at the beginning of the season,” Springfield coach Roger Errington said. “Next year we have everyone back except one senior and a girl that is transferring to Lake Center Christian, but she was a freshman that didn’t play much this season.”
Those seven returning starters include two pitchers and the entire infield. Pitcher Quartni Whited, catcher Kassy Flores and first baseman Sarah Stubbs earned first-team All-Metro. Flores will be a sophomore, while Whited and Stubbs will be juniors.
Both pitcher Gabby Lessak, a two-time first-team selection, and shortstop Lydia Sanner both earned second team in the recently completed season. Lessak will be a senior and Sanner a junior.
“We had three first teamers and honestly I felt like we could have had five,” Errington said. “(Whited) really developed in the off-season and gave us more of a rotation this year. She also hit six home runs and had a great year hitting.
“(Sarah) Stubbs is just a great ballplayer that hit .476 for us this season, and people will be learning about our catcher (Kassy Flores) real quick. She’s one of the top players in the area, batting .450 and having two home runs as a freshman.”
Hitting home runs was something of a team specialty for Springfield this season, as the Spartans slugged 19 dingers this year – 17 of which will be coming back.
Rounding out the Springfield honorees were second baseman Marisa Lucco and third baseman Paige Kitchen, who will be a junior and senior next year, respectively.
“Our cleanup hitter, Lydia Sanner had five home runs and batted over .400, Lucco had a great year defensively and I don’t want to short-change Gabby, who would have probably been first team, but Quartni had such a great year offensively,” Errington said.
While the Spartans won another league championship, they fell short of their ultimate goal of adding one more state crown for an even 10. However, with the returning talent Springfield anticipates having for 2012, the odds of getting another shot – a really good shot – at making it through the district still is on the horizon.
“We were the #1 seed at the tournament and felt we should have won the district,” Errington said. “Two years from now we should be in real good shape (for a tournament run), we had two years of pay to play that hurt our district with transfers, but we are in a good spot with a new school coming in and no more pay to play.”
The Spartans fell in the Division II district semifinals the past two seasons, first to PTC Metro rival Field 1-0 and then this year to host Alliance 3-0.
“That’s our dream to play at Firestone Stadium,” Errington said. “We’d love to match up with Walsh Jesuit (for a state title), we think they are a good team and we match up well against them.”