The floodgates opened for Anthony Wayne’s softball team in the top of the seventh inning, and the Generals reeled in a league title as a result.

Anthony Wayne erupted for 10 runs in the final frame to turn a back-and-forth state-ranked showdown with Perrysburg into a convincing 15-5 victory in a Northern Lakes League contest on Wednesday at Perrysburg High School.

With the victory, the Generals clinched the outright NLL Buckeye Division championship with two league games remaining.

“To be able to come back from being behind and put up 10 on the eighth-ranked team in the state, that’s a statement coming back and putting that kind of offense on,” Anthony Wayne coach Ron Myers said. “Earlier in the day, we probably played some of the worst defense that we have all season. The players really came back though in that seventh inning and just were going after things at that point in time.”

Anthony Wayne, ranked No. 3 in the final Ohio High School Softball Coaches Association Division I poll, improved to 24-1 (12-0 NLL). Perrysburg, ranked No. 8 in Division I, fell to 22-4 (10-3 NLL).

Perrysburg took advantage of a handful of Anthony Wayne errors and mental mistakes to score four runs in the fifth inning and grab a 5-4 lead. The Generals tied it in the sixth inning after Piper Phillips singled home Ally Meyers, who doubled to lead off the frame, with two outs.

The seventh inning was all Anthony Wayne.

The Generals sent 14 players to the plate. Anthony Wayne tallied five hits, drew four walks, and took advantage of two Perrysburg errors.

The Yellow Jackets used three different pitchers and even brought back in starter Maison Gerrard for a handful of batters after she was pulled early in the frame.

“I think we just all really came together in that moment and we were like ‘let’s get this done. This is a big NLL game for us, big NLL matchup,’” Anthony Wayne junior Molly Conner said. “We were focusing on one pitch at a time, we weren’t trying to overlook the moment, and I think that’s how we just generated so many runs.”

Trinity Nowicki drew a bases-loaded walk to give Anthony Wayne a 6-5 lead with one out, and Meyers drilled a two-run single up the middle in the next at bat. Gabi Nowicki lined a bases-clearing double to right center to make it 11-5; Phillips’ bunt led to a fielding error to bring in another run; and Conner smoked a three-run double to right to cap off the high-scoring inning.

“That was really tough,” Perrysburg coach Ryan DeMars said. “Anthony Wayne’s a really great team obviously.

“They’re ranked No. 3 in the state for a reason. I just thought that we battled throughout the game and then we got into the seventh inning, and we just sort of had little things [happen] one after another.

Perrysburg tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth inning after Paige Riney’s RBI single, but Anthony Wayne responded with three runs in the fifth — Essence Dobbelaere-Buchman had a two-run double and Megan Sumner an RBI single — to snatch the lead right back.

In the home half of the fifth, though, the Yellow Jackets took advantage of two Anthony Wayne errors to plate two runs, used an RBI double from Hayley Griggs, and scored on a fielder’s choice on an infield grounder when Anthony Wayne catcher Trinity Nowicki didn’t tag Perrysburg’s Jess Miller at home plate prior to throwing to first for an out.

“I’m super proud of the way we battled and I was just telling them earlier, when we got down 4-1 and we came right back and scored those runs, they were into it,” DeMars said. “This team is all about being able to hit, and they’ve done a good job all year of being able to respond when they needed to respond.”

Conner had three hits and drove in four runs, including an RBI single in the first, and tossed the first four innings in allowing five runs on six hits, with six strikeouts and two intentional walks. Kat Meyers earned the win in relief after allowing no runs on one hit in three innings. Dobbelaere-Buchman tallied three hits and two RBIs.

“Winning the NLL is a bigger deal than I think people around the state of Ohio really think because you’ve got Springfield in here, they’re ranked [No. 10] in the state. Perrysburg in here ranked in the state, really high ranked in our district,” Conner said. “So it means a lot and it shows just how hard we’ve worked and how much the team has come together over the past couple of weeks.”

Aly Seuberling doubled and singled to lead Perrysburg at the plate. Gerrard took the loss in the circle.

First Published May 16, 2024, 1:32 a.m.