Tag Archive for: Hot Corner

HOT CORNER: WITH SPECIAL GUEST DEMI TURNER

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SOFTBALL IS BACK!

 

That’s right folks it’s been a while, season’s have been canceled, but as we venture into the summer months Softball is making its return, and it’s making it with a vengeance. With multiple tournaments in the Northeast Ohio area with 60+ teams, including an ASA/USA, sanctioned tournament in Ashland the sport has gone from a standstill to a full-on sprint. As far as our area goes, the Thunder Elite Perfect Storm tournament using multiple fields to cater to 84 teams. With 16 10U teams, 22 12u teams, 20 14u teams, 20 16u teams, and 6 18u teams it’s going to be a jammed packed weekend. Saturday will be pool play, and the brackets will be set for Sunday. Each team weather permitting is guaranteed 4 games (weather permitting). 

 

I will be following the 18u tournament very closely. It may only have 6 teams, but they are full of seniors who we didn’t get to see finish out their high school career. Stay tuned Sunday night because I will post a recap of all the action from the Perfect Storm tournament. 

 

I have done a couple of Hot Corner posts already, but I wanted to just lay out what to expect from this blog going forward. It will be all softball, all the time. It’s for you people like me who are total junkies of the sport. I will always be highlighting what is going on in the local scene first and foremost, but I will also be bringing guests from the premiere softball world to get there stories and thoughts on things. This blog will merge local softball with the national softball scene, and it’s going to be SO MUCH FUN. So keep an eye out on YSN for more

 

SPECIAL GUEST:

5/26/18 WSB vs Washington
Alabama infielder Demi Turner (2)
Photo by Robert Sutton (Courtesy UA Athletics)

Today’s special guest in the Hot Corner is Demi Turner. Demi played for Alabama collegiately and is currently a volunteer assistant at Houston. I got Demi on the Hot Corner because she has gone through a lot of adversity through her softball career, dealing with multiple injuries during her time at Alabama. Her attitude and perspective (along with a second to none work ethic) helped her come back from every obstacle that was put in front of her. These are the kinds of stories we need to hear right now. We all have gone through adversity through this pandemic, and we are going to come out on the other side. In her junior season, Demi has an amazing start to the season. On March 31st at Missouri, she extended a career-high 13 game hitting streak. On April 1st in game two, things took a dramatic turn. With a ball hit up the middle Demi, and her teammate Sydney Booker both went to field it, Booker got it first. A runner advancing to second made it initially appear as though they could get the force at 2nd, so Demi kept going toward the bag. Sydney made the last-second decision to get them out at first, but her throw went full speed into Demi’s face. A conclusion, and orbital bone fracture was the result of Turner. It was an injury that was seen across the softball world. Unfortunately in today’s sports scene, we see injuries highlighted more than great plays. If you search Demi Turner the first video that pops up won’t be highlights of her amazing career, or great plays she’s made, but instead her injury at Missouri. Demi didn’t let it stop her from working her way back on the field. Making sure while she was, that her energy was being poured into her teammates. She finally worked back on the field just in time for the Super Regional against Minnesota, where she went 2-3 with a stolen base and got a hit in both games of the Super Regional. Through it all, every injury Demi used her faith, and positive energy to push through and not only prevail to the other end of the tunnel but excel when she got out of it. 

 

This issue is also a perfect segway to my new blog I am currently working on. It’s going to be called Hartwig’s Heroes. It will be dedicated to sharing stories of local athletes that have gone through adversity and made it out the other side. But I need your help! If you know any athlete that has gone through any kind of adversity and beat it share their story with me. I’d love to highlight anyone and everyone who fits the mold. Let’s see who the real heroes are. You can find me on Facebook, on Twitter at ahartwig01, and on Instagram with the same username. I look forward to hearing from you. 

 

-Anthony Hartwig

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HOT CORNER WITH SPECIAL GUEST JEN GILBERT

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MACTION! That’s right, todays issue of Hot Corner is all about the Mid American Conference. The MAC has been front and center in local sports news for the last week. The conference has decided to cancel or alter all of its tournaments for the 2020-2021 season. This of course means there will be no MAC Tournament at Akron Firestone Stadium next spring.

 

The pros and cons of having no tournament are pretty clear. An advantage is the best team in the regular season will now be automatically in the NCAA field of 64. They won’t have to worry about a team having a hot weekend and winning the MAC tournament, ending their hopes of a tournament bid. However, it does hurt the teams that are competitive in the MAC and lets say have a 3-5 seed in a conference tournament. These teams have had a good season, and in normal circumstances would have the chance to go fight for a MAC title, and a NCAA tournament birth. The people that real happy about the MAC (and other mid major conferences) canceling their tournaments are the Power 5 teams. They no longer have to worry about a team in 4th place of the MAC win the conference and in essence steal an at large bid.

We have a couple players in the YSN family who will be directly impacted by the future of the MAC. Let’s highlight a couple of players that are heading to play in the MAC, and won’t be heading to a MAC tournament.

Sheridon Wilber (Jefferson Area)

Sheridon Wilber is a player that tends to get overlooked out of the NE8. While everyone is focused on Poland, and South Range and their postseason runs, Sheridon is quietly become arguably the best dual threat in the conference. Wilber is a three year letter winner at Jefferson. In those three years her batting averages are .541 (2017) .494 (2018) and .474 (2019).  In those three years in the circle she had ERA’s of 3.40, 2.17, and 2.47. In 2017 she was Ashtabula County Player of the Year, First Team All County, and 2nd team NE8. The fact that these numbers made her 2nd team consistently will show you how good the NE8 was, and possibly how overlooked Wilber was. Sheridon has signed to play for Akron next spring. In a statement about her signing on GoZips.com Akron coach Meaghan Pettipiece said “Sheridon comes to us with complete athleticism, and great personality. I can’t wait to see her development in the circle and what she brings to our offense as well.” That statement tells me that Akron fully plans on using Sheridon as a dual threat. I’ve personally had the chance to broadcast a few of Wilber’s game, and she is the real deal.

(Photo Courtesy JeffersonFalconAthletics.com)

When you talk MAC softball, the name that has to come to mind is Jen Gilbert. The Ball State outfielder was a super star in the conference. Gilbert finished her career with conference records in RBI (246) Home Runs (75), runs scored (215), doubles (62), and slugging percentage (.810). By the way that 75 home runs mark ranks 8th in Division 1 softball history. After her career at Ball State, Gilbert was drafted 10th overall in the 2014 NPF Draft to the Akron Racers. She is still playing in the NPF as a member of the Canadian Wild, and is also a member of the Canadian National Team set to compete in the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021. Jen was gracious enough to join me all the way from the great state of Texas to be the first special guest of Hot Corner.

(Photo Credit: Don Martukovich)

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HOT CORNER WITH ANTHONY HARTWIG (ISSUE 1)

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I’m Anthony Hartwig, Social Media and content director at YSN, and this is my new blog, Hot Corner. In the hot corner, we will be talking softball. All softball, all the time. There’s so much to talk about in this great sport. From the elite level of division 1, and professional softball to the youth travel organizations softball is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country. We’re going to have some fun with the local, and national scope of softball, and maybe have some special guests along the way.

To kick things off in issue 1 of Hot Corner let’s talk playoff softball and what we might be seeing if it weren’t for COVID-19. Locally, when it comes to postseason softball all eyes would be on Champion. The Golden Flashes have won three Division III state championships in a row. Champion lost virtually nothing from their team a season ago, a team that did not allow a single run in tournament play. Led in the circle by Allison Smith, and Sophie Howell Champion’s pitching comes dangerously close to untouchable. Smith had an ERA of 0.14 in 2019. To dive deeper into what that means, in 102.2 innings pitched she gave up exactly 2 earned runs. She struck out 215 batters while only walking 15. Howell’s seems easy to hit following up those numbers but even her ERA was an impressive 1.52. Both will be division 1 pitchers next season. Most high school teams are lucky to have 1 D1 pitcher on their team and Champion rolls out two of them. And if you think the Flashes only get it done in the circle, you’d be dead wrong. As a team, Champion hit .408, with 52 HR’s, and 276 RBI. With five hitters in their lineup with at least 30 RBI, pitching to Champion was as much of a nightmare as trying to hit off them. The Flashes were poised, to say the least, to make it four state championships in a row. Their biggest obstacle might just be Cardington Lincoln, who they’ve beaten in the last two championship games. The Pirates were returning quite a bit of talent themselves, and it’s hard to beat a team in a state final three times.

Another team of note when talking about the local playoffs, of course, is Poland. They got to the state semifinals last season before falling to Jonathan Alder. Returning 7 of 9 starters the Bulldogs seemed like they’d be in a good position to make another run. The fact that this season they would have had Kaili Gross in all their games would have helped. Gross had an ERA of 0.78 last season in the first twelve games of the season. She’d be one of the premier aces in a pretty stacked NE8 as far as pitching goes. Poland separates themselves from the pack with their bats. As a team last year they hit .412. Poland hasn’t won a state championship since 2011, but this season might have been their best chance to change that narrative.

On the national stage, this past weekend would have been the end of the NCAA regular season, Sunday would host the selection show and the road to the WCWS would have started this week.

Here’s who I think would have made the WCWS based on what we saw in 2020.

Washington
Alabama
Oklahoma
Arizona
UCLA
Texas
Florida St
Florida

The conference schedule never got started, and that’s when you really find out what these teams are made of. I definitely believe the PAC-12 is back on the rise after a long period of SEC dominance in the sport.

We won’t have champions at any level in 2020, no gold medal to be won, no national champion crowned, no state title dreams achieved. But the conversations and the growth of the sport have to continue. We can not let this virus backtrack the hard work that so many people have put in for the growth of the game. So keep on joining me in the Hot Corner and we’ll talk some softball.

Do you have some softball topics you want to be discussed? Guests you’d like to see in future blogs? Let me know! You can find me on Facebook at Anthony Hartwig, Twitter, and Instagram @ahartwig01.