Sommer Bourne Archives - Your Sports Network

Yes softball fans yesterday was the day the world gets to celebrate this wonderful sport! World softball day was all over social media as travel college, and professional teams shared memories of the game we love. What are your favorite softball memories? I’ll get to some of mine later, but first let’s check in with Ohio USSSA Pride-Scarlet.

An exciting Friday as after a 7-1 blowout of Ohio Lightning, Sommer Bourne hit a walk off home run to beat Ohio Slamforce-Hudson. That was the first of 4 home runs this powerful offense would hit on Friday. Maris Barbato hit her 5th of the summer, and Sydney Mercer hit a pair, including a grand slam. The Pride went 1-1 on Saturday. And after winning their first 3 games today, they fell to Valley Extreme 5-4.

I was not able to attend this weekend’s games but thanks to our friends at GameChanger I was able to follow the games closely. It also gives me access to the numbers this Pride team is putting up so far and…wow! As a team in 22 games played the Pride have hit 28 home runs. Sydney Mercer leads that category with 8, Maris Barbato has 7. Mercer is hitting an eye popping .537 with 28 RBI. Barbato is hitting .508. This offense is so deep you can’t pitch around anyone. I think it’s really smart that they usually have Barbato as a lead off hitter. Coach Szolek doesn’t fall for misconception that your HR leaders need to be 4, and 5 in the lineup. Having Maris lead off a game immediately puts pressure on an opposing pitcher, and they can’t start with a lead off wall and pitch around her. She’s everything you want out of a leadoff hitter, and she adds significant power to that resume. Emily Holland had an amazing Sunday hitting 3 HR’s including a grand slam. She brought her average up to .333 and boosted her RBI total to 17.

Liana Morreale and Tori Long get the majority of the starts in the circle for the Pride, and they’re both solid. Liana is a commit to Old Dominion and has great movement on her pitches. Long does a great job countering her with a different approach. Morreale has 28 K’s on the summer, and Long has 22. With their offense has potent as it is, they really don’t have to be perfect in the circle. It takes a lot of pressure off those two and you can tell in the loose nature they bring to their pitching. We’ll continue to follow the Pride and other local travel teams as the summer goes on. Follow their team twitter @OhioScarlet.

Now back to celebration of World Softball day. I owe so much to the sport of softball. I did play special Olympics softball for 4 years with the Mahoning County Public Warriors. It was a great outlet for my competitive mindset to get out and compete at a sport. But really the thing that softball has brought to me the most is amazing friendships. I’m not exaggerating when I say that a large percentage of the friends I keep in my circle I have met from the game of softball. My love for the game started gradually as I was in high school. South Range’s softball team at the time was very successful. They won 28 ITCL games in a row during my junior and senior year, and made trips to the regional tournament both years getting to the final once. Not too far down the road at the same time in Poland, Erin Gabriel was making a national name for herself. My family knew Erin, her dad and my mom worked together so we always kept tabs on her career. When she announced that she was going to play for Tennessee, that’s when I really started to watch college softball. And man, does the game at that level get you hooked fast. Erin started at Tennessee in 2013, and she was on one of the best teams in the country. I fell in love with that team. I think since social media, especially twitter was fairly new softball fans including myself had so much opportunity for connections with the players on the highest stage. I could go on twitter and have conversations with some of Erin’s teammates who grew to be friends. Players like Lauren Gibson, Raven Chavanne, Ivy Renfroe, and Cheyenne Tarango made it so easy to get emotionally attached to the success of that team. Ivy got drafted by the Akron Racers, who I had no idea even existed before then. Once I went to Firestone Stadium to see her play, it was over. There was no going back to life without softball. And watching professional softball through the years has given me so many amazing friends. So to everyone involved in this beautiful sport happy belated world softball day.

Some of my softball memories to share with you.

I have some very cool special guests coming up soon on the Hot Corner. Softball fans won’t want to miss it. Keep following along as the Hot Corner merges the local softball scene and the elite level of the sport.

One weekend ago at the perfect storm tournament held by Thunder Elite, it was clear that a lot of teams had rust to shake off after going so long without softball. It led to a lot of lopsided final scores over the weekend. A week later it is safe to say all the rust is off. Man what a competitive weekend at the D1 Fastpitch Summer Showcase helps at McCune Park in Canfield, and Field of Dreams in Boardman. The weather was great, and I watched a lot of softballs this weekend, which put me in my happy place.

There were a couple of teams I followed this weekend. Let’s talk about the USSSA Pride Scarlet team containing a ton of local talent. Last weekend their offense was incredible, and they looked just as good this weekend. Maris Barbato leads off for the Pride, and talk about a starting off a lineup with a bang. Barbato hit 4 home runs over the weekend. 3 in three consecutive games. That wasn’t the end of the Pride’s power though, as Sydney Mercer and Sommer Bourne also left the yard. When you combine their poet on offense to really solid arms in the circle, the Pride become an extremely dangerous opponent. Highlights of their Saturday games can be found at the bottom of the page.

The best pitching performance I saw all weekend was without a doubt Maci Boggess for the Ohio Lasers-Yellow. I watched her shut out a really good Wolfpack team to close out the Laser’s Saturday. Then on Bracket Play Sunday she shut out the Outlaws-Harbold. A couple of hours later in the Laser’s next Bracket game against an older more experienced Firecrackers PA-Griffin team, she only surrendered 1 ER on 2 hits. She gave up a leadoff triple that a RBI groundout would eventually score. Unfortunately, the Lasers offense couldn’t find a rhythm and the Lasers dropped the game 1-0. Maci does a fantastic job using both sides of the plate. She also can mix speeds pretty well. She has a great spin on her pitches and when she’s on, she’s super hard to hit. She was the Lasers workhorse over the weekend, and never showed signs of fatigue. Maci is an uncommitted class of 2023 out of Winfield West Virginia. Keep an eye on her as the years go by.

(Photo Credit: Tammy Justice)

On Sunday I took a trip to the Field of Dreams to see the Outlaws Demarini-White team. South Range’s Bree Kohler had a productive first weekend of travel ball in the circle and at the plate. On Saturday she pitched against Ohio Lasers Blue which is widely considered to be not just a top team in the state, but the country. Bree finished with 7 K’s and surrendered just 3 hits. The Outlaws won the game 5-3. The Outlaws also feature PGF All-American, and future Missouri Tiger Riley Frizell. Being someone who has a lot of connections and family in Kansas City who are big Missouri fans themselves, I was very excited to get to see Riley in action. She’s going to do big things in Columbia.

That’ll do it for the recap of the D1 Fastpitch Summer Showcase. My biggest takeaway, especially with the handful of teams that also played in last weekend’s action is how much smoother the players looked after just a week of getting back on the field. I saw a lot fewer errors in the field, pitchers hitting a lot more of their spots, and hitters making quick adjustments to pitchers.

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