Tag Archive for: Tori Long

CLIPPERS BROOM JFK

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WARREN OH- Columbiana got out the brooms for a quick sweeping of Warren JFK on Wednesday (25-15 25-15 25-15).

Tori Long and Maddie Witherow both led the Clippers in kills with 7 a piece. Witherow also added 3 aces, Julia Rapp led in that category with 4. Maci Linhart collected 10 digs to lead the Clippers defense. Grace Witmer set nicely for 18 assists.

The Clippers are 3-0 now on the season and will host East Palestine on Thursday.

Warren JFK falls to 0-1 and they’ll travel to Campbell on Thursday.

CLIPPERS SWEEP AWAY MCDONALD

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COLUMBIANA OH- The Clippers opened up the 2020 campaign with a 3-0 sweep of McDonald (25-16 25-23 25-18).

Tori Long led the Clippers with 9 kills, Grace Witmer had 7, and also 3 blocks. Maci led the Clipper defense with 13 digs. Witmer did a great job setting up the Clippers offense, gathering 16 assists.

The Clippers return to the court on Tuesday as they host Leetonia.

HOT CORNER: WITH SPECIAL GUEST CHEYANNE TARANGO

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Welcome to another edition of the Hot Corner. The blog that is all softball all the time. The summer travel season is starting to wind down. The softball talent across the nation is doing the opposite of winding down. It’s growing exponentially. Every edition we will highlight a player from the amateur ranks local or national that you will need to remember. The goal of this blog is to always highlight the growth of the sport. We’ll also continue to have amazing guests from the National softball scene. Today our special guest is Cheyenne Tarango. Her interview will be at the bottom of the page.

Spotlight

This week’s spotlight is Hannah Capps. Hannah is a class of 2023 who plays for Coffee high school in Douglas, Georgia. In the state of Georgia, softball is played in the fall. So Hannah was not stripped of a freshman season like 2023’s here in Ohio. In her freshman season with the Trojans she hit .374 with 5 HR and 33 RBI. Hannah can play in multiple positions, but from what I’ve seen following her on Twitter for a while, catching is where she excels. Her pop time as a catcher is very good, especially considering she has plenty of time to get even better. Hannah plays travel for the EC Bullets Prairie ‘03. Hannah might just be one of the next premiere catchers that shines on the national level. With her hitting ability, and exceptional skills behind the plate, I don’t think it’s too early to see some Sahvanna Jaquish comparisons.

Friends of the Blog 

Our friends USSSA Pride-Scarlet closed out their summer last weekend in North Ridgeville. They made it all the way to the semifinals before rain ended the games, and their season. The Pride went 6-0 before the rain halted their weekend. The Pride hit 7 more HR’s over the weekend as a team. They were spread out between four players. When you look at their final offensive numbers for the season, they’re eye popping. Only two players didn’t hit above .400. Sydney Mercer finished the summer with a .544 average with 24 HR and 80 RBI. Those numbers aren’t typos. The team’s pitching numbers stayed strong this weekend too. Liana Morreale finished the year 11-3, with an ERA of 2.45. She also struck out 77.  Tori Long wasn’t far behind either. She went 12-4 with an ERA of 3.86. She struck out 58. These numbers on offense and defense are what led to a 44-9 record over the summer.  Congrats to the Pride on an amazing summer. We look forward to seeing what you all do next.

Special Guest Cheyanne Tarango

(Kevin Gregory)

Cheyanne Tarango attended Canyon High School in California before going on to continue her career at the University of Tennessee. She played on the USA Junior National Team. She also spent time with the Mexican National Team. Last summer she played in the NPF as a member of the Cleveland Comets, who are partnered with team Mexico. She also spent a season as a volunteer assistant coach at Louisville University. She was a pitcher who also hit, and played solid first base. Cheyanne is known for her devastatingly slow changeup. A pitcher who can take she hit 19 HR and 89 RBI in her career at Tennessee.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kur0nRcT3i8[/embedyt]

HOT CORNER: WEEKEND RECAP

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Its Monday, which means there’s a lot of softball results to dive into from the weekend. Ohio holds some of the best travel tournaments in the Midwest. One of the tournaments that rises above the rest is the D1 Fastpitch Outlaws Summer Invitational Showcase.

The Beverly Bandits travel organization is highly respected and their name is all over the Championship list at the Outlaws Showcase. Their Demarini Richards team won the 16U division, and the Beverly Bandits Dorsey team won the 18U. In their 16U division Shelby Westler is a name on that team I’ve been following for a while. A 2022 from River Valley High School in Marion OH Shelby is a catcher/infielder/utility player that can really swing the bat well. On Saturday night she hit a go ahead 2 run HR on the Bandits way to a 7-3 win.

Friends of the Hot Corner the Ohio Lasers Yellow Team also competed at the Outlaws showcase. After a 0-0 tie to start off their Thursday, they beat Finesse 5-2. The rest of their weekend didn’t go as planned as they lost two one run games to Turning2. Maddy Taylor from Austintown Fitch had a couple RBI over the weekend. Maci Boggess still pitches pretty well in the circle throughout the weekend. In 10 innings pitched she only gave up 5 earned runs and struck out 11.

The USSSA Pride Scarlet team wasn’t at the Outlaws Showcase, but had a great weekend at the Sheer Madness Showcase. They won all 8 of their games and were Co-Champions because of the championship game being rained out. They hit 11 more home runs on the weekend as a team bringing their total to 39 on the summer. Sommer Bourne and Sydney Mercer each hit 2 bombs. Maris Barbato got one out to push her weekend total to a eye popping 13. USSSA’s pitching was amazing this weekend too, Tori Long and Liana Morreale each threw no hitters. Morreale did it with every pitch being stressful as the Pride snuck out a 1-0 win over Stingrays 03. The Pride is hitting .432 AS A TEAM! It’s just an incredible offensive lineup, and if they’re tossing no hitters Im not sure what the game plan is playing them in the future. In 30 games they’ve outscored their opponents 231-83. Do the math and that’s an average of a 5 run margin of victory for the Pride. Dominant much like their professional counter parts.

Speaking of USSSA’s professional team, they begin play tonight and I couldn’t be more excited that elite professional softball is back in action. USSSA Pride and Scrap Yard Fastpitch begin a summer tour today where they will play at different events held in each of their headquarters. A season playing each other in exhibition games in front of teams that have come to play in the events their hosting. That may sound underwhelming to the casual softball fan two teams playing each other all summer, but when the two rosters have 95% of the elite softball world on it, and you know their future could very possibly include a league of their own after their non compete from the NPF expires it’s very exciting. Pretty much every player who is on the USA Olympic roster will be represented in this summer tour that is being tagged #BetterTogether. I think that tag says a lot about what the future might hold for Scrap Yard and USSSA. Who knows? You may be seeing some members of the summer tour as special guests to the Hot Corner as the summer goes on. Stay tuned!!

HOT CORNER: PERFECT STORM RECAP

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Softball made its return to the area this past weekend, and it busted the doors wide open. Thunder Elite hosted a 92 team tournament spanning from 10U to 18U. Teams from all over Ohio, and some from Pennsylvania we’re competing at four different venues throughout the area.

I have a few takeaways from not only the games I watched, but also the updates I saw from a lot of these team’s wonderfully run social media pages. The first takeaway looking at the scores of the games this weekend it was clear offense was not a problem. On bracket play Sunday alone there were 24 games that had at least one team in double digit runs. I was expecting pitchers to have an advantage in the first weekend back. It doesn’t look like that was always the case.

The most competitive and thrilling game of bracket play Sunday came in 10u where the championship game between Thunder Elite 09 and Ohio ICE purple. Thunder Elite took a 5-4 lead in to the bottom of the 7th, only to see ICE tie things up. Then ICE walked it off for a 6-5 win.

Ohio USSSA Pride Scarlet showed how potent it’s lineup is over the weekend as they hit 6 HR’s as a team on Saturday. 3 of them by Josie Spano. Tori Long and Sydney Mercer also went yard. Mercer added another home run on Sunday. The Prides lineup is powerful.

(Courtesy Ohio USSSA Pride- Scarlet)

Maddy Taylor From Austintown Fitch got her first home run of the summer over the weekend for the Lasers. She’ll be someone to watch as the summer goes on. An absolute division 1 type talent.

(Courtesy Britton Taylor)

Other Championship scores: in the 12u division Silver Creek Prospects beat RC Venom 13-7. In the 14u Lake Erie Warhawks beat Wolfpack 06 10-0. 16u saw the Garroway Outlaws beat USSSA Pride Scarlet 8-3.

I personally was watching the 18u part of this tournament. It was full of high school seniors that may have been the last chance to see play in the area. The Ohio Warriors were the local team in the bracket. Mostly made up of either seniors or juniors, their lineup is loaded with local talent. I was impressed with Bri Callow out of McDonald who took most of the pitching duties over the weekend. Kaili Gross is also a pitcher on their roster, but wasn’t quite warmed up to pitch this weekend. Bri also showed great strength at the plate. Some other prominent names on the Warriors roster are Ally Nitolli, Cam Latanzio, Brooke Bobbey, and Abby Farber all out of Poland. Lexi Diaz our of Mooney gives them tremendous speed. Delaney Early out of East Palestine is a high quality slapper in the lineup. They have a cannon behind the plate in Lauren Maughan out of Boardman. The Warriors went 3-0 in pool play on Saturday. They earned the two seed in bracket Sunday. With a bye, the win their first game on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Predators. The Warriors were up 4-1 for most of the game, but had to hold off a rally in the final inning to win 4-3. In the 18u championship they played the Pittsburgh Passion who upset Parma in the semis 10-8. The Warriors fell behind early but kept clawing back. Trailing 11-4 in their final at bats the Warriors scored 5 runs and had the tying runs on base before falling 11-9.

It was a great weekend of softball. The guidelines set down by the Ohio Heath Department were followed at the games I attended. It was a refreshing sense of normalcy.

This weekend there are tournaments at Boardman’s Field of Dreams, and McClure Park In Canfield. I will try to hit them both weather pending and have another travel ball recap next week.

Below are highlights of the Ohio Warriors Bracket Sunday games.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_LeW95prrA[/embedyt]

CLIPPERS JET THROUGH URSULINE TO DISTRICTS

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COLUMBIANA OH- In December, Ursuline handed Columbiana a 49-30 loss, a loss that stayed in the mouths of the clippers until Saturday afternoon. Revenge was sweet as the Clippers got by Ursuline 54-43 to advance in the tournament.

The Clippers did not have to deal with any of the rust a bye week can bring. They flew out of the gates and had an impressive first quarter gathering 17 points to lead by 7. Their lead grew in the second quarter to 11, but thanks to a big three by Cara McNally, and bucket in the closing seconds by Anisah Moorman made it 32-25 at the half.

An 8-0 run out of the locker room by the Clippers would all but seal the fate of the Irish. They did not have enough firepower to mount another comeback. Not without effort, however, as the Irish did cut the lead down to nine again at the end of the third. But all that work to still be down by a point more than at halftime. The energy exposed took its toll.

Columbiana was led by Grace Witmer and Tori Long who both scored 13. Kayla Muslovski added 11.

Paris Gilmore and Moorman both led the Irish with 13.

Columbiana advances to the district semifinals on Wednesday against South Range at Struthers. The tip is set for 6:00.

WEEK 3 BIG DOGS OF THE VALLEY ANNOUNCED

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With OVER 24,000 Votes cast during the third week of Spring’s Baird Brothers Big Dogs of the Valley, two very deserving student-athletes brought home the title!

 

Congratulations to both winners!  You’ll be entered automatically into our Player of the Year awards at the end of the season.

 

TORI LONG- COLUMBIANA

PHOTO CREDIT: GARY LEININGER

Tori diced up Western Reserve’s lineup for 13k, while not giving up any runs, scattering two hits, and two walks.  Offensively she also went 2-4 with a home run and 4 RBI.

 

SETH KERNER- WELLSVILLE

PHOTO CREDIT: MANDY CORBIN

Seth went 7 strong on the mound giving up a run on 4 hits to Leetonia while striking out 12.  He also went 2-3 at the dish with a walk, and a run.

RAGING OEHLSTROM GROUNDS CLIPPERS

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Autumn Oehlstrom gave Columbiana fits, as she bagged four hits in Lisbon’s 13-7 victory on Wednesday.  Oehlstrom homered in the first, doubled in the second, singled in the fourth, and homered in the sixth.

Both pitching staffs had their hands full, frequently dealing with runners on base. The Blue Devils collected 15 hits and Columbiana had 11.

In the first inning, Lisbon got their offense started when Oehlstrom homered on a 2-1 count, scoring two runs.

Emma Thompson was credited with the victory for the Blue Devils.  She surrendered seven runs on 11 hits over seven innings, striking out six and walking one.

Alyssa Tohm took the loss for Columbiana. She went seven innings, allowing 13 runs on 15 hits and striking out four.

Lisbon smacked four home runs on the day. Oehlstrom had a dinger in the first and sixth innings. Kenedy Vrable went deep in the fourth inning. McKenna Dailey went for the long ball in the fifth inning.

The Blue Devils totaled 15 hits in the game.  Oehlstrom, Justyce Vrable, Vrable, and Dailey each had multiple hits for David Anderson Blue Devils Varsity.  Oehlstrom went 4-for-4 at the plate to lead Lisbon in hits.

Columbiana tallied 11 hits on the day.  Tohm, Julia Rapp, Tori Long, and Marissa Makosky all had multiple hits for the Clippers.  Tohm led Columbiana with three hits in four at bats.

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