Clarksburg's Owen Pelaez works overtime for his first Maryland wrestling title
Clarksburg's Owen Pelaez and Blake's Zahid Shujaee stood with their hands on their knees, exhausted, at the end of regulation in the 150-pound title match at the Maryland Class 4A/3A wrestling championships Saturday.
Pelaez panted as he wiped a bloody lip, and a trash can was brought over for Shujaee to vomit into — he hadn't eaten or drank anything since 4 a.m. while observing Ramadan. And it wouldn't be until the final moments of sudden-death overtime that the champion was determined: Pelaez twisted Shujaee to the mat for a 10-7 win at Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro.
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Indianapolis Star
a day ago
- Indianapolis Star
He thought his error was a season-ender... Then he scored winning run to send team to state final
MOORESVILLE – Evansville North left fielder Tyler Land seized the opportunity to atone for what looked like a season-ending mistake late Saturday night during the Class 4A semistate championship game against Center Grove. Land dropped a seventh inning fly ball from Grady Grant, allowing the runner to advance to second base. Grant moved to third on a wild pitch, putting the winning run 90 feet from home. Reliever Conner Watson got the Huskies out of the jam, forcing extra innings, but Land's redemption arc was not complete. Land led off the ninth inning with a single. Jake Wilke's double moved him to third, and Land came home on a wild pitch, scoring the eventual winning run and sending the Huskies to a 2-1 victory over the Trojans. Evansville North (25-8) advances to face Valparaiso (25-5) in the Class 4A championship game Saturday at Victory Field. "I was down, my head was down coming into the dugout and coach (Jeremy) Jones told me to keep my head up," Land said after his late-game error. "All my teammates had my back. They just said, 'flush it'. It didn't hurt the team, nothing to hang my head about, it was in the past." Overcoming Land's error was just one of the heroic efforts Evansville North used to hold off Center Grove. A walk and an error put a runner on third with no outs in the bottom of the eighth. With runners on the corners and one out, the Huskies moved their center fielder Mason Renfro to the infield, playing with just two outfielders to prevent anything on the ground from getting through. Reliever A.J. Baggett forced two fly ball outs, both to Land, ending the inning and setting up the Huskies' winning run in the ninth. "We talk a lot about culture and heart, and more than anything else — we don't kill the baseball, our defense is OK, pitching is pretty good, but more than anything else — we have heart," Jones said. "Ty made the mistake but we told him, 'That's OK.' For him to come up and hit that missile up the middle, I'm so proud of him." Land finished 2-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored. Daniel Cranick and Carson Conley added two hits each. Evansville North's ability to produce with runners in scoring position was something Center Grove failed to do all night. The Trojans left 12 runners on base and had just one hit with runners in scoring position. Carson Bush drove in Center Grove's lone run with an RBI single in the fifth. Evansville North starter Braden Perry, Watson and Baggett allowed just five hits and one earned run over nine innings. Kellen Thomson pitched five scoreless innings for Center Grove. Andrew Murphy took the loss, allowing one run and two hits over four innings, striking out five. "It's demoralizing," Center Grove coach Keith Hatfield said of the inability to score with runners in scoring position. "Six times we left two guys on, that's not normally what we do. ... To go through that and leave as many guys on base as we did, that's not characteristic." Heading to Victory Field puts Evansville North one win away from completing a Cinderella season. The Huskies started the season 2-2, pulled out three close wins before losing to Evansville Memorial 11-1. Evansville North went just 5-4 in the Southern Indiana Conference, but the Huskies caught fire when it mattered most and are heading to the championship game on a seven-game win streak. "It's never the same guy. It could be our 15th guy on the bench, it doesn't matter," Jones said. "These guys believe in each other, they love each other, they're truly a family. And I'm so proud of them."
Indianapolis Star
2 days ago
- Indianapolis Star
Center Grove softball will 'sleep at night knowing we gave it everything we had' in 4A state final
WEST LAFAYETTE – Center Gove kept doing the right things in Saturday's Class 4A state championship game vs. Crown Point. There were the series of sure-handed plays behind starting pitcher Riley Fuhr, who was perfect in her five innings of work; the way they battled at the plate, coming back from multiple 0-1 and 0-2 counts against Crown Point ace Paige Liezert; center fielder Mae Munson's ninth-inning throws to third and home — the list goes on. "We'll sleep at night knowing we gave it everything we had," coach Alyssa Coleman said. Unfortunately for the Trojans, not enough breaks went their way. Liezert stranded the bases loaded and maintained the scoreless stalemate in the bottom of the eighth with her 15th strikeout of the game. IHSAA softball state finals: Scores, photos, complete coverage 'It all means so much': Lizzy Sinders caps Clay City career at state with dad as coach, sister as AD. Both of Munson's throws to third and home were on target, but on both occasions, Lexi Smith jarred the ball loose (unintentionally) as she slid into the fielder's tag. The umpire was ready to emphatically call Smith out at the plate, but had to quickly change course when the ball popped free. "The more I turned, the more she pushed it out and it just fell out of my glove," senior catcher Madisyn Tharpe said. Crown Point added another run in the ninth, then Liezert worked around a two-out double to complete the four-hit shutout of Center Grove and secure the Bulldogs' first state championship since 2017. Final score: 2-0. "This group's been great. They know each other. They respond to each other. And they did a really great job of picking each other up (during the game)," Coleman said. "That's how we've gotten here. It hasn't been the coaches pushing something. The girls have just molded together. It's been a lot of fun to watch." No single play defined Saturday's game, the first inning of which took place Friday before inclement weather forced play to be suspended. Liezert was unbelievable. A dazzling flourish to her breakout junior campaign, she scattered four hits across nine innings, totaling 16 strikeouts, issuing only two walks and throwing 103 of her 158 pitches for strikes. The Trojans — who made solid contact on only a handful of occasions — loaded the bases in the third and eighth innings, but were unable to come through. They finished with seven runners left on base. "She had a very good pitch sequence," said senior first baseman Sydney Herrmann, the 4A Mental Attitude Award recipient. "She was keeping us off-balance with the rise ball and she was also getting that river pitch (pitches off the plate), which was hard for us to barrel up to." Leizert said her rise ball is her best pitch, then mixed in her changeup — "It showed up today," she noted — to further keep CG off-balance at the plate. "And then just trusting coach Angie (Richwalski) with her scouting report, knowing the weaknesses in their swings and knowing where I have to pitch the ball," she continued. "That helped keep me at ease." Just as no single play defined the final score, the heartbreaking finish will not define Center Grove's 2025 campaign. This year's team was responsible for securing the softball powerhouse's first state finals berth since 2019 and 14th overall, winning 20 games against an absolutely loaded schedule, then navigating a postseason path that began with a run-rule win over Decatur Central, then continued with wins over Franklin Central, Avon, Terre Haute North and Floyd Central. This group got closer as the season progressed, Munson said, calling it the seniors' favorite season. "Best teammates, best bonds, best everything," she smiled. 'This team has had so much great chemistry and love for each other," Herrmann said as she fought back tears. "That's what I'll always remember.' 'This team, it just makes me feel at home," Munson added. "I feel like I have peace with myself, just being around everybody. I can count on everyone to be there for me if I need it, every single person. Even the coaches, too. … When it comes down to it, especially personally and not just softball, they're my best friends, too.' The seniors — Munson, Tharpe, Herrmann, Addison Richards, Hayden Baird, Brooke Carlson and Ana Powell — were responsible for maintaining the impossibly high standard of Center Grove softball during their four seasons, guiding the program to 91 wins, a state runner-up finish and last year's run to the semistate finals. "They're amazing, aren't they?" Coleman said. "I couldn't ask for a more enjoyable year with them, just watching them evolve, work together and lead the way they did — I mean, truly, we got here. This is an accomplishment. It stings right now, but there's so much to be proud of." Asked what it has meant to be part of this program, Herrmann said no team has ever pushed her more to be a leader or a better athlete or a better person. "This team has shown so much love and support to all of us. It truly just means the world to us." "This has been such a memorable time in our lives," Tharpe smiled.
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Crown Point pitcher Paige Liezert needs only one run in state championship game. Lexi Smith gives it to her.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana — Senior designated player Lexi Smith scored the go-ahead run on a fly ball by junior left fielder Nevaeh Rangel and freshman shortstop Lulu Johnston added a run-scoring single to back junior pitcher Paige Liezert's nine-inning gem as Crown Point edged Center Grove 2-0 in the Class 4A state championship game at Purdue's Bittinger Stadium on Saturday. The Bulldogs (31-4) added their second state title to their first won in 2017 after the game was suspended by weather on Friday night. Liezert, an Illinois-Chicago commit, was dominant against the Trojans (26-4). She scattered four hits, walked two and struck out 16. Crown Point's Angie Richwalski becomes the second person to win a state title in softball as a coach after winning one as a player. She was a sophomore on Lake Central's 2004 state championship team. She joins Beth Zachary, who won the 2001 3A title as a player for Castle and won the 2023 4A title as Penn's coach.
