HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL: CORNING PEAKING AS THEY HEAD TO STATE FINAL FOUR (2024-06-07)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
The Corning softball team that takes the field at noon today in the state final four may have the same roster as the one at the start of the year, but make no mistake this Hawks team has grown day by day, week by week over the course of the year.

The Hawks have a balance mixed of experienced senior leaders, and kids not yet in high school, and everything in between.

“It’s always exciting,” Corning coach Mike Johnston Jr. said of making the state final four, where the hawks will take on Section 2 champion Saratoga Springs at noon at Martha Avenue Recreational Park. “It’s one more opportunity to go out and get a victory. It’s a great opportunity for a different type of team. We have a lot of 7th to 12th graders as far as dynamics go. Everybody brings a little bit to the table and that makes us successful.”

Pitcher Matti Johnston, coach Johnston’s niece, is somewhere in between  the youngest and oldest kids as a sophomore. For Johnston she has enjoyed seeing how both groups are.

“It’s fun to see how every grade meshes together,” Matti Johnston said. “Because, there are like junior high kids, they are more goofy and the older kids in high school, they are more serious, but can have a fun time. It’s just great to hang out with them.

“It’s so fun, I think I’m a mix of a little of both. I can mess around with them, at the same time I know when to be serious and when not to be.”

The Hawks have three seniors — Peyton Sullivan, Sophia Polzella and Jade Cook, and both Sullivan and Polzella bat at the top of the lineup and are offensive leaders on the team.

For Johnston Jr. he knows how nice it is to have those seniors.

“In today’s day and age people have so many other things going on in their world,” he said. “People have jobs, and want to buy cars, and you know have other interests and these kids have stayed the course. We have three in the program, and they are all contributors. I’m proud of them for following the process and seeing it come to fruition and getting to the final four and now what we need to do is finish the deal.”

The Hawks have also relied on a mix of younger players, including five players in junior high. Seventh grader Emelia Smith and eighth graders Sophie Schoonover and Hannah Kauffman all had hits in the regional final.

“That’s the beauty of it,” Johnston Jr. said. “Like I said, in today’s day and age people have other interests, so we have to bring the young kids up for as long as I’ve been here. We just have so many highly competitive sports are our school. We have a club ruby team now, we instituted flag football a year ago, we have track that has always had great success, our lacrosse program. So, there are girls going in five different directions and to be able to put it all together is a tribute to the hard work these kids have put in.”

At the beginning of the year it was still a process of seeing how the roster fit together, and as the year has gone on the players have meshed into a team that’s now two wins from a state title.

“Without question, at the beginning of the season you know some names and faces and you get to see them a little bit,” Johnston Jr. said. “But, don’t really have a chance to evaluate them until you get them in your own program.

“I have seen them come a long way. Kids that barely spoke at the beginning of the year, and were shy, have really opened up and built a cohesiveness. They trust each other and they play for the name on the front of their jersey, not the one on the back, and they have all learned al little something from each other.”

All season long Polzella, Johnston and Sullivan have formed as dynamic of a 1-2-3 punch to start a lineup as you’ll find in the state.

As the season has progressed the three have seen how much the rest of the lineup has stepped up and grew.

“We had our key players at the beginning (of the year), but now I think we are all ke players,” Sullivan said. “We all contribute something every single game. It’s nice nice to see it through the development of the players over one year. It’s crazy. It’s nice to see our eighth graders and seventh graders contributing stuff and steeping in when needed.

“It’s nice because we have the end of the lineup that is contributing and doing their part and it’s nice to say okay, we can just play the game we know how to play and not stress ourselves out trying to get a big hit when we think we need to. A ground ball is okay, you don’t have to hit a home run every single time.”

In the regional final the Hawks had 11 hits. Eight of them came from players outside of Polzella, Johnston and Sullivan.

Eight players had hits in that regional final, and two of the junior high kids — Smith and Schooner — were the cleanup and number five hitters in the lineup.

Each night the Hawks have watched improvement from everyone on the team.

“I’m so proud everyone has stepped up,” Polzella said. “Taking on their roles even if it’s not on the field. It’s amazing. They are getting better, there confidence is gaining so much.

“It’s honestly the confidence piece. We are getting in the cage, we are doing our work and all that work is paying off. It takes a lot of pressure off because we know people are going to get it done.”

For the upperclassmen they have watched and tried to help the younger players all season.

“It’s kind of cool to see it,” Sullivan said. “There are so many different levels on our team. Seeing the way softball has changed from seventh to 12th grade and seeing the development through the year is interesting and exciting.

“We always work with each other and build each other up.”

For Corning the improvement at the plate, and defensively, has been a key to this year’s success.

“Those two things, I think we have really sured some things up defensively,” Johnston Jr. said. “We have done a nice job on the mound holding people down and played really good defense behind them making plays and what we did is we always go back to the basics. Everyone want to do the fancy things, and look good things, we talked about get your field right, fielding the ball first and playing catch.

“We try and make it so simple, we take the guess work out of it. Our kids are really peaking at the right time. I thought we hit the ball better than we have all season long last week against North Rockland in the regional game. We hit it really hard, we had four others that were line drives right at people. So, we had 11 hits in the game, there were another ofur or five that potentially could have fallen in as well. We have to be able to continue to do that.”

Matti Johnston has taken on a different role as well as the season has gone on. Most of the year she split the pitching duties with Sullivan. The past four games she has thrown complet games, pitching both games in the STAC playoffs, the sectional final and the regional game, throwing a no-hitter in the sectional final.

“It’s so different, because I’m so used to being in the outfield and cheering everyone on and now everyone cheers me on,” Johnston said.

And, it’s different starting games now, when much of the season Johnston was pitching in relief.

“I think it boosts me more in the game because I know what people expect of me and I get to lead my team,” Johnston said. “It’s more exciting and it’s more nerve wracking. Because I made a mistake and they pick me up and I have to put it past me.”

In 2019 the Hawks won a state championship. When that happened Polzella was a manager on the team, while Matti Johnston was watching her uncles team win the title. Now, both are excited to get their chance to try and win a state title themselves.

“I am super excited,” Polzella said. “Personally I have never been (to the final four). I got to experience it in seventh grade, but not as a player. So, it’s going to be a great opportunity to experience it as a player.

“It’s been a goal for me personally since seventh grade. Coach J always talks about this year is going to be our year and honestly it’s going to be our year.”

Johnston remembers watching her uncles team win that game when she was in elementary school.

“It was so exciting watching those girls play,” she said. “They had so much energy and they were great to look up to it. I loved it.

“It’s insane, this team is crazy talented and the coaches are amazing. It’s insane to believe I am even here now.”

For Matti now she is coached by her uncle, and her dad who is a coach on the staff.

“It’s been fun, but they also push me to work because they know what I can do and they push me to my limits,” Johnston said. “They expect my every effort, 110% all the time. I think them pushing me has gotten us to where we are.”

This roster has 10 kids that are sophomores, or younger, and they know that this experience from being in the state final four will just make them better in the future.

“It’s so exciting,” Johnston said. ‘These junior high kids are learning as we go. Even if they aren’t in a game they are still part of it and they are just learning as we go and we are getting better every day.”

And the experience is also something that can motivate kids that aren’t on the team, just as it motivated girls play Polzella when she was in junior high.

“There is no question,” Johnston Jr. said. “We have a really good modified group coming through. We kept 18 kids at that level. Our JVs were competitive and got some good wins against good opponents and of course, the group we have right now at the varsity level. The thing is, there is no guarantee. You have to keep working at your game, because there is somebody out there who wants your job.”

For the players it’s a dream come true as they had to the final four.

“Super excited, it’s a great experience,” Polzella said. “I feel great, our confidence is up and we are ready to play.”

“I am beyond excited,” Sullivan said. “It’s a crazy experience, once in a lifetime for everybody.

“I have been playing for coach J since I was 12. Ever since I started playing for him on travel league we always said we are going to win a state championship and it’s just crazy to to think that is now and we are living that now.”

The seniors could see at the beginning of the year this team had the ability to do something special.

“The beginning of the year, just the atmosphere and community on this team,” Polzella said.

“I think we all knew it since the beginning of the year,” Sullivan said. “We all work hard. WE are a good group of kids. We all have something different to bring to the table, I think we all knew since the beginning of it and we have been saying it since the beginning of the season.”

The girls are ready, but they know they face a tough test against Saratoga Springs.

“It’s so exciting and it is nerve wracking,” Johnston said. “These teams are amazing and I”m just ready to compete. Every time before we start and inning, me and the infield, we go lets take a breath 1-2-3 and I think that gets us all on the same page and the same wave length.”

Corning enters the game fifth in the state rankings, third among public school teams. Saratoga is fourth, second in public school teams. Last week the Hawks beat the second ranked public school team in the state in North Rockland, who entered last week’s game 22-2.

The other semifinal is Fairport out of Section V and Sachem East out of Section X1.

Corning enters the game 12-6 on the year, while Saratoga is 10-11 on the year.

Corning and Saratoga have one common opponent in unbeaten Vestal. Vestal beat Corning 7-3 and 5-1 this year and they beat Saratoga 5-1.

Johnston Jr. feels like the Hawks are a similar team to Saratoga Springs.

“We prepare a day at a time,” Johnston Jr. said. “We like to think we always have a pretty god scouting report. We have a plan on how we are going to attack them and what we need to take away. What are their strengths, what are their weaknesses.

“I think Saratoga Springs is very much like us in a lot of facets of the game. I always talk about we do A, B and C, but you better know how to defend them and you better know how to attack them from the offensive side of the ball as well.”
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PHOTO BY BRIAN FEES.


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