BY BRIAN FEESSouthern Tier Sports Report
BINGHAMTON — Not only did the Corning Hawks claim the STAC Championship on Saturday afternoon at Greenlight Grand Slam Park, they did so in dominating fashion.
The Hawks outscored a pair of state-ranked teams by a combined score of 13-0 to capture the title for the second straight year.
“Two years in a row,” senior Matti Johnston said. “Hard work pays off. The team deserves every win they get because they work really hard.”
Overall the Hawks pitching held their two opponents to seven hits and two walks, striking out 20 between the two games.
Emelia Smith started things out for the Hawks with a three-hit shutout, striking out 10 against two walks in the semifinals, a 7-0 win over Waverly, ranked No. 22 in the state in Class A.
For the Hawks it was a bit of a risk to throw Smith, a freshman, so that all-state standout, and Albany commit, Matt Johnston wouldn’t have to pitch both games.
“It was huge,” Corning coach Mike Johnston Jr. said. “It is a roll of the dice. It’s not a put down to the team we were playing. We were taking a chance that we had a couple of other pitchers that are different, they don’t have the same pitches, or have the same stature or experience eon the mound, throwing the most innings, but it allowed us to save her (Johnston) for the championship that she was full go, she threw a heck of a game. Kudos to Emelia Smith, she had 10 strikeouts, just a freshman, but a three-year starter. To come in, there are great things to come from that kid. She’s exciting. She works with Mike Muhleisen, who has kids playing at the highest level of D1. He’s a great pitching coach from that standpoint. I’d like to see him continue to make her better, so we can continue to thrive.”
With Johnston on the team it doesn’t lead to a ton of starts for Smith, but she also had some big moments down the stretch last year for the Hawks.
“Last year in the STAC tie-breaker to go on to win the league she came in and pitched a heck of a game for us,” Johnston Jr. said. “And, then today we are playing a Waverly team that’s on a 10-game winning streak. It was a heck of a game, four innings, we finally scratched some runs off and started to settle in and get some confidence and played great defense behind both pitchers.
“We had two shutouts, you just don’t do that at this level when you are playing three teams that are state ranked, and a fourth ourselves. Just really proud of our kids and the composure they have, the poise. They are sharing the limelight weigh teach other. They don’t care who gets the credit, they just want to win.”
For Matti Johnston it was nice seeing Smith pitch the opener so she could be fully rested for the final.
“She did an amazing job,” Johnston said. “I’m really proud of her. She struck out 10 people and led us to the win.”
For Smith she was ready for the moment.
“I came prepared,” Smith said. “It feels really good, it was amazing.”
The Waverly game was scoreless into the fourth, but Smith knew the offense would come alive.
“My team offense is amazing,” she said. “Even in close games we always put the bat on the ball.”
In the Waverly game Lauren DeRosa had two hits, with a triple, two RBI and a run scored and Johnston was 2-for-3 with a run scored.
Sophie Schoonover, Smith, Hannah Kauffman, Keana Mann, Keira Brass and Katie Grover had hits and Schoonover, Smith, Kauffman, Mann and Brass scored runs. Grover had two RBI and Kauffman had an RBI.
Taylin Gonzalez struck out four for the Wolverines.
For Schoonover the entire day was a full team effort.
“It’s really great,” she said. “It was a huge team effort. Emelia pitched a great first game and Matti pitched a great final game. Our bats came alive and it was a huge team effort.”
In the second game Johnston threw a four-hitter with 10 strikeouts and no walks.
“She was incredible on the mound today,” Johnston Jr. said. “Her ball was really spinning.”
For Johnston after resting the first game she was ready to pitch well in the final.
“To dominate honestly,” was the goal Johnston said. “We have seen them before, we know their strengths, we know their weaknesses.”
That led to a 7-0 win over Vestal, who is 13-3 and ranked third in the state in Class AA. The three Vestal losses this year have all come to Corning.
Johnston got on base and made things happen to score the opening run in the first inning and the Hawks led 1-0 in the third when Schoonover came to the plate.
The Hawks slugger crushed a home run to dead center to put Corning up 3-0.
“Schoonie hit a bomb,” Johnston Jr. said. “It was a 10 game, it’s 3-0 and our kids are starting to get acclimated at the plate. They changed pitchers. I thought everyone was hitting the ball hard, putting it forward, making them have to make plays and our base running is so different. We are just so aggressive on the bases, it makes people have to make plays quickly so you don’t have time to think, you have to react. I think that plays to our advantage.”
For Matti Johnston it was big on the mound to see the lead go to three with the home run.
“She did her job, she went up to the plate and whacked it over the fence,” Johnston said. “It got us going, it was a good start.”
For Schoonover the goal was just to go up and put the ball in play.
“I just came up trying to stay relaxed and put the ball in play,” Schoonover said. “I’m never hoping fro a certain kind of hit. I’m looking for my pitch and I’m ready to hit. My team is my confidence booster, they helped us through everything.”
Against Vestal the Hawks got the home run, two RBI and a run scored from Schoonover and Johnston had two hits, a double and two runs scored.
Smith and Kauffman each had hits and scored runs and Kauffman had an RBI, while Mia Madden scored a run.
Erin Gore struck out six in four innings for Vestal and Allie Policare struck out one in two innings.
Maggie Costello and Emma Annunziata each had two hits for the Golden Bears.
The Hawks scored 12 runs in the third inning or later and 10 in the fourth inning or later between the two games.
“No matter what we continue to work hard,” Johnston said. “Even if we are down, or if we haven’t scored yet we work hard.”
The Hawks know they have a deep lineup that lets them be relentless all games.
“We are very diverse,” Schoonover said. “We work every single day. We do intricate things to help each other. We have slapping, we have heavy hitters, we have people who are consistent so that makes up our lineup to do a really good job together.”
The Hawks are happy they can score all game, but they’d like to be able to put up more runs earlier in the games than they did on Saturday.
“We are going to work on doing it early so we don’t have to worry about that later in the game,” Schoonover said.
For the Hawks what makes them so successful is they know how to work hard, but also have fun.
“At practice we are locked in and ready to go,” Johnston said. “When we get to games the most important thing is to have fun here. We love each other, we are family, just being able to come into the game and have fun and be competitive at the same time is a privilege.”
Corning is back at Greenlight Grand Slam Park at 1:30 p.m. on May 30 when they face Elmira in the Section IV, Class AAA title game.
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PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES
PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE SEMIFINALS AND FINAL:
