Warriors blast 3 homers, advance to state for 2nd straight year

FINDLAY – A trip back to Akron's Firestone Stadium is on deck.Mohawk's Megan Johnson had three balls before swinging for the fences and hoping.It worked as the freshman hammered a three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning. It was enough to send the Warriors back to Akron for the second year in a row as they topped Edgerton 6-2 in a Division VII regional final at Babcock Field in Findlay on Friday."All season long, one of our goals has been to get back to Akron," Mohawk coach Mindy Walton said. "I always say that we have some unfinished business there. Obviously, our first goal was to win the Northern 10 then to get to where we are now."It was the freshmen's second dinger of the year."I wasn't really thinking about anything," Johnson said. "All I could think about was how much my team needed me."The team itself doesn't have any seniors, and getting back to state semifinals is anything but an easy feat."It's really hard to get back-to-back state runs," Aubrey Gottfried said. "It's really impressive to see and do that with a young team. I can't wait to see what the next game holds. I hope we have the same outcome. I have said it the past couple of games, take it one game at a time, one inning at a time, because you never know."The Warriors (26-3) struggled the first three innings to get any hits to produce runs, and when Edgerton (18-5) came up to bat, it was the first to put a run on the board from an Alivia Farnham single that drove in Morgan Cape."Second time through the lineup, we needed to do it now," Walton said. "Once we started hitting, we got into their pitcher's head a little bit and we kind of learned about their team for the last day and a half. I knew if we made solid contact that we could produce runs."That included watching the Bulldogs after trouncing Gibsonburg 13–3 on Wednesday."We saw what they did to Ayserville," Walton said. "They didn't hit the ball hard. That's part of being a great pitcher is to hit to your defense. We talked about the different pitches that we would see and how we needed to get on top of the ball. We knew if we put the ball in play hard that we could make them make errors."Emily Brickner singled and then stole second as Katie Woodland was at bat. Woodland had 10 home runs on the season coming into the game. She added No. 11 as she sent the ball sailing center field over the fence, nailing a roof and had two RBI."It still amazes me that she did that," Walton said "I don't count out home runs now. They seem to be a part of our game now."It put Mohawk in the lead, 2-1, in the bottom of the fourth inning.The very next inning and with two outs, Mallory Brickner sent one over the fence, and ran the basepaths on her own. It was 3–1.In the top of the seventh, Amelia Guesige had her own dinger in right field with a three-ball count as well. "I'm just proud of my kids," Bulldogs coach Marchetta Caryer said. "Nobody would have bet on us to be here and we proved ourselves. We knew we were capable of being in this position. We were playing really good ball at the right time of the season. We fell a little short against a great team."Gottfried also credits Woodland's hitting, and Mallory Brickner, the catcher for the Warriors, as pitcher and catcher must work in tandem to make the defense behind the plate work."I was more upset in the one inning because Blake got hurt," Gottfried said of her first baseman. "She already had an injured foot coming in, and was only supposed to infield today, but she gave it her best today. I felt really bad and Mallory looked at me and said: 'Look she's fine. Let's reset, get the next out, and you are really helping us out right now. Don't worry about that one run, we will get it next inning.'"Gottfried is up to 309 strikeouts this season.Gottfried allowed two runs on four hits, with 16 strikeouts and one walk. Whether it's Portsmouth Notre Dame (25-4) or Bowerston Conotton Valley (20-9), the Warriors will have to battle it out if they want to make it to the state finals. That game will be played on Saturday.Last season, Mohawk fell to Monroeville 4-2 in the state semifinals."We know that regardless of who we get, it's going to be from the southeastern region," Walton said. "We have been watching those games the past couple of days and all of those teams are state champions. We know and so do the girls, that we have a good ballgame coming up. We will prepare for that in the coming days, but right now, we are going to enjoy this."