Driscoll falls behind early, can't catch up

St. Edward tried everything to break out of a midseason hitting slump.

The girls do mean, everything.

"Wiffle balls, popcorn -- everything we could find to throw at them, we did," Lady Wave coach Mike Rolando said. "Every day we opened the cages at 8 a.m."

On Saturday Rolando's girls bore little resemblance to the team that managed more than 3 runs just once in a nine-game stretch in late April. The Lady Wave pounded out 18 hits, batting around in 6-run first and sixth innings, to beat Driscoll 14-4 in the Class 2A Driscoll softball regional final.

St. Edward (16-11), winners of six straight games, moves on to play Westmont on Thursday in the Timothy Christian sectional.

"Our bats were really cold earlier in the year; our pitching and defense kept us in games," said Rolando. "We kept telling the girls the bats will wake up. Today it seemed like it all came together."

Kelly Knott drilled the first pitch of the bottom of the first for a double and scored on Kristi Knott's infield single. Megan Pozezinski followed with a towering drive that cleared the fence in left field for her second homer of the year, making it 3-0.

"I knew the minute I hit it it was gone," said Pozezinski, who went 4-for-4 and scored 4 runs.

The Lady Wave had 11 batters come to the plate in the first. Megan Smith's 2-run bloop single finished the scoring.

That was more than enough for starting pitcher Erin McGraw, who came into the game with a 1.66 earned run average.

McGraw (8-6), who also went 3-for-4 with 3 runs batted in, held Driscoll hitless until the Highlanders (13-16) broke through for 4 runs in the fifth.

"It's nice when I know my team has my back," she said.

Down 8-0, Driscoll's Gina Maritote singled with two outs in the fifth for the team's first hit. She scored on Stephanie Ganster's line-drive single. Maggie Writt's 2-run double made it 8-4, where it remained until St. Edward's 6-run sixth.

"These kids had heart all year long," Driscoll coach Nick Christopher said. "All season long we've come back when we're down."

Kelly Knott, one of seven St. Edward seniors, doubled in the game's final 2 runs. The regional title is St. Edward's first since those seniors were freshmen.

"We really wanted this one," said Pozezinski, another senior. "It feels great."