Oak Harbor seniors play own roles in team accountability, fit well together
Reagan Schultz expected to be a backup pitcher in high school, meaning she wouldn't be in the circle for Sandusky Bay Conference games.
Instead, she's been the Rockets' pitcher since the team's trip to Florida her first year. She'd make a great center fielder, which is where she's likely to play at Kent State.
"Reagan was thrown in as a baby," Oak Harbor assistant Kaytlynn Sandwisch said. "That's hard. It became a reality and we didn't have options."
Senior classmate Remi Gregory played first base as a freshman. She moved across the diamond to third base last season.
She used to let a strikeout or error eat her alive as she overheated. She drove in 37 runs to establish a single-season program record last year.
Even then, she had a tough time shaking things off. She struck out twice Saturday in a 5-4 victory over Lexington in a Division II regional final at New Riegel.
It's not that she was happy about the whiffs, but she added a few plays on defense and wasn't frustrated about two results in a bigger picture.
Sound simple? Seem like something you can expect?
Oak Harbor coach Chris Rawski knows that's hardly the case. Still, that evolution is essential for a player.
If it ever happens. In no small part because of Gregory's transformation, Rawski's entire team is loose as a goose.
That's why it's playing Plain City Jonathan Alder in the first state semifinal in program history at 12:30 p.m. Thursday at Firestone Stadium in Akron.
Sandwisch, while also not a fan of her own bobbles or strikes as a player, helped Gregory see miscues in a new light.
Why focus on an at-bat or error, rather than the next opportunity to collect a hit or make a play? Otherwise, you're more likely to fail again.
Senior right fielder Sydney Overmyer made two errors in the regional semifinals. She needed a little boost from Rawski under the circumstances, but she bounced back.
"It's a different kind of positive," Sandwisch said of the team overall. "They're happy after mistakes. Reagan kills it with her mental game. Softball is a game of errors and mistakes. The ball finds you. If you're grumpy and emotional, guess where the ball is going?
"The ball will find you."
The team looks to Gregory for a mental check, to Schultz for her burden in the circle and Overmyer for her bubbly personality. They try to set a care free example in terms of the next moment.
"Not only are they tight as friends, they make the team tight," Sandwisch said of the seniors. "They're so open and comfortable and relaxed that it's easy. They're crucial as role models as team players."
It also helps when the team exceeded its goal with its 23rd win at regional, let alone another.
"There was so much pressure on the district final," Sandwisch said. "Even the coaches. They're so loose. They just have to play relaxed."
Another thing you might expect is that teams like each other and get along. That personalities and mentalities fit together.
It's always an important objective, but you know when you have something different. You can also have great chemistry on a losing team, but it can't be assumed and it can be important.
"We went to Florida as separate groups of friends and came home a total family," Rawski said. "They've been that way since. They live every out with each other. Teams who have a run have that. We've had it from the last week of March.
"They always want to be together. You have the idea for that to happen, but you have to let it happen organically. The girls did that on their own."
Not that the journey was devoid of adversity. Schultz excelled in an unexpected role from the time she was thrown into the fire, Gregory became a beacon of leadership and maturity, and Overmyer stepped in later to remind the group there's always something to be happy about.
They don't have more talent or more good fortune, so much as a calm. The exceptions being extra-base hits and defensive gems.
"There's a close bond," Rawski said. "They have a district championship and a regional championship. They made school history. No one can take that away from them and those numbers and names go on a banner forever."
mhorn@gannett.com
419-307-4892
Twitter: @MatthewHornNH
This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Rockets pressure evaporated after district championship
