Molebash’s no-hitter, patience at plate lead Culver to advance past O-D

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Aiden Molebash Brianna Schlemmer Brooke Davis

UNION MILLS — If you do not think a high school softball pitcher and catcher are smart enough, dedicated enough and mature enough to call their own pitches, it is possible that you have not met Culver’s Aiden Molebash and Gracie Milam.

Molebash and Milam do just that with no input from the coaches, and they put their heads together to good effect as Molebash pitched a no-hitter to lead the Lady Cavaliers to a 16-0 win in five innings over Oregon-Davis in a Class 1A, Sectional 51 quarterfinal at South Central Monday.

Molebash faced 17 batters and struck out 12 of them. No O-D player hit the ball out of the infield, and no O-D player got farther than first base.

The no-hitter was Molebash’s second of the season. She also threw a five-inning no-hitter in a 20-0 win over Culver Academy May 2.

She said she has also thrown four no-hitters, including a perfect game, in travel ball games.

She gave Milam great credit for framing pitches and making them look more attractive. She said she and Milam started calling pitches during a 9-2 loss to North Judson on May 14.

“I think mostly I call them,” Molebash said of the pitch-calling. “But Gracie definitely has a lot of input when I’m up in the count, or if I’m not sure, she’ll call them sometimes. It’s like 70-30, I think.”

Culver coach J.B. Overmyer said Molebash generally adapts well to the home plate umpire’s strike zone. Today was no different.

“That’s what she likes to do,” Overmyer said. “She likes to paint corners and find that blue’s strike zone and stay right at that line. She’s a highly intelligent pitcher and finds the zone.”

Molebash, a junior, said she has been pitching since she was 9. Up until that point, she was a catcher.

“And so when I was 9 through 12, I was really torn,” Molebash said. “I didn’t know which one I wanted to do. And then by the age of 13, I think I picked pitching, and then I loved it from then. … My mom was my coach when I was little, and no one else wanted to pitch, so she told me I had to. And that’s how I started.”

Molebash takes pitching lessons from former Rochester High School and Indiana State player Abbie (Malchow) Overmyer. She said Overmyer and her have similar physiques, and that allows her to connect with Overmyer. She has built her repertoire up to six pitches.

“She’s helped me drastically,” Molebash said. “I don’t think I’d be where I am today without her. She’s definitely mentally helped me a lot, I think. … We have very similar body builds, so I think that helps out a lot because a tall pitching coach I don’t think could help me as much figure out how to get power through my legs and stuff. Because someone like Molly (Madsen of North Judson) just has a lot of whip, and she doesn’t have to have strength. Being 5-4 and Molly being like 6-2 I think is a really big difference.”

Offensively, 16 different Culver players got a plate appearance. Milam doubled and walked three times, and Molebash went 2 for 3 with an RBI and two runs scored.

Dutch foreign exchange student Hanne Dollevoet had two hits off the bench, and Brianna Schlemmer had a double and three RBIs.

Oregon-Davis starting pitcher Hana Simon walked nine and hit a batter.

Simon struck out Abigayle Zehner and Brooke Davis to open the game and got Molebash on a liner to second.

Culver’s patience paid off in the second. They did not have a hit but scored three runs. Milam walked and went to second on a wild pitch. Savannah Schlemmer was hit by a pitch. Brianna Schlemmer’s grounder to short turned into a forceout at second. Schlemmer then stole second.

Milam scored on a wild pitch, and Schlemmer moved to third. Schlemmer then scored on another wild pitch.

Two batters later, Alexis Gasanovas walked, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a passed ball.

In the third, Abigayle Zehner waited out a walk, stole second, went to third on a passed ball and scored when the throw to try to get her at third went into shallow left field for an error.

Brooke Davis, normally a right-handed batter, switched to left-handed – Overmyer said it was Davis’ decision to bat lefty but something the coaches have been encouraging her to do to take advantage of her speed – and dropped a well-placed drag bunt single between Simon in the circle and the first baseman. Simon then walked Molebash, Milam and Savannah Schlemmer.

In between, Davis scored on a passed ball to make it 5-0.

Orr relieved Simon, who appeared to be suffering from some heat stress, in the circle.

Unlike Simon, Orr threw strikes, and the Lady Cavaliers hit them.

Brianna Schlemmer hammered a two-run double, and when the throw back in from the infield, missed the cutoff man, Savannah Schlemmer scored on the error.

The lead was 8-0.

Maddie Kitts’ RBI single to center made it 9-0.

Kitts went to second on a wild pitch and third on Gasanovas’ groundout to short before scoring on Hayden Lute’s bloop single to center.

Zehner cracked a double to the left-center field fence to plate Lute all the way from first, and when the throw in from the outfield again missed the cutoff man, Zehner raced all the way in from second to make it 12-0, celebrating as she crossed home plate with a yell.

Two batters later, Molebash singled and scored from first when Milam doubled over the left fielder’s head. Savannah Schlemmer’s RBI bloop single completed the 11-run inning and made it 14-0.

“It was exactly that,” Overmyer said of the plate discipline. “That first inning, we came out the first two (batters), and we were swinging at high balls and balls we shouldn't swing at. The girls just wanted to get out here and play some softball and get up on them quick. You can’t do that. Finally, they settled in and started taking pitches and getting on base. That’s where we started scoring runs, and then we actually started hitting the ball again.”

Hazel Tomblin added an RBI double in the fourth, and Molebash had an RBI triple in the fifth to complete the scoring.

“As a team, we hit better off 50, 55 miles per hour pitchers instead of low 30s, 40 mile per hour pitchers,” Molebash said. “So I think … none of us could sit back and drive the ball. We were chasing it and chasing home runs, so I think being patient and drawing walks helped us a lot instead of trying to crush the ball over the fence.”

Culver will play host South Central in the semifinals at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Wednesday. The Lady Satellites, the defending sectional champs, beat North Judson 11-0 in six innings in another quarterfinal Monday.

South Central beat Culver 23-8 at Cavalier Park on May 6 in their regular season meeting. Molebash did not pitch in that game while South Central ace Maddy Cleek did.

Argos beat Elkhart Christian 15-12 in Monday’s first quarterfinal. Argos will play Triton in the semifinals later today.

Culver 16, Oregon-Davis 0 (5 innings)

Culver 03(11) 11 – 16 12 0

Oregon-Davis 000 00 – 0 0 2

WP – Aiden Molebash (5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 12 K)

LP – Hana Simon (3 IP, 3 H, 8 R, 6 ER, 9 BB, 1 HBP, 4 K)

2B – Brianna Schlemmer (CUL), Abigayle Zehner (CUL), Gracie Milam (CUL), Hazel Tomblin (CUL)

3B – Aiden Molebash (CUL)