'Queenie' Rules Royally on Diamond
By Ron Haramia
WALKERTON � Since her freshman year, she has been affectionately known as �Queenie�. Now a senior pitcher on the John Glenn softball team, Stephanie Drotar lived up to that nickname Friday afternoon as she was the queen of the hill, throwing a two-hit shutout in the Falcons� 6-0 victory.
�I felt pretty good today,� said Drotar, who struck out five and only walked two on a sunny but windy day. �The defense helped a lot. I am very thankful for that. We just clicked today as a team.�
Throwing mostly fastballs with an occasional change up, Drotar was certainly clicking from the circle, needing just 81 pitches to even her record at 1-1 and the team�s at 2-2.
Comet second baseman Stephanie Good broke up the no-hit bid with two outs in the fourth and also collected the other hit for the visitors with a lead-off single in the seventh. The only other time the Lady Comets threatened was in the second inning when Drotar walked the second and third batters of the inning. Two strikeouts put an end to that threat and she cruised the rest of the way.
�Both pitchers threw well,� said head coach Dan Drotar, who also happens to be Stephanie�s dad. �(Stephanie) settled down after the walks.�
�I just tried to stay consistent,� the pitching Drotar said. �Coach (Joe Spinsky) has been working with me a lot on my mechanics.�
The Comets were in need of a hitting mechanic to try and fix their batting woes against the Falcon thrower on this day. Drotar even helped herself with the glove (recording four putouts out of the 13 ground ball outs) and the bat (one RBI).
�We have been Jekyll and Hyde with our defense,� added coach Drotar. �We had no errors our first game (against Goshen), 10 (on Wednesday) against South Central and only one today.�
Spinsky is a former head coach at South Bend Clay High School and last year was an assistant at SB Washington. This year he is the Falcons� pitching coach. The last time Spinsky was at Glenn was as a student. He graduated with the first class there in 1967.
�We have some bugs to work out, but Stephanie did a good job today,� he said. �She is picking up her speed and location. This game should give her a lot of confidence.�
Coming off a loss to Class A No. 9 South Central Wednesday, Friday�s game should give the Falcons plenty of confidence. Besides strong pitching and defense, the Glenn bats made good contact even though they only recorded five hits.
�We hit the ball well today,� coach Drotar said. �We had several go right at them; otherwise, we would have had more (hits).�
Drotar, father and daughter, received all of the support they would need in the first two innings.
In the bottom half of the first, leadoff batter Celia Shortt singled and No. 2 hitter Vanessa Anderson walked. Sarah Keeling�s single plated Shortt, Drotar�s groundout Anderson, and Maria Holland�s sharp single scored Keeling.
In the second frame, the Falcons scored without the benefit of a hit. After walks to Brittany Zwierzynski and Shortt to open the inning, a passed ball moved both up a base. Anderson hit a sharp grounder to shortstop that scored Zwierzynski and a throwing error (Caston�s only error of the game) allowed Shortt to waltz in.
Caston�s pitcher, Jenny Curtis, threw a respectable game herself. Her five-hitter included three strikeouts and she faced only 15 batters the last four innings.
But it wasn�t enough for the �Queenie� and her court.
The Falcons will play their fourth game in four days when they travel to Westview this morning for a doubleheader. The first game starts at 10 a.m.
� GLENN 5, CASTON 0
At Walkerton
Caston 000 000 0 � 0 2 1
Glenn 320 010 x � 6 5 1
Jenny Curtis (L) and Whitney Townsend; Stephanie Drotar (W, 1-1) and Brittany Zwierzynski.
Records: Glenn 2-2, Caston 1-1
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