For the West Geauga Wolverines Softball Team, a main focus of the season has been to play a challenging schedule in order to prepare for playoff softball.
For the West Geauga Wolverines Softball Team, a main focus of the season has been to play a challenging schedule in order to prepare for playoff softball.
With difficult competition, the Wolverines 2025 season started slow as they compiled a 3-9 record through the first twelve games.
However, the team’s performance over the last month has been stellar as they finished the regular season with a 7-2 record heading into their first playoff game with the Cleveland Central Catholic Ironmen.
With a high level of confidence, the Wolverines continued their excellent play against the Ironmen with a 21-2 playoff victory on May 15 at West Geauga High School.
In their win over the Ironmen, both the Wolverines’ hitting and pitching were dominant.
In fact, for the game, the Wolverines compiled 25 hits in the first four innings.
To start the contest, the Wolverines plated thirteen runs in the first inning.
They then added four runs in the second, one run in the third, and three runs in the fourth to claim a five inning run-rule victory.
Leading the Wolverines at the plate against the Ironmen were Peyton Gambatese (5-5, 3 doubles; 4 RBI), Dayana Malone (4-4, 2 RBI), Sydney Gallagher (3-3) and Ava Borz (2-2; double; triple; 2 RBI).
Gambatese, who had five hits against the Ironmen, said that a key for the Wolverines hitters as they began the playoffs was to be confident.
“Going into today (against the Ironmen), we just had to be really confident in ourselves and we’re looking to take our energy from today into our game on Tuesday against Salem (in the Sectional Finals),” Gambatese said.
Borz, who has been the Wolverines top hitter this season, also continued her excellent hitting in the playoffs.
Heading into the contest with the Ironmen, Borz led the Wolverines during the regular season in batting average (.541), on base percentage (.616), hits (33), home runs (5), doubles (12), RBI (35) and runs scored (30).
Borz said that against the Ironmen, the key for her was to adjust to the style of pitching that she was facing.
“It really helped when my teammates were telling me what to expect,” said Borz.
As dominant as the Wolverines offense was, the pitching was just as superb.
Lely Percassi pitched the first two innings, striking out six straight Ironmen to start the game.
After the contest, Percassi talked about her pitching performance.
“I had good back up from my teammates, and good help from my catcher, and I felt like I did really good today,” Percassi said.
In striking out all six batters she faced, Percassi said that her top pitches were her fastball and drop curve.
In relief, Dayana Malone pitched the third and fourth inning, also striking out all six batters that she faced.
To get to this point of performing optimally at the start of the playoffs, Coach Percassi said that is why he chose to challenge his team with such a difficult schedule throughout the season.
After a challenging start to the season, Coach Percassi expressed that the turning point for the Wolverines was a mid-season game in which the Wolverines got run ruled 12-2 against the Willoughby South Rebels.
In a team meeting after the game, Coach Percassi said that the Wolverines decided that they wanted to strive for excellence.
“We just needed a moment together as a team to decide ‘do we want to do this the right way?’, said Coach Percassi. “Do we want to improve?”
The coach continued: “Everybody agreed that it’s time to turn it up. We weren’t mentally ready for that game (against the Rebels). And it just clicked after that.”
“The magic, so to speak, happened after that.”
During the last half of the season, Coach Percassi said that the team did a great job of improving their focus.
In particular, the team concentrated on playing the game the right way and improving their intensity.
Coach Percassi said that his team began to concentrate on not worrying about the outcome and playing the game one pitch at a time.
“Don’t worry about the scoreboard, play the game the way it’s meant to be played, every inning,” Coach Percassi said. “Every inning is a new fresh start.”
As the regular season concluded, the Wolverines realized how much they improved by challenging themselves to play tough competition.
In their final regular season game, the Wolverines faced perennial Northeast Ohio Softball power, the Div. II, number two ranked Walsh Jesuit Warriors.
Facing Division I University of Akron pitching commit, Kayla McGhee and University of Tampa pitching commit, Katie Lippencott, the Wolverines took an 8-7 lead into the 7th inning against the Warriors.
Although the Wolverines ended up losing to the Warriors, 9-8, they showed that they could compete at a high level against the best teams in the state.
Coach Percassi said that the game against the Warriors did a lot for the Wolverines’ confidence heading into the playoffs.
“It did a lot for their mentality,” said Percassi. “I think it was another moment where they realized, ‘Hey we’re pretty darn good. We just took Walsh to the end’. That’s a big deal. I think that’s good leading into the playoffs.”
