STANDISH — With each batter in the first inning Wednesday, Telstar’s message grew louder.

It wasn’t a polite, tap-on-the-shoulder reminder to top seed and defending state champion Madison. It was more like a smack-in-the-mouth warning.

“We wanted to try to get ahead,” Telstar coach Jim Lunney said. “I like being the visiting team. If you score, all of a sudden it’s a whole new ballgame. We got to throw a three-spot on the board and that puts the fear into anybody.”

The Rebels took that quick 3-0 lead and seized control of their Western C championship game at Bailey Field at Saint Joseph’s College. They kept the stunned Bulldogs at bay from there in an 8-3 win over a Madison team seeking a third consecutive regional crown.

“That’s one thing we really focused on,” junior third baseman Ashley Savage said. “We came in thinking we had to get ahead. We had to keep putting it on. The more pressure we put on them, the more errors they’d make.”

The Bulldogs (17-2) didn’t look like their normal selves from the start. Telstar produced 12 hits off Madeline Wood while top-seeded Madison made four errors . The Bulldogs closed the gap to 3-2 with a pair of runs in the third, but Telstar answered, and pulled away.

“Every team has that inning every single game,” junior pitcher Olivia York said. “There’s always one inning. It’s something you can’t worry about. You have to get over it and you have to get back up.”

The Western Class C title is Telstar’s seventh, and the sixth in 10 years. The Rebels play in the Class C state game Saturday at noon at Coffin Field in Brewer.

“Last year, I played on the JV team,” Savage said. “I didn’t play on the varsity and to play every single game this year, I couldn’t image myself here with this team. It’s just awesome.”

York held Madison to just three hits, and struck out four. The only time she looked flustered was in the third, when she walked back to back hitters, one with the bases loaded.

The Rebels were outstanding in the outfield, with Tehya Johnson, Haley Peterson and Katie Merrill chasing down most everything in sight. Becca Johnson was solid at short while Savage did another great job at third.

“We had a bad inning, but we kept coming back,” Lunney said. “(York) got outs when she needed outs. She settled in. She’s done a great job all year. Our defense has been strong all year. We made some mistakes, but that was a little bit of nervousness.”

Johnson finished with two hits and four RBI. Senior catcher Sadie Ellsworth had three hits, scored twice and drove in a run. Howard and York also had a pair of hits.

“We just knew that we needed to swing the bats,” Savage said. “We struggled throughout the year with that, but we definitely did well with that. We just swung the bats because we knew we had no other choice.”

Savage sparked the first inning with her lead-off at-bat. Her grounder to third was thrown away, putting the Rebels in business immediately.

“I know the first pitch is hard for me because I haven’t seen much pitching,” Savage said. “So I knew I had to come out and hit it. No matter what, I had to put my head down and run to first base.”

Ellsworth followed with a textbook bunt toward first that she beat out for a hit.

“That bunt, someone should take a picture of that and say, ‘This is what you’re supposed to do,'” Lunney said. “What a great push bunt that was.”

Howard followed with a single that plated Savage. Then Johnson singled in Ellsworth and Howard for the 3-0 lead. The top four hitters in the Rebels’ lineup combined for six runs, eight hits and six RBI.

“We needed to get ahead early and we needed to stay ahead,” Johnson said. “It’s always good to get ahead and keep pushing. I knew I had to keep fouling the ball off or put it in play. I knew my teammates believed in me, and that’s what I did.”

Madison got its lead runner on in the first when Kayla Bess singled, but Ellsworth threw her out at second. The Bulldogs got a runner on in the second on an error but couldn’t get anything going. In the third, Madison got within 3-2 with a pair of runs on a hit and an error.

Madison loaded the bases in that third. Aly LeBlanc plated one run on a fielder’s choice. Then Erin Whalen walked with the bases loaded to bring in another. York got a pop up and then fielded a hit back to the circle to end the inning. Telstar also got a key defensive play by Vanessa Godwin at first. She saved more damage when she scooped a low throw on the LeBlanc fielder’s choice.

When Telstar defense took the field again in the fourth, the Rebels had righted things. York gathered her team in the circle to begin the inning and rallied the squad.

“We do a good job of keeping each other calm,” York said. “We talk about the plays that need to be made and things like that. It just calms us down.”

Madison didn’t get another hit until Whalen doubled in the sixth.  Meanwhile, Telstar added to the lead. The Rebels made it 5-2 in the fifth when Ellsworth and Howard led off with singles. In four of the seven innings, the Rebels got the lead batter on four times. Johnson followed with a two-run triple.

“Mr. Lunney said that the (third) was a bad inning and that we just had to come back with a good one,” Johnson said. “Obviously we did that. We just wiped it out and didn’t focus on it too much.”

Telstar kept them coming. In the sixth, Godwin singled and Savage reached on an error. An Ellsworth fielder’s choice scored pinch-runner Dharma Damon. Savage came in on a wild pitch to make it 7-2. In the top of the seventh, Peterson led off with a single. She later scored on an error on a Godwin grounder.

Madison got one run back in the bottom of the seventh when Destiny Howes reached on an error. She later scored on a sacrifice fly by Bess. Merrill made a nice running catch for the out. Then Howard fielded a Wood grounder and threw to Godwin for the final out.

It was the 11th straight win for the Rebels after a mid-season loss to Madison, a 2-1 setback.

“At the beginning of the year, I probably wouldn’t have pictured us here,” York said.

kmills@sunjournal.com

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