Howard sister act helps carry CASS Knights to OFSAA girls’ softball title

The CASS Knights (assembled at left) defeated Guelph JF Ross (right) by a 9-4 score to capture the OFSAA championship Thursday, June 12 in Paris. (Jeff Tribe Photo)

Jeff Tribe, Echo Correspondent

Ms. Softball held the alpha and omega of a historic Woodstock College Avenue (CASS) Knights Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) championship season in her potent pitching hand.

The Knights’ Morgan Howard, named Thames Valley Regional Athletics (TVRA) Ms. Softball through a vote by the league’s coaches, threw her team’s first pitch in a TVRA victory over Ingersoll DCI (IDCI) Blue Bombers, May 9 in Woodstock. She also pitched on June 12 in Paris as CASS locked up an OFSAA title with a 9-4 victory over Guelph JF Ross.

Howard’s younger sister Mckenzie started the final, a strategic move by coach Ryan Stafford because core members of the JF Ross squad had seen Morgan pitch four times previously this season in U17 Tier I competition involving Howard’s Waterloo Ghosts and the Guelph Gators.

“She’s (Mckenzie) a Grade 9 kid, ripped 12 strikeouts in the final game, the gold medal game - it’s unheard of. This kid is special, next level.”

The Knights struck early with two runs in their first at-bat, building a 6-0 lead before adding three insurance markers in the home sixth. Offensively, Hannah Ryksen went 2-3 at the plate with three RBI, Emma Colcuc was 1-3 with two RBIs and Payton Jones 2-3 with a triple. The Gators rallied for four runs with one out in the top of the seventh, inducing Stafford to call on his staff ace.

“I brought Morgan in and she closed the door.”

CASS entered the OFSAA final as top West seed following an eight-team June 4 qualifier. The Knights went 5-0 with wins over London St. Thomas Aquinas, Strathroy, London Lucas, Arva Medway, and in the final, the IDCI Blue Bombers. Guelph and Paris emerged as the top two seeds from a similar OFSAA East qualifier.

College Avenue opened with a 10-0 mercy-rule win over the host Paris team in semi-final action, Morgan Howard giving up one hit across four innings of shutout ball, while helping her own cause with a home run and three RBI. Mckenzie Howard went 2 for 3 with an RBI and Emma Perryman was 2-2 with two RBI. An IDCI squad, which Stafford said continued to build as the season progressed, lost a narrow 3-2 decision to Guelph in the other semi-final.

The Knights capped a perfect 14-0 won-lost record with the OFSAA final victory in a team effort, said Stafford, with shared support and contributions regardless of whether the players were members of Tier I or house league teams outside of high school.

“It was a team of commitment and heart.”

It was also accomplished with Chloe Jones, headed to The University of Windsor on a softball scholarship next year, on the DL with an MCL injury suffered the previous month.

“The girls rose to the occasion and rose to the challenge.”

The season, the first officially sanctioned by the TVRA, could not have finished up any better, said Stafford.

“It’s only going to get better,” he predicted. “I assume we’ll get more teams and it will keep growing.”