RANKINGS
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Forty miles northeast of Cleveland lies a quiet village of barely over 2,000 people, LaGrange, Ohio, that’s perhaps most famous for producing Dorothy McGuire, a baseball player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League made famous in the 1992 movie “League of Their Own.”
Lagrange is a typical small farming town in the Buckeye State, full of steam engines and a throwback to a past era where life was slower and people were more friendly and neighborly.
It’s so small, according to Keystone High School Softball Head Coach Jim Piazza, that “we don’t have a traffic light in our actual town… there’s a circle drive where you have four ways to go and each of which will send you in four different directions.”
Small though it may be, the Northeast Ohio village has been put on the national map over the last decade or two because of one main reason: the Keystone High softball program which captured a National Championship in 2012 and has won more games than any other program in the history of Ohio with a 926-165 record.
The small school has also made 16 appearances in the Ohio State Final Four playoffs, also a state record.
Since Keystone started playing high school ball in 1978, the accomplishments have been staggering:
- 33 conference titles
- 39 sectional titles
- 31 district titles
- 16 regional titles
- 7 state runner-up finishes
- 3 state titles (1999, 2006, 2012)
- 1 national title 2012
So how does a small school become such a powerhouse?
Piazza says it goes back to the beginning when a husband and wife coaching duo set the standard for success that continues today.
“Back in 1978, in the first year of the program, Susie Leffew was the coach and did an excellent job and when she became pregnant, her husband Dave took over and he ended up studying pitching and developing pitchers. He taught a pitching style called back then ‘the figure 8 style’ and the team began to dominate the competition.”
“Dave became known for known for developing pitchers in the ‘80’s, which set the school apart back then. and we’d win a lot of small ball games by scores of 1-0. When he retired, he gave pitching lessons to pitchers and the success kept going.”
It took a while, but in 1999—Dave Leffew’s last year of coaching—the school won its first state title behind dominating hurler Aimee Leffew, who was the ace and earned 2nd Team All-State honors for her standout campaign.
And then along came Jim Piazza.
Piazza played baseball and basketball at Keystone and graduated from the school in 1988. While Dave Leffew was a pitching guru, Jim Piazza admits his interest and expertise was on the offensive side.
“I’ve always loved studying hitting,” he explains, “My dad taught me secrets and I picked up things, little weaknesses, which I was able to help correct in the players.”
Heading into the 2018 season–his 16th year at the helm of Keystone—Piazza had a 417-60 record and a list of honors as long as the Ohio River:
- 2012 National Coach of the Year
- 11 times being ranked nationally
- 6 times being ranked No. 1 in Ohio
- 18 players honored as 1st Team All-Ohio picks
- 11 All-Americans
- 54 players who went on to play in college (32 at the DI level) including former All-SEC shortstop Kara Dill, now the pitching coach at Texas A&M
- another 10 who are signed or verballed on the current roster
- two who went on to play professionally.
- The coach clearly recalls the year when the Wildcats started to get national attention.
“It was in 2003,” he remembers, “because that was when we beat a two-time state champion in North Carolina and another top team from Alabama which got us nationally ranked.’
That team went to the state semi’s as did the 2005 squad and the next year Piazza got his first state crown in a record-setting way as pitcher Kristie Malinkey, who would go on to play at Butler, pitched a perfect game in the championship—the only time in Ohio softball finals history that’s been done—as the Wildcats won the Div. II title.
Malinkey was all but untouchable in 2016, going 26-0 with a 016 ERA and 341 K’s to earn 2nd Team Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-American recognition. That season put the exclamation point on a career that saw the Ohio pitcher go 70-6 with 15 career no-hitters and seven perfect games.
Amazingly, in Piazza’s 15-year tenure, his teams have been to the Final Four nine times, and has won at least a Sectional title every season except one, but highlight of his career—and the school’s record-setting success—would have to be the 2012 team that would go 32-0 and finish No. 1 in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 poll.
It wasn’t a cake walk, however, as the Wildcats had to come back from a 2-0 deficit in the title game but put the game away by scoring five runs in the 6th inning to beat Greenville 7-2. It was doubly sweet as Keystone defeated Poland Seminary in the semis, avenging the loss to the team the year before in the 2011 state championship game.
“That 2012 team was one of the most focused groups of kids you’ve ever been around,” remembers Piazza. “We fell short in 2011, losing to Erin Gabriel who pitched at Tennessee, and then faced and beat them in the state semis in 2012to get to the championship game. “
Starring on that team was a pair of home run bashers—McKenzie Conrad, who crushed 12 on the year on her way to earning Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year honors before playing at Coastal Carolina, and Erin Pond, who hit 11 dingers and would go on to play at Penn State.
“I remember when ESPN came to watch us,” recalls Piazza, “One guy said we were one of best high school teams he’d ever seen and how fundamentally sound we were. That team broke the state home run record with 45 after we hit 35 in 2011 which at the time was the Ohio record.”
The power display has continued to this day as the Wildcats would smack 42 in 2016, coming up just three short of their own record to help the team finish as the Div. II state runners-up. Piazza says his teams typically crush 20 or more home runs every year.
In 2017, Keystone went 26-5 and made it to the semi-finals, but is “chomping at the bit,” as one player put it, to win its first state championship in six years.
This year’s team is “pretty good with a lot of talent,” according to the head coach, “and is headlined by strong upperclass talent as we have field five seniors and four juniors. Every player but one sophomore is signed or verballed.”
“There are several players committed in the senior class,” continues the coach, “who have been to the state Final Four all three years and are hungry to get there and win it.”
The team’s success, he believes, will be determined by these key contributors:
- P Sydney Campbell (junior, verbal to Oakland): “As a freshman and sophomore she sat behind Lauren Shaw, now at Iowa, but now it’s Syd’s turn to shine.”
- 1B Brooke Piazza (senior, signed to Muskingum)” “Brooke was 3rd on the team in RBI and batting average last year.”
- OF Marlie McNulty (sophomore, verbal to Pitt): “Marlie was 2nd in average and 1st in steals as our lead-off and earned 3rd Team NFCA All-American honors.”
- IN/OF Madison Nunez (senior, signed to Wright State): “Madi is a power hitter with 14 career home runs and she can catch and play infield and outfield.”
- C/OF Autumn Acord (junior, verbal to Kent State): “Autumn is a versatile catcher and outfield with a strong arm and is a good hitter who has started for us since her freshman year.”
- UT Shelby Fortune (junior, verbal to Akron): “Shelby does a lot of things for us and will add depth wherever we need it.”
The Keystone coaching staff and players will get a good sense of how good the team is—at least early in the season—in late April as the Wildcats host their own 40-team tournament called the Prebis Memorial Classic, named after a long-time couple—Albert and Marion Prebis—who had “never missed a softball game in the history of the program until he was diagnosed with cancer in 2005.”
“We began a tournament in 2006 in his honor and, last year, she passed away so it’s an important way for us to honor them.”
As good as the Keystone team has been between the lines, Piazza is equally—if not more proud—of what his players have done off the field.
The 2017 team had a 3.9 GPA and every player on the roster earned All-Academic Team honors for the area.
In addition, the players organized a toy drive called “Toys for LaGrange” to hand out toys to the needy in the area and also ran a free pancake breakfast for 200 families the week before Christmas.
But, to be clear, it’s the excitement on the field that unites the LaGrange community around the high school softball team like many states support their local high school football teams.
“Our games and state tournament crowds are amazing, it is a sea of purple,” Piazza says with pride. “Our followers beat us to the games—it’s like the old movies where people follow the bus! At a typical high school softball game, we get between 100 to 200 people—it’s pretty cool. That’s who we play for, the fans, and we’re not going to be the group that let’s this tradition fall.”
Ask anyone associated with the Keystone team what makes it so successful and to a person the answer is “tradition.”
“It’s the tradition of our program that will have 30 girls come try out,” the head coach states. “The student-athletes here get hungry to be a part of it. We had 10 basketball players who wanted to be on the softball team because of our success. Another 20 came to work out and condition with us. Everyone wants to embrace the tradition; they all want to know what we’re doing and when it’s starting and they all want to be a part of it.”
Junior Autumn Acord (Kent State commit) says, “I remember when I was five waiting for my first farm practice to happen up at our community park and watching Kara Dill work with her dad and aspiring to be as great of a softball player and person that she is.”
“It’s amazing to see what used to be a small town softball standout (Dill) turn into a state champion, an amazing SEC softball player at Kentucky, and now a coach at Texas A&M. Seeing all of Kara’s success continues to push me as not only a player but a person too. Ever since seeing Kara play I wanted to be apart of the program and help win a state championship like she did in 2006.”
Unlike in some states like Texas, California, Arizona and Louisiana which have already played upwards of 20 or more regular season games this spring, Ohio doesn’t start its season until late March. Earlier this week, the Wildcats kicked off the first of 27 regular season games with a 3-2 victory over Amherst as Autumn Acord hit a two-run home run to spark the win.
The Wildcats will also travel to Myrtle Beach for four games in the Grand Strand Classic to help the team get ready for what it hopes will be a fourth state title in its history.
Madi Nunez, one of the senior leaders on the team, harkens back to the “tradition” theme when she talks about what it’s like to put on the Purple and White jersey.
“Every time I put on my jersey,” she says, “I’m representing every Keystone player that has built the tradition of Keystone softball. It’s an honor to be able to be a part of this program.”
The player continues: “Having younger girls look up to me makes me want to be the best role model for them both on and off the field. Since I was one of the younger girls looking up at the high school players at one time, I remember wanting to be just like them.”
“Pressure is a privilege and there is plenty of it to go around when it comes to this program,” adds Acord. “Everyone on the roster has a role–whether it be being the biggest cheerleader, the bullpen catcher, a pinch runner, or actually playing in the games– everyone takes part in every game.”
“To play for your team and not for yourself is something Coach Jim Piazza stresses very often. You may be the best hitter on the team but if there needs to be a bunt you put the bunt down because that’s what the team needed to be successful. It’s an honor to be a part of this program.”
Senior Valeri Broschk, sister of Alyson Broschk ,a 2012 state champion who continued to play at Cleveland State, will be following in her sister’s footsteps and attending Cleveland State as well to play ball. She added, “It means a lot to be a part of such a successful program and to be able to have such a big goal to work towards every year.”
Brooke Piazza (Muskingum signee) stated, “There’s a tradition that previous players have worked extremely hard to build and it is now our responsibility to keep that tradition alive and growing. Being a part of a program like ours automatically holds you at a higher standard and sometimes it’s a lot to handle, but I personally wouldn’t change it for the world.”
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Here’s a look back at the 2017 Keystone team and video highlights of one of its playoff wins…