Though she's piled up 23 home runs and batted over .500 during her storied career, Erin Gabriel is best known as Poland's ace pitcher.
Photo by Mike Capps
softball player
Erin Gabriel isn't coasting through her final prep season this spring despite a list of accomplishments longer than most her age would ever dream of.
The fact that she's won back-to-back Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year honors the last two seasons is only the starting point.
After giving her verbal commitment to the University of Tennessee during the middle of her junior season, Gabriel pitched a 1-hitter as the Bulldogs beat Keystone (La Grange) 4-0 to win their first state championship last June.
The last two years, Gabriel represented the nation when she played for the USA Softball Junior Women's National team.
So what's keeping her from giving in to senioritis?
How about Ohio's Division II state rankings for starters – it's Keystone that's ranked No. 1 and not Poland.
"We only lost two starters from last year, so to see the state rankings was a real big motivator," Gabriel said. "It's a little hurtful. We feel a little disrespected."
Gabriel is approaching 1,000 strikeouts for her career.
Photo by Mike Capps
Considering what she has accomplished throughout her prep career, Gabriel has the track record offensively and in the circle to show she just might quiet the remaining doubters over the coming weeks.
The Bulldogs, who were 18th in last week's Xcellent 25 National Softball Rankings, are 17-2 heading into their game May 9 at Howland (Warren).
Gabriel is 10-1 with 143 strikeouts and just 11 walks in 76 1/3 innings with a 0.83 ERA. For her career, she is 63-6 with a 0.55 ERA and 955 strikeouts in 463 innings.
Offensively, Gabriel bats cleanup and plays second base when she's not pitching.
She has five home runs and 22 RBI with a .462 batting average through 19 games this season. She's slugged 23 home runs and piled up 125 RBI and a .507 average in 357 career at bats.
Gabriel has split time in the circle the last two seasons with senior Jenna Modic, who also plays third base and has signed to play for Miami-Ohio.
"She's absolutely had a very good year," coach Reid Lamport said. "(Gabriel's) added a couple pitches. She has an off-speed pitch that she hadn't developed before. It makes her fastball and her other moving pitchers that much more effective and that's just made her more effective overall."
As a junior, Gabriel helped the Bulldogs reach their third state championship game under Lamport, who has more than 500 career victories and is expected to retire at season's end.
In the 2010 state title game, however, Gabriel gave up one run on five hits as her team lost to Lakewood (Hebron) 1-0 to finish with a 30-2 record.
Last season, Gabriel outdueled Keystone's Kenzie Conrad in the state championship game by giving up just one hit and one walk while striking out 10.
Gabriel remembers fondly the experience of winning state last year.
"When we came back, the whole community was waiting for us and we got a police escort," Gabriel said. "It was pretty cool."
"I don't care what anybody says, (the state title) did validate our program," Lamport said. "We've been very successful for a long time, but some of the best teams and best players that haven't won it carry the burden with them. The pressure is off because we've been there, done that. There's no guarantee of getting back there in back-to-back years, so you just can't sleepwalk through the district and regional. We've got to be fine-tuned."
In December, Gabriel traveled with the USA Junior National team to South Africa and helped the team win the U-19 Junior World Championship. She pitched in three games, including in a 12-3 win over Chinese Taipei in a semifinal Dec. 17. USA beat Japan 4-1 for the championship.
"It was hot and very windy, but it was beautiful," Gabriel said. "The people were very friendly and we got to see a lot of the beach."
On April 27, Poland lost to Elyria 3-2 in the first round of the seventh-annual Prebis Memorial Classic at LaGrange to hand Gabriel her first loss this season. Elyria is ranked third in Ohio in Division I.
Gabriel tossed a perfect game May 3 during a 10-0 win over North Allegheny (Wexford, Pa.) at Akron Firestone Stadium.
After the season, Gabriel is planning to play for the Ohio Nightmare travel team in a few tournaments before heading off to Knoxville. Her future school is about eight hours away from Poland.
Before then, there's one piece of unsettled business that she hopes to take care of during the first week of June when the Division II state tournament is held in Firestone Stadium.
"It really hasn't sunk in too much that I'm getting ready to graduate," Gabriel said. "I'm trying not to think about it too much. I'm still trying to concentrate on softball. It was amazing to win (the state title) last year and we've really improved a lot."
Jarrod Ulrey has covered prep sports for ThisWeekSPORTS.com in Columbus, Ohio, for 17 years and can be reached at julrey@thisweeknews.com.
