Bloom-Carroll's Emma Brandt Throws One-Hitter to Send Bulldogs to Ohio Division III State Championship game

AKRON, Ohio – In the OHSAA Division III state semifinals on Friday afternoon at Firestone Stadium, Bloom-Carroll pitcher Emma Brandt was perfect.

And then she wasn’t. It didn't matter. The Bulldogs defeated Greenville, 2-1, to advance to Saturday's state championship game against Louisville.

Perfect Through Six

Through six innings, Brandt had been perfect against a Greenville team who had averaged more than 10 runs per game and her Bulldogs held a 2-0 lead. That all changed on the second pitch of the seventh inning, as Greenville shortstop Leah Force deposited a pitch over the left field fence for a home run to not only end the perfect game, but also cut the lead to 2-1.

Refocusing After the Home Run

But Brandt settled down after the home run and induced a groundout by Ella Oswalt, struck out Lizzie Shaffer and forced Lily Brubaker to fly out to right field to end the game and send the Bulldogs to their first state championship game since 2015.

It was that at-bat against Oswalt that could have undone Brandt’s entire performance had she not been able to refocus. After all, Oswalt came in hitting .480 with 10 home runs, both team highs.

“I just thought to myself, one hit doesn't matter, this is the last inning, I'm not going to let it go to waste,” Brandt said. “I just kept throwing. I focused more on my spin than my speed, and it worked, and I'm really proud of myself.”

Brandt started the game with two strikeouts in the first inning, sandwiched around a groundout to second. It was then that she knew she was on her game.

“I was so excited,” Brandt said. “I was like, this is our game, we got this in the bag.”

Helping Her Own Cause

She then gave herself some help in the bottom of the first with an RBI triple and scored the second run on a sacrifice fly by catcher Addison Brown.

Cousins Behind the Battery

Then it was the duo of Brandt and Brown who teamed up as the battery for Bloom-Carroll to shut down one of the best offenses in Ohio. It isn’t anything new for the pair, who also happen to be cousins.

“She's awesome, I think she's the best,” Brown said. “We have really good chemistry, we're cousins, we're like best friends. I trust her so much, she hits her spots a lot, so I have full trust in her, and I think that goes a long way with the way that we work together.”

Being so close, the two can have honest conversations with one another between innings, even if those were never really needed on this day. Instead, they were more about hyping each other up and preparing for the next inning.

“There were lots of ‘let's go,’ and I think us talking every single pitch kept our energy up,” Brown said. “We'd go in the dugout and we just talk and be like, "Okay, so this girl, this, this girl, this.”

It was that constant chatter that led to one of the best games in this year’s tournament from the circle.

“We would just keep talking and talking,” Brandt said. “I think us staying together throughout the game helped a lot in the field.”

Locked In at the Right Time

With her bestie behind the dish and next to her in the dugout on the biggest stage, Brandt was at her absolute best, firing a one-hitter with no walks and striking out 10.

“Our pitching and catching was spot on,” Bloom-Carroll head coach Chris Lucas said. “I knew that two runs with Emma out there, it was a pretty much a good done deal. I was sure that if I would have called a dropball instead of a curveball on that last one, we might have had a round out four or another K, but we still won 2-1.”

It was just the culmination of the past few weeks, where Brandt has stepped up and made the case for being the No. 1 pitcher for Bloom-Carroll. In the past five games prior to Friday, the Bulldogs had defeated Olentangy Orange (regular season), Columbus South (district semifinal), Hamilton Township (district final), Dover (regional semifinal) and Jonathan Alder (regional final).

In those five games, Brandt threw 28 innings and allowed just three runs, two earned, on 15 hits, six walks and 49 strikeouts.

One Win Away

“For two years, it's been two pitchers, they have been splitting games,” Lucas said. “But over the past two weeks, Emma has just really locked in, and I said, 'You know what, we're just going to ride her the rest way.'”

With the way she pitched on Friday, the Bulldogs just may ride her to a state title.

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