WHERE EAGLES DARE: Ross jacks 1st inning homer, bats flip switch on 4th inning power surge to aid Fillmore’s 1st ever Section V softball title, roll past No. 2 Keshequa in Class D Finals with 10-5 win

[PHOTO PROVIDED]

HONEOYE FALLS — The art of winning is a beautiful thing.

The sense of accomplishment, the joy and jubilation, and on some occasions, great relief. It is a whirlwind of emotion that teams like the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Bulls during in the 1990s, as well as some modern-day sports sovereigns like the New England Patriots and the Chicago Blackhawks, have experienced a tremendous amount of.

It evokes a feeling of mass euphoria that every team hopes to relish in.

For Fillmore, it is a constituent that no matter which sport on what day, month or even year that displays on the calendar, the Eagles always find every way to soar at their absolute highest. Jon Beardsley has experienced plenty of that during his time with the Lady Eagles, especially as the school’s Varsity girls soccer head coach spanning across three decades — a career that now stands alone as the greatest in Allegany County history.

In recent memory, the girls soccer program has wallowed in a vast amount of glory under his guidance, winning three Section V titles in a five-year span, with the last of those titles culminating in a trip to the State Championship game in Cortland back in 2023. Before the Wellsville softball program became the latest Allegany County team to be crowned New York State Champion, their boys soccer counterparts, headed by Jarrett Vosburg, were the precursing team back in 2022 to have their moment in the sun as State Champions — a first in the school’s history.

That ultimate pinnacle of grandeur came in the midst of a five-year run featuring four Section V titles.

Lest we forget just this past winter, Randy Crouch and the boys basketball program also captured glory for the first time in 15 years. It is a growing list of accolades across all sports in Fillmore that continues to expand each and every year. To say that the will to win has never been more evident would be the understatement of the century.

Across all these timespans, all the numerous flips of the calendar, there has never been the crowning of a Section V champion during the Spring, on the softball field.

Never.

The Lady Eagles have come close in their previous opportunity back in 2018 at Houghton University, when they reached and ultimately fell in the Class D1 Finals to the hands of softball powerhouse Alfred-Almond. Since then, the curtain had remained drawn closed.

But after finishing their regular season with wins in eight of their last 10 games to couple alongside a pair of incredible, offensively sound games against Lima Christian and Andover/Whitesville, as well as a gutsy and victorious defensive shootout against top-seeded Lyndonville in the previous rounds of their postseason journey, the Lady Eagles have arrived to that prime destination once again seven years later, in the midst of one of their best seasons to date.

Separating them from the winner’s circle were the No. 2 Keshequa Lady Wildcats — A threat that the Lady Eagles did not take for granted one bit.

Although they emitted a red-hot start right off the hop to begin a chilly Saturday morning at Honeoye Falls-Lima, the Lady Eagles soon found themselves in an early but narrow hole, as Keshequa reversed course and delivered a big go-ahead punch to claim their first lead of the game. The moment also served as a reminder for the Lady Eagles about an instinct they recently discovered.

The impulse to fight back.

That they did, to create a balanced playing surface once again with the Lady Wildcats before crossing the middle-frame threshold. There, the momentum was retained, and when the top of the fourth came around, the Lady Eagles simply could not stop hitting the ball.

With their tenacious presence at the plate, then came the runs. One after another until it transformed into a glorified knockout punch.

After holding off Keshequa one last time in the final round of battle, the bell tolled.

Fillmore’s wait to become champion was finally over.

For the very first time in their school’s prestigious history, the Fillmore Lady Eagles have claimed Section V eminence in the sport of softball, as they utilized a first inning early on that was headlined by the Class D Tournament’s MVP, Morghyn Ross, to garner the start they sought to have. Despite losing traction a short time later, they proved that the comeback was greater than the setback with a gigantic six-run fourth inning that allowed them all the cushion they needed to fully secure what was a 10-5 victory and the long-awaited championship brick that came with it.

“Winning this game was for our entire softball family. There have been some very good teams and some amazing players with this program over the years that never won a championship. There’s too many to list, but this one today, we share this with all of them,” said Lady Eagles coach Jon Beardsley. “I’m so proud of this group. The last couple of weeks, I have noticed a good change in their approach. They are always great kids, but I noticed a group that really started playing for each other. Our daily focus, whether we were individually successful or not, became secondary. It is no coincidence that we took a step forward as a team. It is reasons like this that I coach. Winning is sweet as pie, but our true value as a team is that we are “other” centered. It is a great feeling to see any group come to the realization.”

An other-worldly commencement to the morning was garnered right away by the Lady Eagles (17-4), as their first three batters to reach the plate all found their way across it, with Tenlee Miller starting the festivities with a leadoff double. Right behind her was the bat of Morghyn Ross, who absolutely pulverized a shot to straight away center field, leaving the yard in a flash for a two-run jack and an early 2-0 lead over the Lady Wildcats.

Despite a first inning hiccup, the No. 2 seeds shook it off in a big way and responded with a fiery second inning at the plate themselves, with the bottom of the order setting up shop for Bree Benner in the leadoff position, as she drove home a pair of runs on a double in the midst of a sequence that was sandwiched by RBI singles from both Emma Jo Pierce and Ryley Benner.

Beardsley said that although the second inning was a frame that was punishing, he knew that his Lady Eagles were not going to allow it to linger.

“We came out hot in the first. Morghyn hitting a two-run homer to dead center was the big lift we needed. In the second though, we had an inning that the girls really wanted to have back. It just seemed for a moment that everyone got really nervous and lost their focus,” he said. “It happens and in a championship game against a team like Keshequa, you will get punished. And we did, giving up the four runs. But in the recent weeks, this team has responded from moments like that and punched back.”

Fillmore would not let the big Keshequa inning go unresponsive. Instead, they kicked the bats into the next highest gear with a game-tying run courtesy of Mylee Miller, who drove home Ross on her shot into left field to tie the game at four before being left on after back-to-back strikeouts were dished out by Liz Wood in the Lady Wildcats circle to close out the frame.

After an absolutely superb 1-2-3 finish to the bottom half of the same frame for Fillmore, the Lady Eagles then twisted the gears into the highest level possible in the top of the fourth, going one full term through the lineup by loading the bases immediately to start their latest stint of offense. At the top of the order, Tenlee Miller provided perhaps the most damaging smack of the bat across the entire morning — a bases-clearing double down the right field line to break the brief deadlock in favor of a 7-4 lead.

“Tenlee was a rockstar. She had two great at-bats that really changed the whole game and then at third base, played pretty clean with some excellent plays. Mylee had another great day at the plate and she was just good enough on the mound. We also had different girls like Summer and Lily that had game-impacting plays,” Beardsley said. “And then there was Morghyn, who did what Morghyn does. She is simply amazing as a softball player, and she started impacting her teammates in a whole different and better way. She hits a home run, doesn’t give up a passed ball, picks off a girl at second base. Honestly, absolutely nothing surprises me with her. She is amazing in every way.”

You didn’t think Fillmore was done there did you?

With Morghyn Ross working her way on base with a walk, it was Mylee Miller’s turn to lay the lumber down some more with a drive straight up the middle into deep center field. The distance it carried was enough to bring home her younger sister and Ross, all while she arrived at third safely on a one-out, two-run triple before coming home later on Summer Friedl’s sacrifice bunt in front of the dish.

A six-run frame, officially set in stone.

Across the next six half-innings between the two squads, no more than four hitters would approach the plate, despite a couple of key hits from Lily Sisson (triple) and Morghyn Ross (double) down the stretch for the Lady Eagles. In the bottom of the seventh, with the game hanging in the balance, the Lady Wildcats were down to their last breath. In it, they scored one run off an RBI single from Lillianna Hugi in the midst of their loading of the bases with two outs.

But in the circle, Mylee Miller dished her fifth and final strikeout in resounding fashion to keep every single Lady Wildcats base-runner on to send the Lady Eagles into a championship-winning craze, as they finished off their long-awaited title victory in style.

Fillmore’s 10 runs were accompanied by eight hits at the plate. Leading the way was Ross, who reached base in all four trips to the plate, going 2-for-2 with her two-run home run, a double, two walks and three runs scored. Tenlee and Mylee Miller each finished with two hits and combined four six RBI, while Chloe Hennard had a hit of her own to chip in.

Not only did the Lady Eagles capture the Section V brick, but they have won Class D outright, allowing them to advance directly into next weekend’s Class D Far West Regional at Frontier High School in Hamburg, where they will now clash with Section VI, Class D champion Forestville for an opportunity to advance into the State Final Four in Binghamton later on, in the second weekend of June.

First pitch between the two Class D titlists will begin on Friday at 5 p.m.

Fillmore 301 600 0 — 10 8 2

Keshequa 040 000 1 — 5 9 1

FIL – Mylee Miller (WP) (CG, 5K, 3BB) and Morghyn Ross.

KES – Alynn Dunning (2BB), Liz Wood (LP, 1) (9K, 3BB) and Isabella Hugi.