HAMBURG — After holding off Ellicottville to claim Forestville’s first Section VI softball title in over a decade, senior pitcher Megan Gruber said that she loves playing in big games with plenty of pressure.

There will be no shortage of that tonight when the Hornets take on the state’s top-ranked team, Section V’s Fillmore, in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class D Far West Regionals at Frontier High School.

According to the New York State Sportswriters Association, three of the top four Class D softball teams reside in Section V and it is Fillmore representing the section in this year’s regionals after defeating Keshequa 10-5 last weekend.

Forestville has made it to the Far West Regionals four times in program history and each time came up short. On top of that, Section V has won the last five meetings with North Collins last winning for Section VI in 2018.

Thus far in the playoffs Gruber has yet to give up a run, defeating both Clymer/Sherman and Ellicottville 2-0. The small playoff sample size is just a microcosm of what Gruber has done all season long for the Hornets as they also captured the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 3 title with difficult Class C opponents Silver Creek, Randolph and Gowanda.

Over 101.2 innings pitched, Gruber has a 1.51 earned run average with 130 strikeouts and 22 earned runs on the season.

While she has not needed much run support so far, it should get more difficult as the season goes so the youthful Forestville lineup will need to bring the bats again.

Leading that charge is freshman Emily Lillie who is hitting .500 with 20 RBIs, three doubles, two home runs and six triples, including one each in both the sectional semifinals and final. Gruber boasts a .426 average with 14 RBIs and six doubles, while Carilene Sliwa is hitting .368 with 23 runs scored and six doubles on the year.

The Forestville bats will be up against Mylee Miller who has a 3.27 ERA with 81 strikeouts over 60 innings pitched this season.

Miller may not be the toughest pitcher the Hornets have seen this year, but there will certainly be some sluggers in the Eagles lineup starting with Morghyn Ross hitting a whopping .765 with 29 RBIs, six doubles, four triples and four home runs.

After that, Mattie McCumiskey is hitting .571 with 18 RBIs, Tenlee Miller is .472 with 21 runs scored and Mylee Miller adds a bat that’s at .419 with 14 RBIs.

Fillmore usually overwhelms its opponents with the offense, outscoring teams 214-83 and has earned a 16-4 record playing that way. The most recent loss for the Eagles was against Class C opponent Genesee Valley/Belfast 3-2.

In a warmup for the postseason, Forestville dropped a contest against Section VI Class C champion Chautauqua Lake 13-5. Before that the 13-3 Hornets fell to Gowanda 7-3 and the only other loss was to Silver Creek 4-3.

Far West Regional action at Frontier High School begins at 5 p.m. with the Class D champions pitted against each other and that contest is followed by Chautauqua Lake against Section V’s Bloomfield at 7:30.

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