You wouldn’t normally think about a small town like Frazeysburg, Ohio setting the stage for a World Series, but Frew Memorial Park has been doing that for the past four years. Each year the USSSA (United States Specialty Sports Association) holds its annual “Summer Blast” in Frazeysburg. This year marks the fourth year of the event that brought together thirty fast-pitch softball teams from all over the state of Ohio and parts of West Virginia to play in a USSSA National Championship qualifier tournament where two teams earned an unpaid berth to the USSSA National Championship of their choice.
The Ohio Diamonds 08 are a 14U travel softball team with players from River View, Tri-Valley, West Muskingum, and Licking who happen to call Frew Park home because they are based out of Frazeysburg. The team coached by Steve Kozusko has been playing together for the past two years with the roster of Peyton Brown, Julia Carpenter, Rion Harmon, Mylin Driggs, Taylor Meade, Gabbi Hammer, Megan Kozusko, Kylie Dobson, Addi Justice, Autumn Hartman, Isabella Metcalf, and Alivia Reffitt.
Coach Kozusko has been coaching travel softball for the past three years and had previously coached Tri-Valley Middle School 7th & 8th graders for five years along with being involved with youth league for approximately 10 years. Steve’s assistant coach Mike Ross from Tri-Valley and Mark Hartman from Philo have also been with the team for the past two seasons.
During the Summer Blast at Frew park the Diamonds had a six-game sweep making their way through the Muskie Chix 14U , The Ohio Starz Blue, Max Effort Softball, Ohio Mojo Jarrell 13U, Ohio All Americans Navy Carden 14U, and Blaze 14U to win the qualifier and move on to the All-Sanctioned 14U World Series held at The Lou Berliner Sports Park in Columbus Friday, July 21st, through Sunday, July 23rd.
During the series on Friday the 21st the girls picked up a huge 16 – 1 win against Burn 14U in a game that included a home run by #8 Kylie Dobson and Triples by #9 Addi Justice, #12 Alivia Reffitt, #6 Gabbi Hammer, and #7 Megan Kozusko. Later in the day the team lost a close 4 – 6 battle to the Cincy Slammers (Steele 08) 14U team.
Saturday started off rough with a very close 3 – 4 loss against the Rawlings Tigers ’26/27 only to come back later in the day to take a large 11 – 2 victory over Pauer 14U.
Sunday the 23rd was the final day of the series but the Diamonds were on their A-game as they faced the Northville Broncos 13U to battle out a 14 – 11 win with triples by #1 Peyton Brown, and Gabbi Hammer finished off with a two-run homer by Megan Kozusko to wrap up scoring for the game.
The Diamonds moved on to the OFC Heat 09 where they had another close matchup but pulled out a 6 – 4 victory where all of the runs came in the 4th and 5th innings for the girls.
The final full game before the series was called was against the Saginaw Bay Riverdawgs (Peace) 14U and it was the closest of all with a narrow 5 – 4 win in a game that saw two of the opposing team players collide which resulted in serious injuries, both teams gathered to pray for the players who were injured (the injured players are recovering well), and showed vast amounts of respect for each other, something that can sometimes get lost in the heat of competition.
In the next game against the Cap City Force 08 Spencer the Diamonds were up 3 – 0 before the game was called on the account of weather. At the time only 16 of the 178 teams were still playing and the officials thought it only fair to name them all Co-Champions of the Series.
“It was difficult, especially when you’re that close to the end and leading the game that would’ve put us in the Final 4. We got to the fields at 8:30 Sunday Morning and played 3 games back to back, and we were in our 4th straight game when the weather hit. As a coach, you always want to see the girls win it outright after all the hard work, but in the end, it’s what was fair to the remaining teams.” stated head coach Steve Kozusko
