Watkins Glen/O-M holds off Lansing for IAC Large School softball title
Watkins Glen/Odessa-Montour Storm softball team secured its first combined IAC championship with a 7-6 win over Lansing.
This Storm chase yielded a championship. Watkins Glen/Odessa-Montour secured the first overall Interscholastic Athletic Conference softball championship as a combined team with a 7-6 victory over Lansing in the rain Thursday, May 14 at Watkins Glen High School. The title came two days after the program also known as Schuyler Storm topped Thomas A.
Edison, 8-5, in a tiebreaker that decided the IAC South Large School champion . Both titles were part of a rapid progression for Schuyler softball since the programs at Watkins Glen and O-M were merged prior to the 2023 season. Following a 10-6 season in 2024, last year's team finished 15-3.
This year's record is now 16-4, with two losses coming to teams from outside Section 4, and the other two to Section 4 perennial state powers Deposit-Hancock and Edison. Watkins Glen's last overall IAC title as a solo outfit came in 1996, 15-7, over Moravia. O-M's lone conference championship came by a 13-6 score over McGraw in 1982.
"Couldn't be happier with the girls," Storm head coach Shannon Ells said. "We fought hard all week, we worked hard. "Every single girl on the team has done their part, from the first girl on the field to the last girl on the bench.