Staff report
PIQUA — Mechanicsburg pushed a run across in the top of the fifth to tie Houston 1-1, but the Lady Wildcats roared back with five in the bottom of the fifth and went on to beat the Lady Indians 6-3 in a Division 4 District softball championship at Piqua Friday.
The Lady Wildcats are now 20-8 on the year and will take on New Bremen Thursday at 5 p.m. at Centerville in the regional semifinals. It is Houston’s first district title since 2002.
Houston took a 1-0 lead on an RBI double by Kayla New in the third, and it stayed that way until the fifth, when the Indians tied it up.
In the bottom of the fifth, however, a walk to Emily Foster started the rally that would win it for Houston. Micalah Hensley put down a bunt, but the ball was thrown away and the runners wound up on second and third. Sarah Monnier, who had two hits, then came through with a two-run double, and after a fielder’s choice by Macey Stang scored another run, Jenna Jarrett put it away with a two-run single.
New pitched well, and Stang got the win in relief. In the third, Mechanicsburg got a runner on third with nobody out, but New got a pop up, a strikeout and another pop up to leave the runner right there. Then in the fourth, New struck out the No. 8 hitter on a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded.
“It was an exciting game,” said Houston coach Brent New. “We had a lot of kids contributing.”
The linescore:
Mech.`000 012 0`3`6`2
Hous.`001 050 x`6`5`4
WP: Stang (In relief); LP: Stapleton.
Records: Houston 20-8, Mechanicsburg 16-8.
Houston’s next game: Thursday, regional semifinals at Centerville vs. New Bremen, 5 p.m.
NB 2, Parkway 1, 9 inn.
WAPAKONETA — New Bremen’s Chloe Schwartz raced home on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth to give the Lady Cardinals a 2-1 thriller over Parkway in the Division 4 District softball championship Friday afternoon at Wapakoneta.
The Lady Cardinals advance to the regional tournament at Centerville Thursday at 5 p.m.
The two teams tied for first place in the Midwest Athletic Conference this season, and battled each other the entire way Friday.
Parkway took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning, but the Lady Cardinals came back with a run in the fourth to tie it up. Jenna Broerman tripled to lead off and Madison Wells followed with a walk. But that was followed by a line drive out and a strikeout.
But on a grounder to short, the fielder looked to second for the force but no one was covering and that hesitation allowed the batter to reach first safely as Broerman crossed the plate.
It stayed that way for a long while, even though both teams threatened. In the bottom of the eighth, New Bremen put runners on second and third with two outs. There was a base hit to right, but the lead runner was out at the plate.
Parkway got a leadoff single in the top of the ninth, but to no avail. Then in the bottom of the ninth, Alyse Clune singled and Chloe Schwartz singled, with Clune taking third and Schwartz second on the throw to third. After an out, there was an intentional walk to load the bases.
That brought pitcher Sophie Fox to the plate, and on the very first pitch, the ball was in the dirt, skipped off the catcher, and Clune raced home with the game-winner.
The linescore:
Park`001 000 000`1
NB`000 100 001`2
WP: Fox; LP: Hawk
Records: NB 14-5, Parkway 16-4.
Bremen’s next game: Thursday, regional semifinals at Centerville vs. Houston, 5 p.m.
