Staff report
BRADFORD — Houston banged out 12 hits and jumped out to a 6-0 lead after two innings en route to a surprising 11-2 rout of No. 2-seeded Riverside in a Division 4 Sectional softball final at Bradford Tuesday afternoon.
The win put Houston at 19-8 on the year and advanced the Lady Wildcats to the D-4 District championship on Friday at Piqua High School against Mechanicsburg at 5 p.m.
For Riverside, it was only the second loss of the season, and the Lady Pirates bow out with a final 23-2 record.
“I had a feeling going into the game that it was going to be low scoring because I’d watched Riverside’s scores this year and it looked like they were holding teams down with good pitching,” said Houston head coach Brent New. “I didn’t expect to score 11 runs on them, but our girls were aggressive right away and they stayed that way. And we had a couple girls who had been slumping who came out of it today.”
Houston jumped out to a six-run lead after two innings. In the top of the first, after one out, Sarah Monnier doubled and scored on Macey Stang’s double. Stang then scored on a single by Kaytlyn Riffell for the early advantage.
An inning later, the Lady Wildcats broke it open with four more. Jenna Jarrett doubled ahead of a single by Rebekah New, and when Addie White’s sacrifice bunt was thrown away, both Jarrett and New scored. Micalah Hensley and Monnier then singled and the final run came home on a sacrifice fly by Kayla New.
Houston scored a run in the fourth to make it 7-0, then Riverside’s Marissa Davis belted a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth. But that was all the Lady Pirates could manage.
For Houston, Jarrett had three hits, with two of them being doubles.
Monnier had three hits, with a home run to go with a double and a single. Hensley had a single and a double, Stang and Grace Riffell both doubled, and Rebekah New had two RBIs.
For Riverside, in addition to Davis’ two-run homer, Abby Proffitt had a double.
The linescore:
Hou.`240 121 1`11`12`0
Riv.`000 200 0`2`5`1
WP: K. New; LP: L. Davis
Records: Houston 19-8, Riverside 23-2.
Houston’s next game: Friday, district championship at Piqua vs. Mechanicsburg, 5 p.m.
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Covington 11, Russia 3
FORT LORAMIE — Top-seeded Covington was behind Russia twice in their D-4 Sectional final Tuesday, but the Lady Buccs eventually pulled away to an 11-3 victory to advance to the district finals.
Russia finishes the season at 20-8.
The Lady Raiders scored in the top of the first when Lexi Monnin walked and took second on a sacrifice, then scored on a passed ball.
Covington tied it in the bottom of the first but Russia scored two in the third for a 3-1 lead. The Lady Raiders took advantage of two Covington errors.
But the lead was short-lived. Covington plated five in the bottom of the third and didn’t trail again.
The linescore:
Rus.`102 000 0`3`4`2
Cov.`105 230 x`11`9`2
WP: Gostomsky; LP: Borchers
Records: Russia 20-8, Covington 24-3.
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New Bremen 11, Minster 3
WAPAKONETA — New Bremen led Minster 4-0 heading to the sixth, gave up three runs to make it 4-2, then came back with seven in the bottom of the sixth to pull away again to an 11-3 victory in D-4 Sectional final action at Wapakoneta Tuersday.
The Lady Cardinals now advance at 13-5 to play the winner of today’s game between Parkway and Marion Local. The final will be on Friday at 5 p.m. at Wapakoneta.
Minster’s season ends with a 13-13 record.
