Thursday, April 26th / South Central Worthington ~ The weather appears to have finally broken in our favor, and Mother Nature smiled on the softball field tonight, and it was a great night for softball, and dime-a-dog night at Cardinal Field. The Scioto Irish rained on Thomas Worthington’s senior night, defeating the Cardinals by a final score of 11-5, breaking their 4-game losing streak.
Scioto jumped on the board in the top of the 1st inning in unusual fashion. Haley Gibson led off with a 4-pitch walk, and stole second on the next pitch. Maddy Baughman was safe at first on a dropped third strike that went to the backstop, moving Gibson to 3rd. Baughman stole second a pitch later. A ground out to second scored Gibson, and Baughman trotted home on a wild pitch taking a quick 2-0 lead. The Irish then gift wrapped 3 runs for Thomas, who loaded the bases on a single and a pair of walks. With two outs and the bases loaded, a dropped 3rd strike and a 2 base error brought in 3 unearned runs putting the Cardinals back on top 3-2.
The teams traded goose-eggs in the 2nd, and the Irish went back to work in the top of the third. Belated birthday girl Lauren Erickson was safe on error, and after stealing second base, Sarah Booth walked. Three wild pitches later and the Irish had the lead back for good. Scioto batted around in the top of the 4th, really putting the game out of reach with 6 runs taking a 10-3 lead. Gretchen Baker led off with a walk, and stole second. Baughman was safe on a fielder’s choice. Erickson picked up a pair of RBI’s driving them both home, and scooting to second on the throw home. Booth walked again, and during her at bat a wild pitch plated Erickson. Heasley beat out an infield single, and Emily Dinan walked to load the bases. All three of three of them scored on wild pitches and/or passed balls. At the end of 3 ½ the score stood Scioto 10, Thomas 3.
The Cardinals made the game a little closer, scoring single runs on the bottom of the 4th, on a double and a single, and in the 6th on a walk and a double. Scioto scored an insurance run on the top of the 7th. Baker led off with her second base hit of the night, stole second, and moved to 3rd on a ground out. Booth drove her home with Scioto’s final run with a single to center field. Dinan continued her solid play at third base turning in a couple of sparkling defensive plays, and Baker charged in hard and picked off a sinking line drive to the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the 7th.
Heasley started and 104 pitches before her back tightened up sending her to the early exit. She stranded 6 runners in her 5 1/3 innings of work. She scattered 8 hits, and 3 walks and hit a batter, allowing only a single earned run. She struck out 5 earning her 6th win of the season. Booth came on for some emergency relief, and shut the door on the Cardinals getting a pair of groundouts to third working out of the jam. She pitched a scoreless 7th as well, closing out the game. The only base runner she allowed was a hit-by-pitch in the 7th, and struck out 1 in a non-save situation.
Scioto’s varsity squad has Friday night off so they can fine tune some defensive issues, and rest some of their walking wounded, and then hit the road Saturday for a single game against Fredericktown, first pitch to be at 1:00.
Dublin Scioto 2 0 2 6 0 0 1 11 – 9 – 2
Thomas Worthington 3 0 0 1 0 1 0 5 – 8 – 2
