Thursday, May 3rd / East Dublin ~ It didn’t even look like the game would take place with thunderstorms in the forecast all day. The rains finally did come while both teams were warming up, but ended just as quickly as they started, and was just enough to knock the dust down and make the infield a little slower. Maybe it should have rained more… The rains did stop in time to get in the senior night festivities, celebrating the culmination of the 5 seniors’ softball careers at Scioto; Hayley Cole, Madison Heasley, Kristina Lokteva, Imani McCullough and Kiana Saadat were escorted through the tunnel of players and fought back tears, and flowers and hugs were exchanged as their days in the kelly green & white are winding down.
Delaware’s scoring attack started with a 2 out rally in the top of the 1st. A walk and a hit by pitch put 2 runners on, and a double and a single later the Pacers had themselves a 3 run lead. Scioto answered with a single run on a 2 out rally of their own in the bottom of the 1st. Lauren Erickson roped a double to the right field gap, and raced home on a single by Sarah Booth cutting the Pacers lead to 3-1. Then it got ugly…
Again Delaware had a 2-out rally in the 2nd stringing together 5 hits and taking advantage of an Irish infield error to score 5 runs in the second. They scored 4 in the 3rd and then added 3 more in the 4th powering out to a 15 to 1 lead. Heasley hit a solo bomb in the bottom of the 4th, her third of the year, and her second against the Pacers. Delaware responded by adding 4 unearned runs in the top of the 5th to cap the scoring and post an embarrassing final score of 19-2, spoiling Senior Night. The Davis Irish 8th grade team was in attendance and got to witness a through beat down… maybe they weren’t paying attention.
The only other base runner was Maddy Baughman who dropped an infield single in the 3rd. Heasley was the recipient of the loss, pitching another complete game. She struck out 6, walked 4 and hit a batter.
Friday night will see the second round of the Battle of Hard Road, when Worthington Kilbourne travels the 2.4 miles down the street to take on the Irish at 5:15. Friday will also be Middle School Night part 2 as the Davis 7th grade team will be guests of the Irish.
Delaware Hayes 3 5 4 3 4 x x 19 – 16 – 0
Dublin Scioto 1 0 0 1 0 x x 2 – 4 – 5
