Ontario outlasts Lexington in epic Division III district semifinal game
WILLARD — When Lexington and Ontario square off on the softball diamond, the last one standing is going to have some bumps and bruises. May 21’s Division III district semifinal game was proof of that as the Warriors came away with a hard fought 11-9 win over Lady Lex to advance into the district championship game at noon on May 23 at Oregon Clay against Maumee. ALL-DISTRICT 9: Lexington's Davis, Galion's Fagan highlight All-District 9 baseball honors After Lexington started the game with three runs in the top of the first, Ontario responded with five runs of their own.
Lexington came right back with three in the second before Ontario tacked on one run in each of the fourth and fifth innings as the two teams traded haymakers early and often. “No one will lay down in this rivalry,” Ontario coach Jamie Burke said. “We knew in the sixth inning that two wouldn’t be enough to bring this thing home and it wasn’t.
We had a great inning that gave us a comfortable enough lead to win this thing. ” Leading 7-6 heading into the bottom of the fourth the Warriors needed some insurance runs and got them in a big way. Ellie Dawson slugged a solo home run, her 13 th homer of the season tying the program’s single-season record in the process.
Then, Brinlee Kreger added an RBI single before Sophie Schuster launched a towering two-run home run to left to give the Warriors four huge insurance runs. “We had our opportunities,” Lexington coach Joe Thornton said. “A couple of errors, some mistakes, in the end, that was the difference.
“We had a little trouble hitting our spots and the strike zone was a little tight. But that is a great hitting team that set their program’s home run record, so we expected them to come in and put up some runs. We tried to keep the ball down, but they waited and hit their pitches.
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