Bath’s Ava Gibson tags out Bryan’s Ella Voigt during Saturday’s Division II District Final at UNOH.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
LIMA — Bryan has ended another Bath season.
The Golden Bears ousted Bath in the basketball season this year and repeated the feat on the softball diamond after blanking the Wildkittens 6-0 in the Division II district final Saturday.
This also marks the second straight year Bryan defeated Bath in the softball district final.
With the win the Golden Bears advance to the regionals Wednesday. Bath ends its year with an 11-15 mark.
Bryan rode the arm of Thea Staten to the victory as the freshman phenom limited the Bath bats to four hits over seven innings of work while fanning 13 and walking two. In four of those innings, Staten struck out two or more Wildkittens and on three occasions struck out the side.
“She (Staten) is a great pitcher and we knew she threw hard and has a couple of pitches with movement so we prepared as best we could in one day for a pitcher who throws significantly harder than we are used to,” Bath head coach Britt Lauck said. “We did the best we could preparing, and I’m proud of the girls for fighting to get here, and kudos to Bryan and their pitcher.”
Bath’s best chance to put together runs came in the fifth when the Wildkittens put two runners on with one out but Staten worked her way out of the jam to preserve the shutout.
Bath’s 3-4-5 hitters went a combined 1 for 9 with eight strikeouts.
“Thea is as an amazing player and an amazing athlete,” Bryan head coach Samantha Molina said. “Obviously she is a huge key to our team and does incredible things on the mound so I am excited for her and excited to see how she can keep us going in the tournament.
“I think between her and coach (Brian) Arnold, they are able to connect on a level and understand their batters and be able to read what they need and Thea is great at hitting locations so they are able to see different things and able to communicate well between the two of them.”
Rachel Clark, who had two defensive gems in the outfield, finished the game 2 for 2.
“I think a couple of our girls started to get confident finally but we just couldn’t rope them together and by the time it took us to kind of figure it out we couldn’t rope them (hits) together. Some of our leaders did a great job showing ‘we can hit her. We can keep fighting,’ and it just didn’t go our way.
“All year we have been fighting and going through adversity and to really be here is a story of its own. I am proud of the girls for making plays. Rachel Clark in right field made two great plays and this is her second game back from injury and for a long time we didn’t know if she would be back today.”
Staten’s counterpart, Madison Edelbrock, surrendered 13 hits over six innings while striking out one and walking one.
Edelbrock, along with some solid defensive play, held Bryan to one run in the second, third and fourth, to keep the Wildkittens within striking distance but in the fifth Bryan posted three runs to go up 6-0.
At the plate, Bryan’s leadoff hitter Ella Voigt went 3 for 4 with 2 runs and 2 RBI and Marlee Yoder went 3 for 4. Mackenzie Blevins was 2 for 3 with a run and an RBI.
“Those are two huge junior leaders (Voight and Yoder) for us and watching them step up at the beginning of the lineup was huge, and they are up there for a reason … and they set the tone for everyone,” Molina said. “Between Marlee being the slapper and Ella is usually the singles, doubles hitter, they always lead the way for us to get on base and to get us base runners and get things going for us, and hitting is always contagious so if they get us started then everyone else can follow along behind them.”
Reach Jose Nogueras at 567-242-0468.
