Elida’s Carly Chiles tags out Bath’s Ava Gibson at home plate during Tuesday’s game at Bath. See more high school sports photos at LimaScores.com.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
Elida’s softball team has hit the ball very well in its last few games and that trend continued in a 15-5 win at Bath on Tuesday.
The win was the sixth in a row for Elida (8-1, 3-1 Western Buckeye League), which has outscored its opponents 80-13 during that winning streak.
“We had a bit of a slow start this season so we’re glad we’ve finally kind of come around. We’ve had big hits when we needed them and it’s been a full-team effort. It seemed like just about everybody had a hit today,” Elida coach Hillary Overholt said.
“All nine girls have hit. We feel confident no matter who is up at the plate,” she said.
The first five Elida batters in the game got hits and all five scored to make it 5-0 after a half inning. Four more runs in the third inning and three in both the fourth and fifth innings put the game into run-rule territory.
Carly Chiles went 4 for 4 to lead Elida, which had 19 hits. Kaelynn Smith was 3 for 4 and drove in four runs. Eva Irons went 3 for 4 with three RBIs and Kylie Biglow was 3 for 4 and was the winning pitcher.
Leah Ramirez had a home run and drove in two runs and Kayla Hunter had two doubles and three RBIs.
“Our bats are starting to really come around now. It was a little rough at the beginning but now it’s really starting to come around,” Chiles said.
Ava Gibson was 2 for 3 and drove in three runs for Bath (5-6, 2-2 WBL). Claire Armentrout and Elena Oliver also were 2 for 3.
The win was the first over Bath for Elida in several years, Overholt said. “The assistant coach and I were talking and we did some math and we don’t know when the last time we beat Bath is but we know it has been a minimum of 13 years since we did. So it’s a really big day for us,” she said.
Chiles said, “It has been quite a while. It’s so nice to finally beat them and have a run rule. It’s always been tough beating Bath and it’s always been a rival game.”
Bath played without senior Rachel Clark, a three-sport athlete who was second-team All-WBL in softball as a sophomore and honorable mention last season. She suffered a leg injury in a game last week and is expected to be out the rest of the season.
“It’s definitely adversity. It’s hard. But we’re going to be OK,” Bath coach Britt Lauck said.
“I think this team is tough and if any team can face adversity, it’s us. We’re still adjusting to that. Obviously, she’s a huge part of our team. But we have good players outside of Rachel. We wish she was with us be we’ve just got to adjust and face adversity and face it head on.”
Reach Jim Naveau at 567-242-0414.
