Crestview’s Megan Mosier bats as Ada’s Natilyn McClain awaits the pitch during Thursday’s game in Ada.
Jackelyn Johnson | The Lima News
ADA — And then there was one that turned into 21.
After downing, Ada 7-0, Crestview remained as the lone team without a loss in the Northwest Conference and collected a share of the conference crown Thursday.
Crestview, who jumped to 10-4 for the season, improves to 7-0 overall in the league with a showdown against Lincolnview looming next Thursday. Ada, who will be rooting for a the Knights against Lincolnview in hopes of grabbing a share of softball title, fall to 5-1 in the NWC and 12-5 overall.
This is the 21st NWC conference title that the Knights have either won or shared.
“We got a piece of the conference and I am happy for the girls,” Crestview head coach Carl Etzler said. “We are very pleased that we have a piece of it but we would rather not share it.”
Bulldog head coach Jeff Bassitt pointed to the team’s five errors as one of the reasons for the loss and added that in the pivotal fifth where the Knights scored that if Ada makes the necessary plays the game might go in a different direction.
“This is the most errors we have had all year,” said Bassitt, whose team has one senior on the squad. “But we still growing and we have to keep working to get better. Again, it is a team we can compete with and beat but it just didn’t happen tonight. We have to bring our “A” game against a team like that.
Crestview rode the pitching of Olivia Heckler and took advantage of Bulldog fielding miscues with some timely hitting to score runs.
Knight hurler Olivia Heckler, who had tossed six innings the night before against Bath, delivered a pitching gem as she went tossed a complete game, five-hit shutout with seven strikeouts and no walks. She did hit two batters,
“Crestview and Bath is a big rivalry so you want that win and plus it would be big momentum builder so we were going to find out what Heckler was made of back-to-back and she was spot on. She did a nice job and defensively we got what we needed tonight.
Heckler’s counterpart, Jenna Bassitt held Crestview hitless in the first four frames but things unraveled for the Bulldogs in the fifth. Dakotah Thornell opened the frame with a single and was moved to second on a sacrifice. Bassitt looked to get out of the inning with a strikeout but the Knights’ Laci McCoy delivered a clutch double to deep right to plate the first run. Two more runs were scored due to some defensive errors and a hit from Kaylee Mollenkopf.
“I was wondering when are we going to turn on the hit machine and it took us to the fifth inning,” Etzler said. “I told the girls we started the fifth and then it kind of got contagious and we kind of hit after that. It was one of those games where the team that scores first, especially when you get around the fifth inning, that who scores first is going to have a big advantage.
Etzler added the team’s defensive effort was instrumental in getting the win and singled out the work of Thornell and her work behind the plate where she gunned down two base runners attempting to steal.
Crestview added another run in the sixth and three more in the seventh.
Credit the bottom of the Knight’s lineup for being in the middle of the Knights’ offensive output. McCoy (2 for 2, 2 runs, RBI, Mollenkopf (2 for 3, 2 runs, RBI) and Nevaeh Ross (o-2, RBI) combined to go 4 for 8 with 4 runs and 3 RBI.
For Ada, Tess Griffith went 2 for 2.
Reach Jose Nogueras at 567-242-0468.
