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Wednesday, 16 May 2007 |
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Riders blank Shawnee 4-0 to advance in the district tournament By BRIAN SMITH
Staff Writer
LIMA — The next game for the St. Marys softball team will be played off the beaten Henry County path on Thursday.
Deshler was not hard to find with St. Marys’ pitching and defense guiding it on Tuesday, though.
The Riders advanced to the district final with a 4-0 win over Shawnee at Lima Bath behind the one-hit shutout from pitcher Kayla Thornsberry and the infield defense behind her.
“The defense was just phenomenal,” St. Marys coach Sue Grothause said. The Rider coach praised all of her infielders for their play and catcher Heather Ruffner’s play behind the plate. “Our fielding percentage this year is like .994. We had only two errors in league play.”
The Riders (20-1) will play the winner of the Defiance-Napoleon game at Deshler on Thursday at 5 p.m. The Defiance-Napoleon game was postponed due to weather last night.
Thornsberry gave up just one hit in the game and shook any notion of a sore arm slowing down her 19-0 season on the rubber for the Roughriders.
In the previous WBL-title clincher against Defiance on Saturday, Grothause said Thornsberry’s pitch selection was limited because of the soreness.
That wasn’t the case on Tuesday.
“Before the game, she told me she was 100 percent,” Grothause said. “She said, ‘Let’s go.’ That’s great to hear. She got treatments, whirlpool, and ice. She was 100 percent.”
Only one runner got to third base in the game. Only one runner got beyond first base in the game.
“She has a good rise ball,” Shawnee coach Lou Seddelmeyer said. “She kept throwing it high, we kept swinging. Last time we played (a 4-3 St. Marys win), we hit her better.”
And Thornsberry had plenty of help behind her.
Rachel Ginter turned a double play in the second inning, snaring a soft liner at her third base position and then firing over the third base to double up the baserunner Jenny Marsh, who strayed too far from the bag.
In the top of the fourth, Bailey Smith got into the action, stopping a ball hit into the shortstop-third base hole off the bat of Shawnee’s Megan Ream. After Ream rounded the bag, Smith froze the runner by running towards her and then firing a throw to first base to gun down Ream.
Smith did not expect the runner to turn. “That was a big shock,” Smith said.
St. Marys got its first run on an RBI ground-out to second base by Heather Ruffner that scored Bailey Smith, who singled to start the inning.
“It’s always important to get that that first run across,” Grothause said. “We were being aggressive at the plate and on the bases.”
The Riders struck again in the fourth, getting a run on three hits.
While St. Marys’ defense was air-tight, the Indian defense seeped extra opportunities— committing four errors.
Megan Schlater opened the fourth frame with a single to center field, followed by a sac bunt by Rachel Ginter.
Smith hit a fly ball to left field, which was dropped. The error allowed Schlater to score. St. Marys held the 2-0 advantage.
St. Marys tacked on two runs in the bottom of the sixth, making it three straight games that the Riders have added insurance runs a half inning before clinching the games.
Consecutive errors by Shawnee yielded one run and another moved runners up to second and third with one out.
Ruffner collected another run batted in with a ground out to first base for the 4-0 lead.
In a game Thornsberry and the Roughriders controlled from start to finish, even a pair of Indian base runners at the corners did not phase the sophomore.
Thornsberry worked out of the jam to get the complete game win.
“K.T., she’s just awesome,” Smith said.
Thornsberry fanned the side in the sixth inning and struck out a pair in the first inning.
St. Marys moved to 20-1 with the win. Shawnee dropped to 16-6 on the year, a school record for victories in a season.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 July 2007 )
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