CENTERVILLE – For the third straight year, the Clinton-Massie softball team is heading to the Region 8 tournament.
With a strong bottom of the batting order and Taylor Florea in the circle, the Lady Falcons blanked Eaton 4-0 Saturday in a Division II SouthwestDistrict championship game at Centerville High School.
Clinton-Massie, 25-4 on the year, will play Monroe, 19-3 on the year, 5 p.m. Wednesday at Mason High School in a semifinal game. The championship game is set for Noon Saturday at MHS.
“I’m good friends with Tim Kellis, the coach at Monroe,” said CM coach Anthony Lauer. “We know Monroe. He knows our program. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of adjustments he makes. I’m not going to change anything. We’re going to keep the same game plan. It’s going to be a good game. I don’t think it’s going to be a high-scoring game. It’s going to be a pitcher’s battle. It’ll come down to, for us, doing what we did Saturday, making those plays, making those catches. Leaving it all on the field.”
Scoreless through two, Massie dented the plate in the third thanks to the bottom of the lineup. Florea’s one-out double put runners at second and third. Lindsey Carter drove in the first run then Natalie Lay made it 2-0 with another single.
After a two-on threat came up empty in the fourth, Florea started another rally with a single. Carter followed with a single then Florea came home on Lay’s sacrifice fly. In the seventh, the Falcons put together four straight singles with Carter driving in Hailey Clayborn for the final run.
In the end, the 7-8-9 batters in the CM lineup scored all four runs.
From there Florea and the Massie defense made the lead stand and gave the Lebanon Road school its third straight district softball title.
“My girls expect to be here,” Lauer said. “That experience we have … they are able to handle it (the pressure). We played pretty relaxed. If this would have been our first or second year, I don’t know. I think the pressure might have got to us.”
SUMMARY
May 18 2019
Div 2 District Championship
@Centerville High School
Clinton-Massie 4 Eaton 0
EA 000.000.0…..0
CM 002.011.x…..4
(0) EATON (ab-r-h-rbi) Dungan 3-0-0-0 Earley 2-0-1-0 Gels 2-0-0-0 A. Mowen 0-0-0-0 B. Mowen 3-0-1-0 Miller 3-0-0-0 Worley 3-0-0-0 Lammers 3-0-0-0 Sorrell 3-0-0-0 Shepherd 2-0-0-0. TOTALS 23-0-2-0
(4) CLINTON-MASSIE (ab-r-h-rbi) Carter 4-0-3-2 Sivert 3-0-0-0 Lay 2-0-1-2 Anderson 3-0-1-0 Drake 2-0-0-0 Doss 1-0-0-0 Doan 3-0-1-0 Clayborn 3-1-1-0 Hickey 3-1-1-0 Florea 3-2-3-0 Doss 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 27-4-11-4
2B: Florea
SAC: Sivert, Lay
PITCHING^IP^H^R^ER^BB^SO
Eaton
Gels (L)^6^11^4^3^0^4
Clinton-Massie
Florea (W)^7^2^0^0^2^8
