MASON – Lindsey Potter worked her magic with three hits, including a homerun, as Jonathan Alder defeated Clinton-Massie 7-5 Saturday in the Region 8 Softball Championship game at Mason High School.
The Lady Falcons finished with a 25-5 record. The Lady Pioneers also advanced to the state semifinals last season, defeating Greenville in the regional championship game.
“They have six girls, I think, back off that state semifinal team from last year,” said CM coach Anthony Lauer. “They had some experience.”
Massie had runners on base in every inning but the sixth. While they had a few well-hit balls, only one out was recorded in the outfield, a fly ball to right by Claire Carruthers to end the fifth.
Alder pitcher Katelyn Perkins generally kept the CM hitters off-balance with her mix of pitches.
“We knew her best pitch was the curveball and we struggled with that,” Lauer said. “We practiced (Friday) against the curveball and screwball. We just didn’t make the adjustments (today). She hurt us with that pitch.”
Alder hit several balls hard and put runners on base against Taylor Florea and Lindsey Carter in each inning but the fourth.
“We knew they could hit the ball well,” Lauer said. “We knew this was not going to be a strikeout game. It was going to be a defense game. Whoever put the ball in play and made the fewest mistakes (on defense) was probably going to come out on top.”
The two teams struck out just five times.
Angela Brandel homered for Alder in the second to make it 2-0 then Potter followed with her solo shot to straight-away center in the third.
Clinton-Massie trailed 3-0 before pushing three runs across in the fourth with just one hit. Two Massie batters – Kendall Anderson and Ashlie Miller – reached base after being hit by pitches.
Kelsey Carter drove in one run then enabled Taylor Florea to score when she held up between first and second and avoided an inning-ending double play.
Though Massie never led, Anderson nearly gave the Lady Falcons the lead but her long blast over the right field fence was just to the right of the yellow fair pole.
Alder regained the lead with four runs in the sixth.
The Lady Falcons made the final inning a bit tense for the Alder fans. Natalie Lay and Victoria Sivert drove in runs to make it 7-5 and Massie had the bases loaded when the final out was recorded.
“They definitely take pride in what they are doing,” Lauer said. “They wanted to go out battling. That’s the way they played all year.”
SUMMARY
May 26 2018
Region 8 Softball Championship
@Mason High School
Alder 7 Clinton-Massie 5
JA 021-004-0…..7-10-2
CM 000-300-2…..5-8-1
(7) ALDER (ab-r-h-rbi) Potter 4-1-3-2 Walker 3-0-2-1 Jakse 4-0-0-0 Perkins 4-0-2-0 Wagner 0-1-0-0 Clark 3-2-1-0 Brandel 3-1-1-2 McDonald 4-0-1-1 Kaeser 0-1-0-0 McCoy 3-0-0-0 Thomas 3-1-0-0 Craig 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 31-7-10-6
(5) CLINTON-MASSIE (ab-r-h-rbi) K. Carter 4-0-1-1 L. Carter 4-1-1-1 Lay 4-1-2-1 Sivert 3-0-2-1 Clayborn 3-0-1-0 Anderson 3-1-0-0 Carruthers 2-1-0-0 Miller 2-1-0-0 Florea 4-1-1-0 Amberger 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 29-5-8-4
HR: A-Potter, Brandel
SB: A-Potter, Walker
PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-so)
Alder
Perkins (W) 7-9-5-3-2-1
Clinton-Massie
Florea (L) 5.2-9-7-4-2-3
L. Carter 1.1-1-0-0-0-1
