Lady Pirates ousted at districts by Carey
By Cort Reynolds
FINDLAY - Bluffton had its 19-game win streak ended by Carey 8-3 in Div. IV district semifinal softball action at Findlay's Marathon Diamonds Wednesday evening.
The top-seeded Lady Pirates end their season 20-2 with the defeat. Both of their losses came at the hands of Carey.
The third-seeded Lady Blue Devils improved to 19-5 and advance to the district finals vs. New Riegel or McComb Thursday, May 17 at Findlay.
Slugging Carey jumped on Bluffton for five runs in the top of the first inning to take control. Yet the Pirates stayed in contention with single runs in each of the first three innings.
But the Devils added two scores in the third and one in the seventh, while shutting out Bluffton over the final four frames, to post the win.
Pirate junior Libby Schaadt gave up 11 hits and three earned runs in seven innings to end her personal 17-game win string. She struck out five Devils and walked five to finish her season 18-2.
Bluffton's Averey Rumer singled twice and scored two runs.
Mara Minnig contributed a double and Riley Busch smacked a triple. Alivia Koenig added a single for the other Pirate hit.
Carey hurler Bridget Mulholland allowed five hits and three earned runs over seven innings to earn the victory. She struck out four Pirates and walked two. Mulholland also drilled two hits to aid her own cause at the plate.
Hannah Lonsway hit a double, singled and scored two runs to pace the Devil offense. Hailey Niederkohr and Kenzie Snyder each collected two singles.
Niederkohr leads the Northern 10 Athletic Conference in batting, and is hitting .590 with eight home runs this season. She also led the league with 48 runs scored and has 30 RBI.
Emma Wagner, Lexia Clinger and Kenzie Row added one hit apiece for Carey. Clinger also scored two runs.
Both teams made two errors and the Devils out-hit Bluffton, 11-5.
Carey also beat Bluffton 8-2 back on March 26 to make the Pirate record 1-1 at that time. After that, Bluffton won 19 straight until Wednesday's district defeat.
The Pirates also won their first Northwest Conference title outright at 8-0.
123 456 7 R H E
Car 502 000 1 8 11 2
Blf 111 000 0 3 5 2
WP-Mulholland (14-3) LP-Schaadt (18-2)
2B-Minnig (B), Lonsway (C)
3B-Busch (B)
