Softball gets first ACAC win

BLUFFTON — The Patriots have had a rough go in Allen County Athletic Conference play.

They finally broke through and the offense poured in.

After only tallying three hits and one run on Tuesday, the Jay County High School softball team poured on 17 hits for 16 runs against the Bluffton Tigers in a 16-5 clobbering on Thursday.

A double by Jozey Shimp in the first inning got the Patriots (6-4, 1-2 ACAC) on the board early. The second inning was quiet as well, but the sluggers opened the game up with a five-run third.

The Tigers (6-8, 0-4 ACAC) answered back with five runs of their own over the next two innings, but Jay County put the game on ice with seven runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh.

Mallory Winner earned the win by going the distance with nine strikeouts. She gave up six hits and one walk to contribute to five earned runs.

All nine of the Patriot batters got a hit as Mady Fraley and Carley Trinidad contributed three. Fraley and Trinidad were joined by Jaelynn Lykins for the most RBIs with four as well.

Fraley’s top hit was a three-run home run in the seventh. All of Lykins’ RBIs came on a grand slam in the sixth inning. Trinidad had a pair of two-RBI hits, a single in the third inning and a double in the sixth inning.

Came up short

BLUFFTON — The Bluffton Tigers got ahead of the Jay County baseball team early on Thursday and despite a late push, a full comeback wasn’t in the card for the Patriots as they fell 5-4.

The first three batters reached base for Bluffton (10-5, 5-0 ACAC) in the bottom of the second inning and a double by Easton Blair and a single by Nick Pastore plated them.

An error and a wild pitch in the second inning allowed two more runs to score in the third inning.

All five runs were charged to Kade Sommers, giving him the loss.

The Patriots (9-7, 3-1 ACAC) took back three runs in the final two innings, but fell one short of extending the game.

Sam Myers and Parker Nichols led the offense with two hits, a run and an RBI each.

Jay swept

MONROE — The Jay County girls tennis team got swept by the Adams Central Jets 5-0 on Thursday afternoon.

Brenna Haines and Maggie Dillon played the most consistent matches for the Patriots (5-4, 0-2 ACAC) at the No. 1 singles and No. 3 singles positions, respectively. Haines won three games in each set as she fell to Hillary Tobias 6-3, 6-3.

Dillon lost to Macy McClure 6-3, 6-4.

Melanie Bertsch narrowly avoided a third set against Brenna Bailey in the No. 2 singles match. Bertsch came out on top 6-0, 7-5.

Meredith Dirksen and Sophia Sprunger were defeated by Adams Central’s Alexa Brotherton and Anna Leyse 6-1, 6-2 in the No. 1 doubles match.

Zion Beiswanger and Lucie Henneaux failed to get a game in the first set but managed three as dropped the No. 2 doubles match 6-0, 6-3 to Aliana Bertsch and Alyana McCullough.

Faith Faulker captured the only win for JCHS on the night with a 6-2 victory in the junior varsity No. 3 singles match.

Four strokes short

WINCHESTER — The Jay County Junior High School golf team fell 164-168 to Driver on Thursday at Winchester Golf Course.

Tobe Schwartzentruber’s 37 strokes earned him match medalist honors. His best hole came on the second in which he finished with a bogey.

Karson Hines and Bailey Towell came up with the next best scores of 41 and 43. Crystal Schwartzentruber rounded out the team score with 47 strokes.

Camden Buckland’s 51 and Kason Sims’ 52 did not affect the team score.