Jay softball’s offense explodes

ELWOOD — The Patriots found an offensive spark on Thursday to bring home their first conference win. That spark turned into a flame over the weekend as the Patriots’ offense found fire for a pair of wins.

Jay County High School’s softball team scored more than 10 runs in both of their games on Saturday at the Lady Panthers Classic in a 21-11 win over the host Elwood Panthers and an 11-7 victory over the Eastern Comets.

The Patriots (8-4) trailed Elwood (4-11) by three runs before they rattled off 10 runs in the fifth inning

The middle of the order powered the offense in the game as Jaeylnn Lykins collected five hits, including a home run and a double, to drive in four runs. Jozey Shimp and Mady Fraley both pushed four runs across the plate as well – Shimp with a double and three singles and Fraley with two triples.

Carley Trindad earned the win as she tossed three innings of relief.

Trinidad and Hallie Schwieterman fueled the offensive production in the win against Eastern (10-7). Each had three RBIs with the former earning four hits and the latter securing three including a two-RBI triple in the fifth inning.

Mallory Winner manned the circle in the second game, going the distance while surrendering seven runs on seven hits and three walks.

Indians draw Tigers

The OHSAA announced the sectional and district matchups on Saturday afternoon.

The Fort Recovery baseball team received the sixth seed in the tournament, and will host No. 11 seed Waynesfield-Goshen in the opener of the Division IV Northwest 3 sectional tournament at 5 p.m. on May 14.

The Tigers (7-8) only have one game left on their regular season to be played today at Ada, while the Indians (7-8) have five more games slated before the postseason.

The winning team will get to face off with No. 2 seed Crestview (11-2) for the sectional title on May 16.

May 22’s potential district opener at Coldwater, would force the Indians to face another Midwest Athletic Conference team as the bottom part of the bracket consists of third-seeded St. Henry (12-8), seventh-seeded New Bremen (6-10) and ninth-seeded Parkway (5-9).

The eighth-ranked No. 1 seed Minster Wildcats (17-4) and the No. 4 Marion Local Flyers (12-10) have the best shot of making the district championship game – which will be played on May 24 – of the teams in the top half of the bracket.

Tribe splits

COLDWATER, Ohio — The Fort Recovery softball team split a pair of games against Midwest Athletic Conference opponents in the Strikeout Cancer tournament at Coldwater on Saturday.

The Indians had a big fourth inning against the Marion Local Flyers to earn a 7-4 victory, but couldn’t hold on in the second game as the Coldwater Cavaliers picked them off 10-8.

The first two batters of the fifth inning for Fort Recovery (9-12) reached base on a walk and an error. A single by Kayla Heitkamp and back-to-back doubles by Alexis Grisez and Emma Will pushed four runs across without an out. Another error allowed the fifth to score, giving FRHS 6 runs of padding against the Flyers (5-15).

Jenna Homan went the distance to earn the win for the Indians, only allowing three earned runs on nine hits, while striking out nine batters.

Seven runs over the fourth and fifth innings decided the game against Coldwater (13-10). The Indians attempted a late comeback with three runs in the top of the seventh inning, but couldn’t finish the job. Britney Tebbe suffered the loss, allowing six runs to score on 11 hits through the first four innings.

Offense struggles

FORT RECOVERY — Fort Recovery’s baseball team got blown out in the first game of a doubleheader against the Russia Raiders 15-0 Saturday. The Indians kept the second game close but fell 2-1 there as well.

A trio of pitchers for the Indians (7-8) gave up crooked numbers to the Raiders (16-4) in all but the fourth inning in the five-inning first game.

Eight runs in the second inning gave Russia a double-digit lead over Fort Recovery to put the game out of reach.

Alex Gaerke suffered the loss in 1 ⅓ innings pitched, but also recorded the Indians’ only hit of the game.

Rex Leverette took the loss in the second game, despite only giving up two runs on five hits in a complete game. A walk, triple and a groundout in the fourth inning allowed the runs to score.

The Tribe’s run came on a sacrifice fly by Troy Homan in the fifth.

JV earns win

BERNE — The Jay County junior varsity tennis team took revenge on the South Adams Starfires on Saturday in a 3-2 victory.

Back on April 15, South Adams took down the Patriots 3-2.

The No. 1 and 2 singles matches had flipped results from the previous match. This time around, Lilly Johnson dropped the No. 1 contest to Olivia Oswalt 2-8, while Raylah Newton took down Lanie Bryan 8-4.

Faith Faulkner captured another win for the Patriots in the No. 3 singles match. She took down Ginamarie Sommerset 8-3.

Jay County also flipped a win out of No. 1 doubles duo Courtney Harris and Lucie Henneaux. They combined to take down Calah Hill and Makenzie Miller 9-7 in a match that lasted 1 hour, 20 minutes.

Lauren Fisher and Kenzie Tobe ultimately fell to Elysia Gonsowski and Amerson Wanner 8-4 in the No. 2 doubles match.

In an extra doubles contest, Taven Bentley and Lydia Johnson pulled out their first doubles win of their careers 8-4.