Teams make Tri-Co. finals

MUNCIE and REDKEY — A trio of travel ball teams competed in the Tri-County softball tournament on Wednesday and all three earned berths to the finals.

Three of the Portland All Star softball teams picked up wins in the semifinal of the Tri-County softball tournament at Delta High School on Wednesday, to clinch spots in Thursday’s championship games.

Portland’s 8-and-younger team came out on top of Cowan 16-2 to earn a spot in the championship game.

Maddie Theurer led the way with five RBIs in the game and a triple. Portland also got large offensive efforts from Annabelle Wiggins and Hayden Guggenbiller, both of which drove in four runs. 

Wiggins plated runners with a home run and a double, while Guggenbiller had four singles.

The Portland 10-and-younger Red team took down the Yorktown Black team 9-6, clinching a date with Monroe Central in the championship. Aliana Jeffers led the All Stars at the plate, going 3-for-3 with a double and two singles. Lizzie Miller also was perfect from the dish with a double and a single.

Carsyn Guggenbiller picked up the victory after striking out three batters and giving up 10 hits.

The 12-and-younger team had to come back from a 3-2 deficit to walk off Delta.

Emalee Aker led off the inning with a single to center field before getting moved to second base on a Charli Stephens groundout. Aker swiped third herself and scored on an error that got the batter, Paisley Day, all the way to second. Maggie Westgerdes then delivered the walk-off single on a line drive to center field.

Ellie Wiggins also played a key role, driving in the first two runs of the game for Portland and pitching a complete game that included eight strikeouts and only two earned runs.