Greenville rallies to stun Kings

Green Wave tally 4 unearned runs in the 6th inning to win regional semifinal.

Never say die.

That’s what Greenville High School softball coach Jerrod Newland kept telling his team as elimination loomed closer in its Division II regional semifinal against Kings.

The Green Wave heeded Newland’s advice.

Down to their final four outs, Greenville scored four unearned runs to steal a 5-3 victory in a game at Northmont High School on Wednesday, May 26.

Ashley Hanes started the Green Wave rally in the bottom of the sixth with a two-out single — Greenville’s only hit of the inning. Madison Shuret grounded to shortstop, but Heather Ramey’s throw pulled first baseman Ashley Hornschemeier off the bag.

Tabitha Enicks and Kelly Martin then drew walks from Kings pitcher Lauren Collier, the second forcing in Greenville’s second run.

That brought up Nicole Davis, who hit a ground ball to second base. Kings committed two errors on the play — one fielding and one throwing — and the Green Wave (29-3) scored three runs to lead 5-3.

“Never say die,” Greenville coach Jerrod Newland said. “It took us six innings to finally get some runners on base against Collier — she’s a great pitcher — and that’s what we do, we like to get on base and put pressure on the other team.

“We got on base, got a little help and broke through. That was a crazy high school softball game.”

Sophomore Kelly Martin, who reached base four times — on two walks, a hit and an error — said there was no panic on the Green Wave bench.

“We had confidence in everybody who went up to the plate,” Martin said. “We just knew we had to keep putting the ball in play. They made some mistakes, and we took advantage of it.”

Kings (24-7) had grabbed a 3-1 lead in the top of the fifth, the beneficiary of some Greenville mistakes.

Greenville pitcher Jordyn Fisherback held the Knights at bay the rest of the game, allowing three hits and striking out four.

“We had our inning, they had theirs,” Kings coach Mary Ellen Bonner said.

Greenville advances to face the winner of today’s Urbana/Lima Shawnee game in the regional final, at noon Saturday at Northmont.

West Liberty-Salem 5, Mid. Madison 4: The D-III regional semifinal between Madison (19-5) and WLS (26-3) was supposed to erase some bad feelings for the Mohawks. Instead, this one may hurt even more.

Leading 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning with the Tigers down to their final out, the Mohawks collapsed at Wright State University.

First, Mohawks senior ace Hannah Kendrick hit WLS lead-off batter Alyssa Neff with a pitch sending the potential tying run to first. Then Emily Detwiler reached base on a throwing error by Madison shortstop Brooke Taylor, that put runners on second and third. Three pitches later, the Tigers’ top hitter — Abbey Ledford — smacked a liner into right center to complete a thrilling come-from-behind win.

Staff writer John Bombatch contributed to this report. Contact Scott Hayes at (513) 696-4526 or shayes@coxohio.com.

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