“Rather we shared it or not, it feels good,” Troy’s Lauryn Rutan said. “I’ll take a sharing any day.”
Piqua entered in the drivers seat at 8-1 after a 3-0 win over Troy on Monday , but the Trojans earned the split and combined with Greenville’s 15-5 run-rule of Sidney a three-way tie for the Division title.
“We can be disappointed that we didn’t win it outright,” Piqua coach Rick Claprood said after the Indians fell to 8-2 in the GWOC and 17-5. “But we are GWOC champs.”
All three GWOC divisions had shared champions. Northmont and Centerville both finished 9-1 to tie in the Central while Lebanon and Miamisburg tied in the South at 9-1.
Facing a must win game, Troy watched as the Indians struck for a run in the top of the first for a 1-0 lead, but answered with a four-run first behind two-run home runs by Rutan and Natalie Henson for a 4-1 lead. The Trojans never trailed again.
“I think we were prepared for it,” Rutan said. “Coming back, scoring runs in the bottom of the first was big because we knew that they would keep coming back and we had to stay confident.”
Troy added a pair in the second on an two-run inside the park home run by Rutan and four more in the third to open a 10-2 lead.
Piqua cut the deficit to 10-8 in the fifth and could have had more if not for a couple of base running errors.
“We made some mistakes on the bases, not tagging on flyballs, waiting on grounders to the left side, that we just don’t want to make,” Claprood said.
Troy coach Dan Cain tried to keep the Indians off guard by running four different looks at the Indians with Henson, Hallie Snyder, Hannah Wright and Camryn Moeller pitching
“We were just trying to do what we could do when we were struggling to throw strikes,” Cain said. “We gave them some walks and that got them going.”
Piqua and Troy could meet again in the second round of the sectional tournament next week.
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