UNION CITY – The Ansonia Lady Tigers defeated the home-standing Mississinawa Valley Lady Blackhawks 8-2 in Thursday night WOAC action.
“We put the bat on the ball,” said Ansonia coach David Fisherback. “Defensively, we played really solid. Our pitching staff; we used three of our girls tonight, they’re coming on.”
“We had runners on just about every inning,” said first-year MV coach Shane Buckingham. “We just couldn’t get that timely hit. I can’t blame them for that. We got runners on. Sometimes that happens.”
The Lady Tigers took a 2-1 lead after one inning of play with Addie Geyer knocking in two Ansonia runs with a single to right, and the Hawks’ run coming on a Cayden Neukam single to center.
Ansonia put the game away in the top of the second, scoring four runs beginning with a Kylie Caldwell single to right, a Shyann McKenna walk, and an RBI Jayda Mangen bunt single back to the mound. Geyer knocked in a run with a single, Miley Walls drove a run-scoring double to right, sending the game to the bottom of the second with the Lady Tigers up 6-2.
The teams played to a 2-2 count over the remainder of the game, giving Ansonia a six-run conference win.
“We’re trying to change our way of thinking and going into these games thinking we can win,” Buckingham stated. “We’re getting better. You have to give Ansonia credit. They played small ball, they run the bases well, they put pressure on your defense, they force you into errors.”
With the win, Ansonia improves to 7-7 on the season and 3-2 in conference play. MV drops to 6-7 and 3-4 in the WOAC.
“We look at our season in two parts,” said Coach Fisherback. “The first part we’ve played four teams ranked in the state, and I told the girls, tonight our second season starts. It’s time to get on a winning streak. “We’ve played all the super tough teams (Greenville, Minster, Tri-Village, Miami East), four top ten teams in three different divisions so now is the time to lace up those shoes and be ball players and come out every game, one pitch at a time, one inning at a time and try to win every inning we can”
“I like where we’re at,” Buckingham said. “We’re getting better every game. It’s a focus thing, it’s a culture thing, and we’re trying to change it. It’s coming along, I’m happy where we’re at.”
Miley Walls led Ansonia at the plate, going 3-3 and a walk, a double, and one RBI. Mangen was 2-4, including a double, one RBI; Geyer went 2-4, four RBIs; Caldwell 1-4, one run; Ava Thatcher 1 run; Lydia Klinshirn one run; Lillian Kaiser one run.
The Lady Hawks got a double from Ella Godfrey and Gentry Newbauer, Neukam, Makenna Hoggatt, Trinity Reichard, and Stephany De La Torre each had singles.
BOX SCORE:
123 456 7 R H E
240 011 0 8 8 0 Ansonia
110 000 0 2 6 1 Mississinawa Valley
