ANSONIA – The home-standing Ansonia Lady Tigers defeated the Bradford Lady Railroaders 4-0 in Saturday WOAC softball action.
“Very proud of our girls,” said Ansonia coach David Fisherback. “Bradford is a young team. They are a lot like us, well-coached, they are going to be tough the next couple of years. We came out and played pretty much good sound fundamental ball on defense today.”
Ansonia was on top of its game on offense and defense as the Lady Tigers pounded out nine hits, allowed no runs, and played error-free defense on the day.
“It’s not like we fell apart in any particular inning,” said Bradford coach Shon Schaffer. “It was just more of when they had the opportunity to make a play to score a run, they absolutely did it and executed and chipped away to a four-run lead. Our opportunities to either move runners over or to hit runs in, we folded.”
Jayda Mangen knocked a one-out first-inning single to left, and courtesy runner Abby Klingshirn used two passed balls to move up two bases and score the game’s first run with an RBI infield single to third off the bat of Ava Thatcher.
The Lady Tigers tacked on two runs in the bottom of the third with a leadoff line drive home run over the left field fence off the bat of freshman Shyanna McKenna. Thatcher followed with a one-out single to left, a Geyer singled, and a run-scoring Lillian Perry double to left, giving the home team a 3-0 advantage.
“Shy McKenna hit the home run, kind of got us going,” Fisherback said. “We are still leaving some runners left on base. We’re hitting the ball again.”
Ansonia scored the game’s final run in the bottom of the fourth with a leadoff single off the bat of Avalyn Locke, and Locke scoring on a Kylie Caldwell sacrifice.
Bre’ana Walker went the distance, pitching shutout ball for Ansonia, allowing 3 hits, 2 walks while striking out six. Vivian Harlemen was saddled with the loss, giving up 2 earned runs on nine hits, 2 walks, and 7 strikeouts.
“Walker was hitting her spots today; they have a couple of outstanding hitters,” Fisherback noted. “She did a very good job.”
Ansonia – Thatcher 2-3, 1 RBI, 1 run; Perry 2-3, 1 RBI; Shyann McKenna 1-3, 1 RBI, 1 run; Locke and 1-2, a walk, 1 run; Walls 1-2, 1 walk, Mangen and Geyer 1-3; Caldwell 1 RBI.
Bradford – Hayven Evans, Lexi Clark, and Lilly Canan each went 1-3 at the plate.
With the win, Ansonia improves to 10-10 overall and 6-3 in the WOAC. Bradford goes to 9-14 and 5-5 in conference play.
With the 2025 OHSAA tournament just ahead, both coaches are looking forward to tournament play.
“We are peaking, we are starting to put the ball in play, hustle,” Coach Fisherback stated. “You can control what you can, that’s hustle and keep making contact, try not to strike out.”
“This is going to be fun to see how this plays out (tournament) because out of the top six to eight teams, anyone can beat anyone in these three brackets,” said Coach Schaffer.
BOX SCORE
123 456 7 R H E
000 000 0 0 3 1 Bradford
102 100 X 4 9 0 Ansonia
