ANSONIA – Tri-Village baseball and softball, on the strength of good pitching and timely hitting, collected wins over Ansonia in their first WOAC league games this year.
Ansonia held a ribbon-cutting ceremony prior to the game to open up their beautiful new softball/baseball complex.
Tri-Village’s Emma Greer christened the event, scoring the first run in the new complex on a first-pitch home run to quickly get the Patriots on the scoreboard 1-0.
It would be an early showdown between two of the top teams in the league last year and both expected to challenge for a title again this year.
Ansonia was looking to pick up where they left off last season with a 16-12 record and a district championship in 2025. They won their first three games to start 2026 with two wins over Eaton in a doubleheader and a 15-0 shutout over Ft. Recovery.
The Tigers much like the Patriots have put together a very strong non-conference schedule to prepare them for strong WOAC league competition and post season play.
Tri-Village is coming off their historic 30-0 state championship season and like Ansonia return a majority of their roster from last year.
The Patriots started off this year with a win over Greenville but fell to perennial powers Oak Hill and Springfield Shawnee. They picked up a win over Russia and then got the 10-1 WOAC win over Ansonia Monday night.
Last year’s pitching ace for Tri-Village, Elizabeth Poling would have a good night in the circle going the distance. She threw 7 innings, gave up 5 hits, 1 run, 2 walks and had 11 strikeouts to get the win.
The Patriots banged out 18 hits with Aereonna Baker going 3-4, 2 rbi, Tai Mize 3-4, 3 rbi, 2 runs, Miley Bierly 3-4, 2 rbi, 2 runs, Cameron Osborne 3-4, 1 run, Kaley Brandon 3-3, 2 runs and Emma Greer 2-3, 2 rbi and 2 runs scored.
Coach Emily Osborne talked about the success her team had at the plate verses Ansonia.
“We’ve really been working on our strategy at bat and trying to be team players. I think that kind of came through today by making sure that we’re putting the ball in play. We’ll continue working on making sure we have runners on and finding a way to sacrifice getting them home,” Osborne explained.
Emma Greer would take matters in her own hands to start the game with her own shot to left field.
“That was fun with her leadoff homerun and the confidence it provides coming back to the team. I always tell her to make us believers, with the lead off it’s their job to make us believers, that we all can go up to bat and hit, and the homerun was just a bonus,” Osborne commented.
And while the sticks were hot, the pitching performance was on point as well.
“Our pitching was nice, Liz was working hard on the mound as always and Ray did a good job blocking balls as we’re working through some different pitches,” Osborne pointed out.
“We also got some good defensive plays to support the cause. They hit it over here to our hot corner a few different times. And she (Emma) was able to make awesome throws to first. They found some holes, because they are a good team … but we did a good job making sure they didn’t string several together,” Osborne stated.
Coach David Fisherback knows the softball season encompasses a lot of games and the early schedule was going to be a challenge.
“If I had circled a couple games on our schedule that we didn’t win would I be disappointed? Both Covington and Tri-Village are two that I’m not terribly upset about,” Fisherback stated.
“We’re continuing to battle walks from our pitching staff and we’re working on it and getting better. We finally started hitting the ball at the end here against Tri-Village,” Fisherback added.
The Tigers collected 5 hits against Poling with Lilly Perry going 2-3, 1 run, Miley Walls was 1-3, 1 rbi, and Addison Geyer and Abby Klingshirn went 1-3 at the plate.
The Tigers will be back in WOAC action on Thursday traveling to Tri-County North and the Patriots will be at Preble Shawnee.
In baseball action Tri-Village also took a 6-3 win spoiling the opener to the Tigers new baseball field.
The Patriots got a good effort on the bump from junior Lucas Brown who threw a 4-hitter and helped himself at the plate with a single and a rbi as well.
“Brown kept his pitch count way down and threw a nice game for us,” Tri-Village coach Josh Davies stated.
“He has experience and we are expecting a big year out of him,” Davies added.
Davies was pleased to see his team open up WOAC play with a win and feels he has a team of guys who can win games in a number of ways.
“I have complete confidence in this line-up – one through nine, they can do some damage. Since the start of practices, we have hit the ground running. We’ve been hitting the ball well on the barrel and playing good defense, so I’m really excited about these guys.” Davies explained.
Ansonia has a new head coach, TJ Phlipot who was pleased to see his team fight back after getting down 6-1 and putting a little pressure on the Patriots closing to 6-3 with runners on in the bottom of the 7th inning.
“We’re a young ball club. We had adversity early on, but the kids didn’t give up. I’m really proud of them for that, we showed some fire at the end … but we need to start a little faster and make the plays presented to us,” Philpot stated.
Patriot’s Ryker Marshall got things rolling for TV with an RBI Double to start the game. Lucas Brown got an RBI single in the third and later scored. Staley Colston rapped an RBI double as well to put the Patriots up 4-0.
The Tigers would answer in the 4th inning with Karsen Weiss getting on with a base hit and he would score on a hit from Jacob MacNutt later in the inning to make the score 4-1.
The Patriots scored two more in the 5th inning with Colston getting another hit and RBI to put the PATS up 6-1.
Ansonia rallied in the bottom of the 7th inning when Brown, who had thrown well, beaned back-to-back hitters. A double from Jaden Dakin plated two runs to make the score 6-3 but Brown worked his way out of the jam and then struck out back-to-back hitters to get the win.
While the Tigers didn’t get the win, coach Phlipot is optimistic that with some young talent and a nice new facility, they can get the program going in the right direction.
Ansonia will play at Tri-County North on Thursday, while Tri-Village next league game will be on Tuesday when they host Mississinawa Valley.
