PITSBURG – The National Trail Lady Blazers softball team picked up where they left off from a rain delay with Franklin Monroe last week leading 3-0 in the bottom of the first inning. The bats were alive and well as they pounded out 13 hits on their way to an 18-1 win over the Lady Jets.
The Blazers are a young talented team with just two upper classmen both seniors: Morgan House and Femke Tenniglo. It’s a team that has six freshman and three sophomores. After starting the season off at 3-4 they went on a five-game winning streak and four of the wins came against WOAC teams.
Then they ran into the top two teams in the league falling 13-3 to Arcanum and 19-9 against Tri-Village … but showed they can hit and score runs against anyone in those losses.
After a disappointing defeat at Dixie on Monday, Trail responded with a good effort on the mound from sophomore starting pitcher Katie Wyatt throwing three innings with just one hit. Then freshman Addison Sexton came on in relief going two innings giving up a hit, one run and had two strikeouts to get the save.
Five Trail hitters had multiple hits Eva Swartsell 2-4, 2 rbi, Taylor Reynolds 2-3, 3 rbi, 3 runs, Kinley Marker 2-4, 3 rbi, 2 runs, Madison Lawson 2-4, 2 runs and Katie Wyatt 2-2, 1 rbi and 3 runs.
Kenady Thompson was 1-4 3 rbi’s and 3 runs score, Morgan House 1-3 with a run scored and Kamryn Howard 1-3 with a rbi and 3 runs.
The WOAC has been strong in softball since it began boasting two state championships one by Bradford and the other Tri-Village in the first four years. Tri-Village, Arcanum, Ansonia and Tri-County North all won district titles last year and remain strong again this year with Newton coming on strong as well and National Trail showing steady improvement as well.
National Trail coach Natasha Richie sees a young talented team improving as the season goes along and will not be an easy out in the tournament.
“Today we came out here hitting the ball well. We worked in practice yesterday with each individual player to adjust their hitting knowing we would face a little bit slower pitcher and they executed well tonight,” Richie stated.
“We talked to them about maintaining their focus, especially with the big lead. We wanted to play clean, stay disciplined and not create bad habits to take into the next game,” Richie added.
“So early season, we struggled a little bit, but then we started putting it together playing very well for a stretch and won a couple of games we didn’t anticipate and had a nice win streak going, which was good. Then we kind of hit a little bit of a slump with our pitching putting too many on base, and that’s definitely getting better again,” Richie explained.
National Trail improves to 9-7 overall and 5-4 in the WOAC and is back in action tonight hosting 3rd place Newton and then they will start to set their sights on the tournament.
The Blazers will host DeGraff Riverside in the OHSAA DVI Southwest District on May 14th at 5pm.
“We got a good tournament draw and the team that we’re going to be up against, I think, is pretty comparable to where we’re at so I’m really excited for this game,” coach Richie concluded.
