Redskins cruise past Bulldogs

WAPAKONETA - Celina opened up a 3-1 lead on Wapakoneta in the third inning Friday night.

The Redskins took over from there.

The fourth-seeded host team strung together back-to-back five-run innings in the third and fourth and rolled to an 11-5 win over the eighth-seeded Bulldogs in the Division II sectional final at Wapakoneta High School.

The Redskins (19-5) advance to play top-seeded Bath, a 10-0 winner over Bryan, in Tuesday's district semifinal at Miller City High School. Celina still has a game today at Wayne Trace starting at 11 a.m.

The Bulldogs spotted Wapak a run in the second inning. Riley Culver, who had the first hit of the game, scored when Socorro Cerda lined a single to center which got through the legs of the center fielder and allowed Culver to score all the way from first.

Celina scored all three of its second-inning runs with two outs. Carly Post smacked a double down the left field line to bring home leadoff hitter Stephanie Walter after she was hit by a pitch. Alexis Zacharias, the Bulldogs' lone senior, lofted a triple to the right-center gap and hustled home on an error on the cutoff throw.

Blasia Moyler started the scoring in the bottom of the third with a bases-clearing triple to tie the game. The score ballooned to 11-3 by the end of the fourth.

Celina allowed five runs on four hits in third and fourth, and committed four errors in the game. Less than half of starting pitcher Melody Donovan's runs were earned.

"It was aggressive hitting on their part, aggressive base running," Celina coach Nicole Driggs said. "They have a nice deep fence, if you put it out there, you can run. They had some speedsters that kept the rally going.

"We had the big second inning. That was exciting for us. We felt like we had this. But you have to keep producing. You have to keep buckling down, keep nailing pitches, keep making defensive plays and play errorless ball. We beat ourselves up on that."

The Bulldogs had lost in extra innings to the Redskins earlier in the season. This time around, though, it was a different Wapak team, Driggs said.

Wapak finished the night with 11 hits - with Cerda leading the charge, going 3-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Pitcher Megan Fisher, who had two hits, had seven strikeouts and gave up six hits in a complete-game effort.

"Wapak's team looked better than the last time they played us," she said. "They've grown since that game, and they're ready to face Bath. Give them credit for that.

"Their pitcher did a very good job. I mean, with 2-2 counts, she was getting us to chase change-ups and rise balls, giving us nothing good on that count, and she was consistent with her spots."

Zacharias, Celina's record-breaking senior, had a big night in her final tournament game, finishing 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, a triple and three RBIs. She drove in Celina's final two runs with doubles in the fifth and seventh. Walter had an effective day for Celina in the leadoff spot, reaching base on all four plate appearances (two walks, two hit by pitch) and scoring three runs.

"There's that learning curve that we talked about at the very beginning," said Driggs, who will have everyone except Zacharias back next season. "I'm not happy with the way we went out, although I'm happy with the way my senior went out because she left her heart out there. I'm sad for her that we had to stop so soon."