Parkway pulls away from Tinora in 6th

BATH TOWNSHIP - Parkway was having problems finding holes in Tinora's defense for the first five innings of Wednesday's Division III district semifinal.

That, however, wasn't an issue in the sixth.

With just one hit entering the frame, the Panthers ripped off five sixth-inning hits and scored four runs to pull away from the Rams for a 7-1 victory and earn a spot in Friday's district final where they will face Fairview.

Parkway's Kayle Heckler scored on an error in the first inning, and that run held up until the bottom of the fifth.

"We hit a lot of balls right at people (early in the game)," Parkway coach Mark Esselstein said. "To Tinora's credit, other than that one hiccup in the first inning, they played great defense."

Kaitlyn Pscoldna tied the game at 1-all with a solo home run in the fifth. All that did, though, was awaken a sleeping giant.

Heckler and Alyx Slusher began the sixth with back-to-back doubles, with Heckler scoring on the latter. Haley Hawk and Selena Burtch each had RBI singles, and Alisa Gray drove in a run with a double to the gap.

"She hadn't gotten good swings before and then all of a sudden, she unloaded. That was a great hit," said Esselstein about Pscoldna's homer. "You know, our kids were a little bit quieter than we like them to be, and I think that did serve as an impetus that we needed to bounce back and answer that. I thought we did a good job of answering."

Parkway (20-3) added two insurance runs in the seventh on Terra Walls' two-run single with two outs.

Heckler pitched the first five innings for the Panthers and allowed four hits, one earned run and struck out two in a winning effort. Katelin Augsburger was lights out over the final two innings, striking out five and giving up one hit to lockdown the game.

"We've pretty much gone with three pitchers all year," Esselstein said. "Kayle's been our starter and Katelin's a really good change of pace. She throws harder and she gives (opponents) a different look. She pounds the strike zone. They hit a couple good balls off of her but she also blew it by them a little bit. It was a good job of stepping in and she did what we needed of her."

Burtch was the only multiple hitter for Parkway, finishing 2-for-3 with an RBI. Ali Cheek led the Rams with a 2-for-4 day.

Top-seeded Fairview enters Friday's contest coming off an 8-0 win against sixth-seeded Kenton in Tuesday's district semi. The Apaches and Panthers play at 5 p.m. on Friday at Bath High School.

"They're a great team," Esselstein said. "We know them pretty well. We've scrimmaged them the last couple years, played them in the regular season two years ago. They've got five or six really good seniors, a senior pitcher who really knows what she's doing out there, aggressive hitters. We're obviously going to have to start swinging the bats, and when we get runners on base, we're going to have to cash in.

"We've done a good job swinging the bats and the pitchers have done a good job all year. We're just going to have to keep doing what we're doing. A good team is going to win one way or the other."