Gem Dandy

ST. MARYS - For five innings, New Bremen and St. Marys engaged in a good old-fashioned pitchers' duel.

In the sixth, the Cardinals struck first and then limited the Roughriders' counter over the final two innings to pick up a 3-1 softball victory in an Auglaize County showdown at K.C. Geiger Park.

New Bremen's Allison Hays and St. Marys' Karsyn McGlothen came up with stellar performances, but the Cardinals were able to get timely plays to push across their runs.

"Just a matter of patience. That's what we've been telling the girls," said Cardinals coach Gary Moeder. "Keep plugging away and (good things) will happen. Hopefully we can continue this."

McGlothen, who pitched no-hitters in each of her last two starts and pitched no-hit relief on Saturday in a win over Ottoville, had her pitches on point from the get-go. The junior pitched 1-2-3 innings in the first and second before giving up a bloop single to Alayna Ross in the third. McGlothen then retired the next nine batters in order with 10 strikeouts through five.

"It was a battle at times," said St. Marys coach Kendra Solomon. "Bremen made some nice plays, timely plays that they pulled off."

Hays was equal to the task, retiring the first 11 batters she faced before giving up a double to Renee Sweigart in the fourth, but got out of the threat unscathed, then went 1-2-3 in the fifth to keep it scoreless.

"Allison hit locations well tonight," Moeder of Hays, who struck out eight with just one walk. "Real proud of her,"

The Cardinals (9-8) finally were able to break the deadlock in the sixth. Emma Keller drew a walk to start the inning and then stole second. After McGlothen got Ella Pape to fly out, Alayna Thieman singled to bring Keller home for the first run of the game. Emma Krieg followed with a fly to left that was misplayed, sending Thieman home from second for the second run of the inning, and Madi Lozier made it 3-0 with a single to right to bring home Krieg. McGlothen managed to get out of further trouble, but the damage was done.

Hays got the first out of the bottom of the sixth, but an error put Kiley Tennant at first and another error moved her to second. After a stolen base. Emma Birt's grounder back to the circle brought home the run, but Hays got Sweigart to ground out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the seventh, McGlothen singled and was replaced by courtesy runner Krysten Fowler. Hays got Zoe Lininger to ground to first to move Fowler to second. Morgan Hirschfeld followed with a short fly over shortstop, but Ross made a great over-the-shoulder catch to get the second out.

Lily Steinberg then was hit by a pitch to put the tying run at first for Kelsey Poppe. Poppe took a 1-2 offering for a low pop to short, where Ross scooped up the ball before it hit the ground and ended the game.

"That's something we've been telling them all year - that they're capable of doing this," said Moeder. "Glad to see it's coming out."

"A lot of other teams and circumstances, those would have been hits," Solomon said of the defensive gems. "We left players on base during the game and weren't quite executing."

Both teams, weather permitting, are in conference play tonight at their respective home fields. New Bremen hosts Coldwater in Midwest Athletic Conference play with St. Marys (8-5) hosting Van Wert in a Western Buckeye League game.