By Mark Ruschau
MARIA STEIN -- When you play a team with a rich pitching tradition like Parkway softball, you know that you have to take advantage of your chances when they arise.
Monday afternoon the Marion Local Flyers collected 10 hits, but could muster just three runs as they fell to the Panthers, 7-3, in a Midwest Athletic Conference game.
The Flyers had Parkway starter Kristin Roth on the ropes early as they had six hits in the first four innings but could plate only one run.
"Kristin got the outs when she needed them," commented Parkway coach Mark Esselstein. "The defense played well behind her and she is a good pitcher.
"The wind made it hard for her to spot her changeup, which is her best pitch, but she battled," continued Esselstein. "She battled and kept us in the game until the bats got going." "The thing that's most frustrating about today is that we've been struggling with getting people on base, but that wasn't a problem today, but getting the clutch hit was," said Marion Local coach Gary Moeder. "We are young and we are going to take our lumps in situations like this sometimes."
In the first, Kelli Stucke and Kim Droesch singled to start the inning. After a fielder's choice for an out, Lisa Siegrest and Kelly Rosenbeck walked to force in a run. That was to be it for the Flyers as Roth bowed her back and struck out Kelly Pleiman and Kim Evers to end the threat.
The opportunities continued to come for Marion Local in nearly every inning, but the Flyers just couldn't score in those opportunities.
With Roth getting the job done on the mound, it was up to her teammates to get her some runs and they started with a run in the fourth. Jan Boroff singled to start the inning moved to second on a sacrifice by Tiffany Steinbrunner and scored on an infield hit by Ashley Gamble.
Parkway took the lead for good with a run in the sixth. Jayme Marbaugh walked and Boroff and Steinbrunner walked to load the bases. Jen Murphy plated the run with a sacrifice fly.
Parkway blew the game open, scoring five times in the seventh. Laura Art singled to start the rally, stole second and went to third when Yoder reached on an error. Marbaugh then doubled in two runs to make the score 4-1.
Boroff and Steinbrunner then followed Marbaugh with doubles of their own to make the score 6-1. Steinbrunner scored the final run of the frame as she motored all the way from second on a groundball to second by Murphy.
"With the wind blowing in like it was today it was hard to get comfortable at the plate," said Esselstein. "In the seventh we got good pitches to hit and we got aggressive at the plate. It's a lot easier to swing the bats when you got the lead."
Parkway is scheduled to return to action today at home against Lima Central Catholic while Marion Local is scheduled to play today at Crestview. |
