Friday, May 15th, 2009

Redskins top Indians again, 1-0

By Ryan Hines
Photo by Dave Heirholzer/The Daily Standard

St. Henry's Michelle Stout, front, gets set to fire a pitch to the plate during their Division IV softball sectional against Fort Recovery at New Bremen. The Redskins won the game 1-0.

NEW BREMEN - It must feel like deja vu for the Fort Recovery softball team.
For the second time in the last 10 days, St. Henry pitcher Michelle Stout twirled a shutout against Fort Recovery as the Redskins marched to a Division IV sectional title on Thursday with a 1-0 victory over the Indians.
St. Henry (16-5), which also beat Fort Recovery (7-13) by a score of 1-0 on May 5, will now play in the district semifinals on Tuesday against Parkway.
"Fort Recovery beat us last year in the tournament and I think that our girls really wanted to come out and play well today to try and make up for that," said St. Henry head coach Josh Link. "We had to make plays to win this game and fortunately enough, we were able to do that. We knew that it was going to be a tough game and it certainly was."
"They (St. Henry) are playing really well right now and I wish that we could be on the other end of this one, but they deserve a lot of credit for the way that they've been playing," said Fort Recovery head coach Marie Osterholt. "We played well, and I'm really proud of the way that they played... Things just didn't work out in our favor and we fell a little short."
Stout, who threw a one-hitter in the regular-season matchup 10 days ago, fired a two-hitter with six strikeouts on Thursday against the Indians, drawing praise from Osterholt.
"She's a heckuva pitcher and she just did a great job for the second time this year against us," said Osterholt. "She kept us off-balanced all game long. We put the bat on the ball but their defense did a good job behind her too."
Lost in the pair of 1-0 defeats, is the fact that Fort Recovery's Kinsey Wenning threw two strong games in losing efforts. Wenning allowed just one run on five hits on Thursday with the lone run coming in the fourth inning to break a scoreless tie.
Stout led off the fourth inning with a solid single and then came around to score shortly thereafter as Olivia Hart delivered a blast into the right-centerfield gap that split two Fort Recovery outfielders.
"We didn't get a lot of hits today, but we were able to string a couple together there in the fourth and with the way that Michelle was pitching and the way that our defense was playing, it was enough," said Link.
The one run was enough for Stout to pick up the victory on the hill as she retired the final 14 Indians hitters of the game with some sparkling defense from the Redskins' defense, which played errorless softball.
"I just tried to keep the ball low on them and not give them anything too easy to hit, but I have to credit the defense behind me because they bailed me out on a few plays," said Stout. "Rachel saved me once and then Lindie saved me at least a couple of other times. Our defense played a great game."
Photo by Dave Heirholzer/The Daily Standard

St. Henry's Lindie Kaup charges in to make a catch on a fly ball against Fort Recovery on Thursday afternoon.

Additional online story on this date
Both Grand Lake area Chrysler dealerships - with businesses in Celina, St. Marys and Wapakoneta - escaped the ax this week after their parent company announced the closing of 789 dealerships across the U.S. [More]
Subscriber and paid stories on this date
The City of Celina will acquire additional workers at no cost to taxpayers through JobWorks, Inc., a job development program facilitated by the Federal Workforce Investment Act.
NEW BREMEN - The New Bremen Local Schools board of education Wednesday night reviewed an updated five-year forecast showing a projected decrease in income tax revenue due to layoffs, reduced work weeks and pay.
Mercer County commissioners didn't give much hope this week to a couple of area fire chiefs seeking matching funds to apply for a quarter million dollar grant.
The Mercer County Sheriff's Office is investigating another burglary - the second in less than a week at Celina-area businesses.
Deputies were called to Francis Furniture, 5495 state Route 29, at 8:32 a.m. Wednesday after employees found broken glass in the front door.
ELIDA - After scoring 10 runs on Saturday, the Coldwater bats were silenced by Wayne Trace pitcher Marcie McDougle as the Raiders advanced in the Division III softball sectional in Elida with an 8-0 win over the Cavaliers on Thursday at Dorothy Edwards Field.
MINSTER - Great pitching, great defense and timely hitting were on display as the Division IV baseball sectional tournament concluded on Thursday afternoon and evening at Hanover Street Park.
The St. Marys football program is well known around the state for a punishing running attack and an aggressive style of defense and those two traits will still be in place for the Roughriders for the foreseeable future under the guidance of new head coach Mark Hollars.
Compiled by Gary R. Rasberry
The Celina doubles team of Jay McKirnan and Kyle Miller earned a spot in next week's district tournament after winning their opening match of the Division I boys tennis sectional at Ohio Northern University on Thursday.