By From staff reports
newsroom@dailystandard.com The Panthers (17-7) now travels to Wright State University on Thursday to play in the regional semifinals. Parkway will play the winner of today's Felicity-Franklin-Blanchester district final game at Fairmont High School.
Parkway last went to regionals in 2002. This marks the first time the Panthers have gone in Division III.
"I told the kids they played great defense," said Parkway coach Mark Esselstein. "We had to have it and we did it."
The teams got single runs early in the game, with Parkway scoring in the bottom of the third when Young, who had three of the six Panther hits, tripled home Laura Art for the first run.
Delta (24-3) responded with a run in the top of the fourth to square things, a score that would not change for the next five innings as Parkway's Tiff Steinbrunner and Delta's Amy Mattin shut each other's team down through the ninth inning. When the tiebreaker started in the 10th, Delta got a run across to take the lead, but additional runs were halted when Young started a perfect relay to shortstop Erica Yoder, who threw to Ashley Gamble to tag out Lauren Ruple at third.
Parkway started the bottom of the 10th with pinch-runner Katie King on second for the tiebreaker. Jennifer Murphy hit one in front of the plate, which Mattin held on to to keep King from trying to score. Kristin Roth followed with a walk to load the bases. After Art struck out, Young stepped to the plate and took a Mattin change-up to center, scoring King and Murphy to end the game.
Steinbrunner came up with a solid performance, walking two and striking out eight to go to 12-5 on the season. Mattin, a three-time All-State selection, struck out 13 in the game.
"We had to have a well-pitched game, and we did that," said Steinbrunner. "We had to put the ball into play and make (Continued from page 8)
(Mattin) work. We didn't hit a lot, but we made her work."
Young finished the game 3-for-4 with all three runs batted in for the Panthers. Murphy added two more hits.
"That was really big," said Esselstein of Young's performance. "(Mattin) is a three-time All-Stater, and by this weekend will probably be four-time. For Brittany to go 3-for-4 against her and drive in three runs, you can't ask for anything more
"It's exciting. We really buckled down. We weren't intimidated by the pitching. (Mattin) didn't get any easy outs. ... We did what we had to do."
BOXSCORE
Delta 000 100 000 1 -- 2 8 0
Parkway 001 000 000 2 -- 3 6 0
WP -- Steinbrunner; LP -- Mattin
2B -- D: Ruple.
3B -- P: Young.
Records: Delta 24-3; Parkway 17-7. |
