By Drew Terhall

Dailyadvocate.com

BRADFORD — After being down 1-0 early in the game, Ansonia came back with a seven-run inning to win 10-1 at Bradford on May 6.

Ansonia head coach David Fisherback said the team’s confidence at the plate gives them the fuel they need to go on these scoring runs with two outs. He also said it was tough to get that run against a talented team in Bradford.

“Our girls got confidence. They know that we can score anytime. That’s one thing we’ve been doing. We keep putting the bat on the ball and being patient. Give Bradford a lot of credit, they’re a young team,” Fisherback said.

The Lady Railroaders scored one run in the first inning. Then Ansonia responded with the seven runs in the top of the second inning.

Bradford was one out away from leaving that inning up 1-0. Bradford head coach Shon Schaffer said he has been preaching to his team how far they have come based on the number of the plays they are away from staying in games.

They have gone from racking up errors to being a play or two away from keeping games close.

“That’s the number two team in our four bracket district. Twenty-two teams and they’re (Ansonia) the number two team. I thought we were right there with them. We were just a couple plays away,” Schaffer said.

Ansonia had bases loaded with two outs in the second. Senior Bailey Schmit gave Ansonia the lead with a two-run single.

Senior Maddie Buckingham followed it up with a two-run single of her own. Sophomore Ava Thatcher drove in a run with a RBI double. Senior Abby Kramer had a RBI single as well. Freshman Addison Geyer ended the scoring run with a RBI single to go up 7-1.

Fisherback said the senior are doing a great job leading right now and the younger players are mixing in well and are learning. They made it a focus to carry the momentum they generated in their last game against Tri-Village into this game.

“Tried to carry some momentum we had against Tri-Village. Even though we got beat, we came back and made it a game,” Fisherback said.

Bradford battled the rest of the game. They held Ansonia to three runs the rest of the game. The Lady Railroaders were able to get themselves out of some jams during the game.

Ansonia had bases loaded with one out in the fourth inning. Bradford was able to keep the Lady Tigers off the scoreboard.

The team was able to get several hits off of Kramer. But, Kramer did a great job managing traffic and didn’t allow too many base runners on.

Kramer came away with at least five strikeouts in the game. Bradford sophomore Casey Bolen and senior Tegan Canan each took the mound for the Lady Railroaders.

Bradford is now 7-15 with a 4-7 WOAC record. As the 13th seed in the Division IV OHSAA Southwest Sectional, they will head to fourth seed Covington on May 7 for a 5 p.m. first pitch.

Schaffer said it was good tournament preparation to play a team like Ansonia before their tournament game. Both Covington and Ansonia are similar in Schaffer’s eyes.

“I think both teams are fairly comparable as far as defensively and offensively. With the nod to Abby as being a stout pitcher. It was good to see a good pitcher. We managed four or five hits,” Schaffer said. “I feel good about tomorrow. We’ll just see what happens.”

Ansonia is 18-6 with a 9-2 WOAC record. Fisherback said the focus is now squarely on the postseason. They have been prepping for this time and are ready to give it all they got.

“Just got done telling them, one inning at a time starts tomorrow. It’s one game at a time, one inning, one out at a time. That’s what a lot of our philosophy is,” Fisherback said.

Ansonia will host National Trail on May 7 at 5 p.m. Ansonia is the two seed in the Division IV OHSAA Southwest Sectional while National Trail is the 19th seed.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected].