GREENVILLE – The Lady Wave had to overcome a night when the ball seemed to find a Piqua fielder early and often forcing the Greenville girls to plate five sixth-inning runs to earn a come-from-behind 6-3 GWOC win over Piqua sporting 15 wins on the season while GHS stood at 14 total wins.
“Great day for Lady Wave softball,” said Greenville coach Jerrod Newland. “They had more wins than us coming in here. Anytime you’re playing a good D-I school it’s just a good win,.”
“Get the win, a league win under our belt,” Newland continued. “Took a little while to get going but they made every play and we didn’t help ourselves a few times – but, the bottom line, get a win and move on.”
The Piqua Lady Indians got out of a first inning one out bases-loaded jam with Paige Hinkle catching a line drive off the bat of Haleigh Mayo-Behnken and stepping on third for an inning-ending double play keeping Greenville off the board.
The teams would play scoreless over the first two inning before the visitors would take a 2-0 lead in the top of the first.
The Lady Wave plated a run in the bottom of the fourth by way of a Natea Davidson RBI single to left for a 2-1 Piqua lead followed by both teams going scoreless in the fifth.
The Lady Indians plated a run in the top of the sixth stretch their lead to 3-1 with Greenville coming to the plate in the bottom of the inning.
Kennedy Fashner led off the bottom of the sixth reaching first by way of a Piqua outfield error and Mayo drilled a one out liner off the left field fence putting runners on first and second.
Davidson drove a double to left scoring Fashner with Mayo-Benhnken racing to third followed by a Chloe Sowry 2-RBI double off the centerfield fence to give the Lady Wave their first lead of the night at 4-3.
Courtney Bryson followed with a two out infield single moving Sowry to third setting up a RBI single off the bat of Morgan Gilbert upping the Lady Wave lead to 5-3.
Before closing out the sixth, the Lady Wave would tack on one more run with a Susi Blocher RBI single to left scoring Gilbert for a 6-3 Greenville lead.
Grace Shaffer set the Lady Indians down in order in the top of the seventh with a popup to Mayo-Behnken at second, a strikeout and a groundout to Gilbert at short to earn the same while keeping the Lady Wave perfect in GWOC play.
“The ball doesn’t know,” Newland stated. “They had three runners though five innings and were up 2-0 on us. This is great for us it makes everybody churn – fans, parents, coaches, everybody. It’s good and I love it and we’re still in April. We’re going to get better and we’ll get great in May and play in June.”
Natea Davidson paced the Lady Wave going 3-3 with 2-RBIs and a run scored. Susi Blocher was 2-4 with a RBI and Chloe Sowry went 1-2 with 2’RBIs and a run.
Morgan Gilbert was 1-3 with a walk, a RBI and a run, Haleigh Mayo-Behnken went 1-2 with a walk and a run scored and Courtney Bryson was 1-2 at the plate.
Kennedy Fashner opened on the mound for Greenville throwing 5.1 innings, allowing five hits, one walk and three runs. Grace Shaffer tossed 1.1 innings in relief striking out one while not giving up a walk or a run.
“Fifteenth win for us 11th league win and neat scrappy Piqua group,” Newland condluded.
With the win, the state’s No. 5 ranked Division II Lady Wave improve to 15-1 on the season and 11-0 in conference play. Piqua drops to 15-5 on the season and 7-4 in the GWOC standings.
