THE REPORTER
The Westfield softball team played in its first-ever regional championship game Tuesday at Harrison.
And the Shamrocks came close to winning their first-ever regional title. Westfield gave the Raiders (last year’s Class 4A state runners-up) a good battle in the Regional 4 title, but Harrison eventually won 4-3.
“There’s a lot of excitement,” said Shamrocks coach Brian Revercomb. “We had a couple of great practices.” The coach said his team was “upbeat, emotional and excited, but I felt really confident with the way we were playing.”
The ‘Rocks scored the first run of the game, in the top of the first inning, when Makayla Watson stole home plate. The Raiders answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning, getting their first two on back-to-back doubles, then scoring a third with a wild pitch.
“It seemed like in the bottom of the first inning, we had a little bit of nerves coming through,” said Revercomb. “I felt like their experience being in the state finals last year helped them be more calm than we were.”
Westfield cut the lead to 3-2 with a fifth-inning run. Maggie Roh cracked a double, moved to third base on Watson’s single, then was brought in by Allie Dolenc’s RBI groundout.
Harrison went up 4-2 with an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth. The Shamrocks scored a run in the top of the sixth when Chloe Tanner tripled in Cara Snedeker. It was Tanner’s second triple of the game; she also hit one to lead off the second inning. Neither team scored again, so the Raiders held on for the win.
Tanner pitched a complete game, allowing just five hits.
Westfield finished its season with a 17-14 record, breaking school records in hits, runs scored and home runs. The two seniors, Dolenc and Roh, were part of that home run record, with Dolenc hitting seven homers and Roh one. Roh is headed to the University of Toledo to play softball, while Dolenc will play at Lincolnland Community College.
Huskies fall to Hornets
Hamilton Heights hosted the Regional 14 championship on Tuesday, playing Beech Grove.
The game was scoreless through three innings, but the Hornets erupted after that, dominating the next four innings to win 10-0. It’s the first softball regional title for Beech Grove.
The Hornets held the Huskies to two hits. Isabel Morrow led off the second inning with a center field single, then moved to second base when Kassidy Schakel hit a single. But Beech Grove tightened its defense after that, retiring the next 14 Heights batters. The Huskies would not get on again until Lily Roush drew a walk with two outs in the sixth inning.
“Our offense has been pretty good this year, but there’s been some times we’ve struggled,” said Heights coach Ken Olovich.
Roush pitched five innings, striking out nine. Melanee Forrester pitched the last two innings, tossing three strikeouts.
Despite the loss, the Huskies are upbeat about the future. They will be graduating two seniors, Kaylee Rhoton and Suzanna Sigler. Rhoton won the Hamilton Heights Female Athlete of the Year award.
Meanwhile, everyone else on the team is back for the Huskies, and they are expected to get some talented players coming in to the program – “a lot of travel ball players that come in next year, so we’re going to have a lot of players, a lot of depth,” said Olovich.
“We’re disappointed about tonight’s outcome, but we are incredibly excited about what lies ahead,” said Olovich.
Heights finished the season 19-9, setting a new record for most wins in a season.