Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

MINFORD — The Symmes Valley Lady Vikings found out that there’s nothing routine about routine plays.

A couple of mistakes on some routine plays resulted in disaster as the Lady Vikings lost 8-5 in eight innings to the Portsmouth Notre Dame Lady Titans on Tuesday in the Division IV district semifinals.

“It was just one of those games. It wasn’t our night,” sad Lady Vikings’ coach Jeff “Odie” Estep.

“It all goes back to making routine plays. If we make two or three routine plays, we win. And we left too many runners on base. We just couldn’t get a timely hit.”

Symmes Valley (21-4) outhit Notre Dame but left 12 runners on base including two in scoring position in the third, fifth and seventh innings.

The Lady Titans (18-10) will now play Leesburg Fairfield at 11 a.m. on Saturday in the district finals. Fairfield blanked Trimble 13-0 in the other semifinal game.

Notre Dame went up 1-0 in the top of the first on a walk to Maggie Whitman, Megha Patel’s sacrifice and Brooke Pierron’s RBI double.

The Lady Vikings came right back with two runs in the bottom of the inning.

Stephanie Brown and Taylor Webb singled, Kaitlyn Payne spanked an RBI double and Tiara Hatfield an RBI single.

The lead went to 4-1 in the second inning.

Caitlyn Carpenter singled, Brenna Morris had a sacrifice, Brown reached on an error and Payne singled in a run. Hatfield hit into a fielder’s choice as a run scored.

Notre Dame cut the deficit to 4-3 in the fourth.

Caitlyn Ball singled, Whitman and Patel walked and Pierron delivered a two-run single.

Symmes Valley made it 5-3 with a run in the fifth when Hatfield singled, Autumn Keathley reach on an error and Sierra Ross had an RBI single.

The Lady Titans tied the game with two runs in the sixth.

Ball, Molly Hoover and Whitman singled to load the bases. A dropped ball for an error scored a run and Pierron walked to force in the tying run.

In the eighth, Molly Hoover doubled, Whitman walked, the runners moved up on a fielder’s choice and Pierron was intentionally walked to load the bases.

A dropped popup allowed two runs to score and Maggie Hoover’s base hit drove in the final run.

Payne was 2-3, Hatfield and Ross 2-4 and Brown 2-5 as Symmes Valley had 11 hits.

Pierron was 3-3, Ball and Molly Hoover 2-4 and Maggie Hoover 2-5 for the Lady Titans.

Notre Dame 100 202 03 = 8 10 3

Sym. Valley 220 010 00 = 5 11 5

Brooke Pierron, Maggie Whitman (4) and Brooke Pierron. Stephanie Brown, Kaitlyn Payne (4) and Tiara Hatfield. W-Whitman (IP-5, K-4, BB-0, H-5, R-1). Pierron (IP-3, K-1, BB-0, H-6, R-4). L-Payne (IP-5, K-3, BB-4, H-7, R-5). Brown (IP-3, K-5, BB-3, H-3, R-3). Hitting-ND: Brooke Pierron 3-3, Maggie Hoover 2-5, Caitlyn Ball 2-4, Molly Hoover 2-4, Brianna Tolbert 1-4; SV: Stephanie Brown 2-5, Kaitlyn Payne 2-3, Tiara Hatfield 2-4, Sierra Ross 2-4, Brenna Morris 1-3, Caitlyn Carpenter 1-4, Taylor Webb 1-4.