Published: May 13, 2008 11:53 pm            

Lady Cardinals advance to championship of Wayne City Regional

By PAUL WILCOXEN

paul.wilcoxen@register-news.com

WAYNE CITY — The Woodlawn Lady Cardinals pulled one step closer to a regional title with a 7-0 win over Wayne City in the semifinals of the Wayne City hosted regional Tuesday afternoon in high school softball ball action.

In the win, Woodlawn finished with 11 hits and used a three run first to set the tone of the ball game.

"They hit the ball well," said Wayne City coach Joe Bernard. "They hit a lot of their line drives where we weren't, so I'm going to give them credit for putting the ball in play all day."

The Lady Cardinals were led onto the field by assistant coach Matt Patterson, who pinch hit for head coach Eric Helbig, who was serving a one game suspension after being ejected after Monday's loss to Zeigler-Royalton-Christopher.

"We sent our regular line up out and we knew that Gena (McKinzie) was going to throw strikes and keep them limited on runs," Patterson said. "We wanted to come out and put a little pressure on them early and get out of here with a quick win."

One storyline for the Lady Cardinals was the pitching of McKinzie, who nearly threw a perfect game in the win.

If not for a lead off single to start the game, McKinzie would have retired the minimum hitters en route to striking out 12 Lady Indians.

"Anytime we come out we know we've got a chance to win it when Gena's on the mound," said Patterson. "She's done what she's done all year and that's kept us in the game and gave us a chance to win. Today we got some runs for her, so that got her back over .500...and that's good for her."

Bernard says that credit must be given to McKinzie for her performance and effort on the mound.

"She's a tough pitcher," the Wayne City coach stated. "Early in the game we had some good swings. The first inning, even throughout the game, we hit some line drives, but we hit it right at people.

"She's a good pitcher. She's tough to hit."

Woodlawn's lead off hitter Taylor Sprehe got things started in the bottom of the first inning when she walked, stole second, and advanced to third on the throwing error from the catcher.

Sprehe scored the game's first run after Gena McKenzie attempted to reach on a bunt, but was thrown out.

After a fly ball resulted in the second out of the inning, Woodlawn picked up four straight singles, as Kelsey Lietz, Tailor Renaud, Lyndsey Diel, and Mariah Powe all picked up base hits in the first..

Lietz singled into center field and was pulled for courtesy runner Bria McKenzie.

Renaud followed with a base hit to left field, and Diel singled into center to drive in Bria McKenzie.

Later in the inning, Powe beat out a throw from short stop to first to drive in Renaud from third.

"We were pretty familiar with both pitchers they had," said Patterson. "We knew we were going to be able to come out and put the bat on the ball and get some pitches to hit. We pounded it around pretty good today, so hopefully we can get ready for Saturday and carry that over."

Woodlawn tacked on two more runs in the second inning as No. 9 hitter Shelby Hammond singled into center field and advanced to second on a fielding error by the right fielder on a pop fly by Sprehe.

Hammond and Sprehe stole second and third, respectively, which set up Hammond scoring from third on a wild pitch and Sprehe add (who moved to third on the wild pitch) scored the Lady Cardinals' second run of the inning on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Brya Irvin.

"We made some really good plays," said Bernard. "Defense for us, this year, has been really good. We maybe missed a couple opportunities today, but all-in-all, defense has been our strength this season."

The Lady Cardinals tacked on two more insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.

With one out, Diel scored on an inside the park home run as she delivered a single line drive past the short stop and left fielder and toward the 248 feet sign in left-center.

Powe picked up a single into center field, stole second, stole third, and scored on an RBI single by Kasey Turner.

The win by Woodlawn puts them in the regional finals, where they will play the winner of Noble and Odin (which is played Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.) Saturday morning at 11 a.m.

"Our girls are ready to go," said Patterson. "We played in the regional title last year and we drew Johnston City, so we know we are down into some schools our own size. We're ready to go and hoping to play as long as we can."

Diel was 3 for 3 with a home run, a run scored, and an RBI. Lietz was 2 for 4 and Powe was 2 for 3 with a run scored and an RBI.

        

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