Highland Wins District Championship
The Highland Cougars took on the Monroe City Panthers in the Class 2 District 5 Championship. They would beat the Panthers with a 15 run mercy rule in the bottom of the 3rd. The Cougars offense continued to show why they were the #1 seed.
1st Inning
Abby Lay would once again get the nod to start. This would mark her 25th start in the season. She would start it out as Monroe City’s Audri Youngblood and Bradi Keller would ground out. Kylee Kauble would Strike out looking. Youngblood would get the nod for Monroe City.
Rothweiler would lead off with a single. During Abell’s at bat she would steal 2nd and 3rd before scoring on a pass ball. Abell would get on with a single. Crist would hit a single RBI to bring in Abell after stealing 2nd. After Crist would get thrown off in a fielders choice the Cougars would go on a two out spree as Darnell would bring in courtesy runner Parrish after a fielders choice not in time. Berry would hit a grounder and reach on an error to score Ritterbusch.
Rothweiler would return to the plate and hit her career first Home Run and it was a grand slam scoring Darnell, Berry, and Megee. Abell would follow it up with a solo home run. Highland would end the Inning up 9-0.
2nd Inning
Lay would strike out Naaron Hays and Taitym Foltz, while Kinley Feummeler grounds out to Rothweiler.
Highlands offense would go quiet. Ritterbusch leads off with a double. Youngblood would strikeout Darnell. Berry would ground out followed by Megee. Youngblood making the throw to first for both outs.
3rd Inning
Abby Lay would keep the Monroe City offense away from the bases. Makenna Miller would fly out to Ritterbusch. Brynn Williams would strike out swinging. And Emily Spalding would ground out, Abell with the throw to Darnell for the out.
Rothweiler would add another Home Run as she hit an inside the park homerun to make the game 10-0. Crist would hit a triple and score off of an error. 11-0 and Lay would hit a solo bomb to left to make it 12-0. Winter would be walked, Lundberg would courtesy. Ritterbusch would get hit by a pitch to put two runners on with no out. The game ending run at the plate. Darnell would hit into a fielders choice that wasn’t in time and loading the bases.
Berry would single on a ground ball scoring Ritterbusch and Lundberg. Cary would pinch run for Darnell who advanced to second being the game ending run. Frank would hit for Megee and strikout swinging against Youngblood. Rothweiler would come up to the plate go 1-0 on the count before hitting a line drive double to score Cary and win the game 15-0. The Highland Cougars take home the district.
Post game
Starting pitcher Abby Lay would get the complete a perfect game in the circle. 33 pitches for 24 strikes and 4 strike outs for 3 innings pitched.
After the game I asked coach Scifres how many district titles this makes. He replies: “I think this is number 8.” Coach Scifres talked about a lot of good teams “This group is putting up some crazy numbers. They can hit. I mean, they can flat out swing it and, they’ve been playing a lot of softball freshmen through senior. They’re getting a lot of at bats. So we have seen a lot of Milestones and records go down, and they’re not done yet. Because a lot of these girls are sophomores and good things to come.”
I asked coach Scifres about his approach for Class tournament and it was summed up to “Party tonight, back to work tomorrow.” As we wait to see who will win between Marceline and South Harrison for the host of Class tournament match. That match will be determined Monday October 21st at 5PM.
Bailie Crist would go 3 for 3 with 1 run and 1 RBI. Short stop Kierra Rothweiler would go 4 for 4 with 6 RBI’s and 2 homeruns. Abby Lay would go 2 for 2 with 1 run and 1 RBI. Abby said when it came to contributing to both sides of the field ” it feels amazing and like I said, we were just focused and we all got it done.”
Congratulations to Paul Scifres and his Lady Cougars for their win in Districts. Also have to congratulate Melissa Chinn and her Lady Panthers for making it to the Finals. We will continue to do our best to cover the Lady Cougars as they travel through the class tournament.
