“I told the girls not to feel bad,” the Shawnee coach said Spitzer said. “One little tap here, one little tap there — I really felt like if we had one more inning, we would’ve won the game.”
Alder (24-1), the No. 2 team in the Division II statewide coaches poll, will play Kenton Ridge, which beat Greenville 2-1 in the first game Tuesday, at 5 p.m. Friday at Mason. Both teams play in the Central Buckeye Conference Kenton Trail, and the Pioneers now are a combined 5-0 against Shawnee and the Cougars, including three wins over the Braves.
“I can’t say enough about how good they are,” Spitzer said of Alder.
Jacobs (21-1) finished with eight strikeouts while allowing seven hits and two walks. Shawnee pitcher Aleeseah Trimmer (14-5) allowed eight hits with three strikeouts and three walks.
The game was scoreless until Alder scored two runs on a popup in the third inning. Lilly Walker reached on a one-out bunt and went to third on Danielle Robbins’s double over the head of left fielder Ella McCloskey. Evan Platfoot lofted a popup that was caught in short left-center field by shortstop Dani Ross. Walker beat Ross’s throw home, and when Ross’s high throw got away from catcher Iris Pierson, Robbins came home, sliding in safely just ahead of Pierson’s lunging tag.
The Braves loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth inning on Platfoot’s error of Lydia Spitzer’s grounder to shortstop, McCloskey’s soft single to short left field and an intentional walk issued to Ross, but second baseman Robbins made a diving catch in short right field of Pierson’s soft line drive to end the threat.
The Pioneers broke the game open with a four-hit, three-run fifth featuring Shanna Higgins’ bases-loaded, two-run single to left.
Shawnee rallied with a three-run sixth that opened with Megan Kelly’s infield second to second. Maura Simpson followed with a line drive single to left, and Wills went opposite field with a drive that cleared the right field fence for a three-run homer.
The Braves piled up five hits in the inning but stranded two runners.
“That pitcher is outstanding,” Spitzer said, describing Jacobs. “She makes you earn it. She doesn’t make mistakes, and she makes you hit the ball. That’s the best we’ve ever hit against her.”
Softball
Division II
Region semifinal
At Mason
Jonathan Alder 5, Shawnee 3
WP – Jacobs (21-1). LP – Trimmer (14-5). Hitting leaders: S – Wills HR, 3 RBI; JA – Robbins 2B; Platfoot 2B; Higgins 2 RBI. Records: S 19-8, JA 24-1.
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