HOME Subscribe Today!
SEARCH: Go
Tri-County Citizen



Sports

PUBLISHED: Sunday, May 6, 2007
Hornets reach finals of Greater Flint softball tourney



DAVISON - New Lothrop's varsity softball team ran roughshod over three opponents before losing a 2-0 decision to Byron stand-out pitcher Jade Fulton in the championship game of the Greater Flint softball tourney on Saturday, April 28.

Advertisement

The Hornets had an easy time in the preliminary rounds of the tournament, hammering out mercy wins over Flint SWA and Flint Northern by respective scores of 16-0 and 21-0. Kayla Knieper struck out eight of the nine batters she faced in her no-hit mercy win over SWA. The Hornets scored 13 times in the second frame to put the game away. Nici Ebenhoeh's grand slam home run highlighted the second-inning uprising. The mercy rule was invoked after just three innings.

It was more of the same in NL's next game against Northern as Amanda Wendling spun a three-inning no-hitter, striking out seven and walking two. Chelsea McAllister stroked a grand slam in the first inning and followed with a three-run dinger in the second to pace the Hornet offense. McAllister finished the game with three hits, eight RBI's and three runs scored. Amanda Wendling also had three hits for New Lothrop.

Jim Lahmann's squad steadily pulled away from Bendle in the semi-final game, scoring once in the second, three times in the third, twice in the fourth and once in the fifth before erupting for six runs in the top of the seventh en route to a convincing 13-0 win over the Tigers. Knieper limited Bendle to two hits, striking out 13 Tigers in the process. Courtney Praski collected a triple and a single for the Hornets while McAllister also chipped in with a pair of safeties.

The level of competition escalated skyward in the title contest as the Hornets faced perhaps the best pitcher in the state for a third time this year.

Byron's Jade Fulton struck out 16 while walking just one as the Hornets fought Byron to a scoreless stand-off until the bottom of the sixth innning. McAllister had the only hit for New Lothrop.

Meanwhile, Wendling shut down the Eagles through five innings before finally surrendering a pair of runs in the sixth. Wendling allowed just three hits, striking out six and walking one in taking the loss.

At the end of Saturday's action, the Hornets owned an 11-4 overall record and stood at 4-2 in league play. Three of the four losses that New Lothrop has absorbed this season has come at the hands of Fulton and the Eagles.





TOP JOBS

TOP AUTOS

TOP HOMES

TOP RENTALS

TOP MERCHANDISE

Not all stories are guaranteed to appear online.
The Web edition contains a reasonable sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to subscribe to the print edition of the paper.