Bulldog Sports Round-Up | April 19, 2024

• By YS News Staff
• Published: April 19, 2024

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BASEBALL

Middle school team wins two more

Mother Nature found a new way to ensure the school baseball teams were not able to play last week: The wonderful weather Monday, April 8, allowed us all to enjoy the eclipse, but it was bittersweet, since the event again kept the teams off the field.

The fields were filled with rain on Tuesday, so the junior varsity game against Mechanicsburg was canceled. The rain continued Friday and kept the varsity team from traveling to Tri-County North for their contest.

The varsity team finally saw a break in the clouds and were able to take the field at The Annex in Springfield, against the Catholic Central Fighting Irish. Our own Coach Rogusky worked all day on Friday, and again on Saturday morning, to ensure the field was prepared for the day.

The Bulldogs jumped out to an early lead against the Irish, putting three runs on the board in the top of the first inning. Seniors Antonio Chaiten and Isaac Grushon reached base before another senior, Jake Ortiz-Thornton, knocked in the first run of the game with a hard-hit single. Freshman Mason Cline followed with a double to center field, scoring Grushon. Freshman Mateo Basora knocked in the third run after Kian Rainey reached base on a hit-by-pitch to his throwing arm.

Cline went to the mound in the bottom of the first, attempting to hold the lead. He struck out the side, but strikeouts, walks and errors allowed Catholic Central to tie the game.

Grushon came to bat in the second inning with two outs and drilled a double to left. Ortiz-Thornton followed with another hit and Cline walked. The rally ended with a bases-loaded strikeout. Cline was again plagued with errors behind him, giving up two more runs and leaving the mound with his team down 3–5 after two innings.

The third inning saw back-to-back singles by Basora and Brady Baker. Basora scored, but that was all the scoring for the Bulldogs in the inning. Ortiz-Thornton relieved Cline and gave up one run over his four innings. The Bulldogs could not capitalize on rallies over the next four innings, leaving multiple players on base, and finally falling to the Irish in a close 4–6 final score.

The middle school team continued their romp through the competition when they traveled to Jamestown on Tuesday. Bryce Fleming got the start but was only able to get through the first inning, giving up three runs. This proved to be just the challenge needed to spur the Bulldogs to score two, three, six and five runs over the next four innings. Finn Turnmire went the final four innings, giving up only one hit and striking out seven. David Torres, Finn Turnmire, Graham Turnmire and Kai Kingsley each had two hits. The Bulldogs continued their torrid pace on the basepaths with 19 stolen bases. The game was final after five innings, as the Bulldogs bested the Jamestown All Stars 16–5.

The middle schoolers traveled to Catholic Central on Saturday after rainouts on Thursday and Friday. The matinee game featured Finn Turnmire, Fleming and Kingsley giving up a total of five hits and seven runs to the Irish, but that was not nearly enough to slow down the Bulldogs. Torres had three hits and Aaron White had two extra-base hits to lead the way. Saturday’s stolen base total was an amazing 33, as the young speedsters continued their record-breaking pace. The Irish coach pushed for one additional inning as time was running out. That would not turn out to be a wise choice, as the Bulldogs took advantage of the additional inning and posted yet another run-rule win, this time with a 22–7 final score.

—Coach Mitch Clark

SOFTBALL

Bulldogs win conference opener

After having three games rained out, the softball team was eager to play a game last week — and they showed it, as on Tuesday, April 9, they scored five runs in the first inning thanks to a long triple by Violet Babb. The team went on to explode for six more runs in the fifth inning thanks to another long triple by Babb and the hot hitting of Adeline Zinger and Tavey Johnson as they held on for a hard-fought 15–12 win over Legacy Christian.

The Bulldogs set the tone for the game in the first inning as Babb smacked a long triple and Ella Laws, Lily Kibblewhite, Isabella Millhoan and Johnson all followed with hits, and the team took a 5–0 lead to start the game. All the runs were scored after there were two outs.

Coach Jim Delong commented: “That two-out rally was a huge way to start the game. Legacy was playing their fourth game of the year and our team was playing their opener, so we were nervous at the start, but the big first inning helped settle them down and give them the confidence they needed.”

Legacy Christian proved to be a worthy opponent as they rallied for nine runs in the first three innings to take a 9–6 lead over the Bulldogs. No worries, as the Bulldog offense racked up nine runs over the next two innings to take a 15–9 lead. Zinger had a triple and a double and Babb had another triple and a single and Laws contributed two hits as the Bulldogs retook the lead.

“We’ve been working on hitting a lot in practice,” Delong said. “This team can hit from top to bottom.”

Once the Bulldogs regained the lead, the pitching by Babb and outstanding defense by Zinger, Millhoan and Laws protected the lead the rest of the way. Babb, who pitched a complete game and had eight strikeouts, retired six hitters in a row over the two innings after the Bulldogs took the lead. In those two innings, the defense made three outstanding plays: Zinger at third base made a backhand stop of a ground ball by the bag and rifled a strike to first to nip the runner for the out; Millhoan at first base was the recipient of an errant throw on another ground ball, but somehow stretched out towards second base on a low and wide throw and miraculously kept her foot on the bag to catch the ball for an out at first; Catcher Laws showed off her quickness as she pounced on a short bunt and quickly fired a strike to first base for the out.

Coach Jim was pleased with the defense.

“Those three outstanding defensive plays seemed to demoralize our opponent,” he said. “They all looked like hits and all of them turned into outs.”

Hitting stars for the Bulldogs were Johnson, who was five-for-five with two RBIs; Zinger, who was three-for-four with a double and a triple and scored three runs; Laws who was three-for-four with three runs scored and three RBIs; and Babb, who was three-for-four with two triples, three runs scored and three RBIs. Babb was the winning pitcher on the mound as she pitched a complete game while striking out eight batters.

Monday evening, April 15, the Bulldogs pulled out another win, besting New Miami 13–2 in a five-inning, run-rule victory. Babb pitched the entire game, striking out 13 batters in the process. More details on the April 15 game will appear in next week’s issue of the News.

—Coach Jim Delong

TRACK

Good showings in Cedarville, Waynesville

The YSHS boys and girls track teams competed on the evening of Friday, April 5, in blustery, cold and windy conditions at the Cedarville Impson Invitational. The Bulldogs performed admirably in this highly competitive 16-team meet.

The girls finished in 11th place, with sophomore Llnyah Grant placing fifth in the 100 meters and third in the 200 meters. Junior Liliana Herzog earned points in the 100-meter hurdles (seventh place) and long jump (seventh place) to round out the scoring for the Lady Bulldogs. Abebu Barnett won her heat in the 200 meters while Sasi Drees ran a gutsy 3200 meters. The throwing tandem of Gema Paz-Brizuela and Addison Shafeek had good efforts in the discus and shot put. The girls placed two relays on the track with the 4×1 quartet of Herzog, Isabella Espinosa, Paz-Brizuela and Grant running a season-best effort in the 400-meter relay, while Lillina Sylvester, Barnett, Shafeek and Herzog ran a competitive race in the 800-meter relay.

The boys squad was led by Kiernan Anderson, who finished ninth in the long jump. Sophomore Kyle Johnston ran a difficult double in the 1600 and 3200 meters, while his teammate, ninth grader Wills Oberg put in yeoman’s work competing in the 800 and 1600 and running a leg on the 1600 relay with Anderson, Logan Cooper and Kyle Raymer. Junior Morris Wyatt competed in three events: the 100 meters, 200 meters and 400-meter relay with Kyle Raymer, Collin Calfee and Terrel Robinson. The throwing duo of Evan Galarza and Terrel Robinson were competitive in the discus and shot put. Other notable performances were Raymer (300 hurdles), Logan (800 meters) and Calfee (100 meters).

Coaches Isabelle Dierauer and John Gudgel said the meet was a good barometer for future performances in more suitable weather conditions.

Finally running in decent weather, the boys and girls teams performed admirably in the 16-team Waynesville High School Spartan Invitational Saturday, April 13. Amid a rash of mid-season injuries, the girls finished ninth, while the boys came in 13th place in this highly competitive meet.

Grant completed the sprint double by finishing first in both the 100 and 200 meters and anchoring the 400-meter relay quartet of Tiger Collins, Espinosa and Lilliana Sylvester to a seventh-place finish. Collins tied a personal best in the high jump with a first-place leap of 4’10”, while ninth grader Espinosa hurdled to eighth place in the 100 hurdles. Determined efforts and solid performances were turned in by Rebecca DeWine, Drees and Paz-Brizuela.

The boys team featured the Kyle Show, as both Kyle Johnston and Kyle Raymer scored points for the Bulldogs. Raymer ran a gutsy 300-meter hurdles and finished in sixth, while Johnston paced himself to a sixth-place effort in the 3200. Notable efforts were recorded by Anderson, Calfee, Cooper, Galarza, Oberg and Robinson.

Coaches Isabelle Dierauer and John Gudgel were pleased with the efforts put forth by the Bulldogs and the last-minute adjustments that had to be made due to injuries. The goal is to get everyone healthy for the important end-track meets at the end of the season.

The next competition is the Greene County meet that will take place at Greeneview on Thursday, April 18.

—Coach John Gudgel

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