Softball blasts Bloomfield

Yesterday, the Oran High School softball team, seeded second, travel to Bernie to take on the third-seed Bloomfield Lady Wildcats.  The Lady Eagles came away with a 15-0 four-inning victory to advance to the Championship game that was originally scheduled for today but was postponed due to rain and is now set for tomorrow at 4:30 (although the weather forecast does not look promising).  For the second game in a row, Oran posted a 10-run inning, this time in the third, they already led 3-0 after one.  Also, for the second-straight game, no Lady Eagle went down on strikes.

Kaylee Payne led-off the home half of the first with a single after a stolen base, Claire Ramsey was hit by a pitch with one down and Jessie Long singled to load the bases.  Katelyn Streeter walked with two outs to force Payne home.  Rylee Boshell reached on an infield error that allowed Ramsey and Long to cross the plate.

In that big third inning, Oran sent 14 to the plate, was gifted six walks, had four hits, including a Long triple and a Boshell double, had a batter hit by a pitch and received an error.

In the fourth, Mallory Lowes singled, Payne reached on fielder's choice, forcing Lowes at second.  Payne stole second and third.  Cauble walked and stole second.  Ramsey drove both in with a single to enact the mercy rule.

Alyssa Spane (6-3) went the distance.  She scattered three hits, she did not walk anyone and struck out six.

Long was the only batter with multiple hits with two and drove in two.  Streeter had three RBI and Ramsey had a pair.

Coach Jim Eftink said, "Alyssa had a commanding presence on the mound. She worked around a couple of errors in the first two innings where she could have got a little frustrated, but she hung in there and stayed focused.  It’s on to the championship game against a very good Bernie team.  It’s going to be one of those old fashioned games where one team has a great pitcher and the other has a line up of good hitters. Good pitching against good hitting, who’ll step up to the challenge?  You can bet it’s going to be a seven-inning game and will go right down to the last out."