(Atlantic) Atlantic advances to the Class 3A Region 4 semifinals with a 10-0 win over Red Oak in five innings at Atlantic on Thursday night.
Riley Wood tossed a one-hitter. Wood gave up a single to Merced Ramirez in the top of the first inning and retired 14 straight batters to seal the deal. The junior pitched with pinpoint control and had great support from the defenders behind her. Wood struck three batters, and gave up no walks in her five innings of work.
Lila Wiederstein belted a solo home run over the left field fence in the bottom of the first inning, and the Trojans added three more runs in the third, three in the fourth, and tucked the game away with three in the fifth.
Ava Rush started the merry-go-round in the third inning with a single and scored on Claire Pellett’s triple. Zoey Kirchhoff singled and drove Pellett home, and Claire Schroder singled, scoring Kirchhoff to put the home team up 4-0.
Maddie Huddleson led off the three-run fourth with a single, Pellett singled, Wiederstein clobbered a two-RBI double, and scored to give Atlantic a 7-0 lead.
Atlantic kept the bats rolling in the fifth inning. Claire Schroder launched a deep fly ball to the right field fence and toured the base paths for an inside-the-park home run. Schroder scored on an error. Wood and Dvorak reached base on errors, and the game ended when Claire Pellett put down a picture-perfect sacrifice bunt to push home the final run.
The Trojans scored ten runs on 11 hits. Claire Pellett went two-for-three with a triple and a single. Lila Wiederstein belted a home run and a single, Zoey Kirchhoff had a two-hit night, and Claire Schroder hustled out an infield homerun and added an RBI single. Riley Wood, Ava Rush, and Maddie Huddleson each hit singles.
The Trojans, now (22-15), face (11-18) Shenandoah on Saturday night in a Regional Semi-final at Atlantic.
