BUCYRUS — Addy Rister and her four senior teammates wanted to close out the home regular season with a victory.
Rister delivered two hits, scored the first run of the game, and got plenty of help as the Lady Red defeated Seneca East 5-3 in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference game at Jack Hewitt Field Friday evening.
“I’m super proud of our team. Everyone came up when they needed to,” she said. “We battled our way back tonight and now we’re getting ready for the tournaments.
“I’ve been playing since I was little, and I grew up watching Bucyrus High School. My mom played for Jack so playing on this field is a really big thing for me; a big honor to play under his name.”
Rister is ready for the sectional tournament, which begins next week.
“Hopefully we can get through the Willard game and move on to play Huron, which would be a real battle. They’re a very good team.”
Prior to the game seniors from both teams were recognized. A moment of silence was held for Upper Sandusky softball coach Luke Swavel, who died this week at 45. The Bucyrus players wore orange ribbons in their hair as a tribute.
Bucyrus honored Adriana Clark, Sierra Frost, Maddy McDaniel, Lexi Payne and Rister.
“We showed patience early in the ball game when it was nothing-nothing. Really, we weren’t hitting the ball then,” Bucyrus head coach Jerry “Pudge” Hargis said.
It was 1-0 Seneca East after three innings as neither team could generate much offense.
“Then after we sort of got a feel for what she was pitching and we made a couple things and capitalized on a couple of their errors,” Hargis said.
Junior pitcher Kendra Blizzard struck out 3 and walked 2 to outduel freshman Ella Martin, who pitched a solid game, fanning 6 and walking a pair.
“Their young pitcher did a good job out there. They got a nice team,” Hargis said.
Blizzard, Payne, and Frost had singles for Bucyrus. Davynn Smith, Regan Strawser and Devyn Cheek contributed base hits for Seneca East.
Bucyrus scored two runs in the fourth and fifth innings and added a solo run in the sixth. Neither team recorded an extra-base hit.
Seneca East coach Steve Heal wasn’t displeased with his squad’s play.
“We’re trying to come together as a team at the end of the regular season and continue building for down the road,” he said.
“Generally, we played a solid defensive game. Like I told the girls, we had the bases loaded, we hit a line drive to center field and she makes a nice catch. If it gets down, it goes to the fence and we’re off and running.”
Heal was referring to the sixth inning when Brooke Dennison caught a ball hit by Martin to thwart a Lady Tigers rally.
Hargis said his seniors have brought a valuable asset to the program — leadership.
“What those seniors brought is stability. You need a leader. If you’re going to run a good program, you need leaders in the student body. And that’s where your seniors come in handy.
“Are they the greatest of players? Not always. They are pretty good leaders, being 2 or 3 years older they help the younger kids out,” Hargis said.
“We tell them, ‘Show some leadership. Show what you have.’ You may be wrong once in a while, but I tell our young kids to listen to our seniors. I tell them at the beginning of each season what I expect. I don’t tell them how to go about it, but what I expect.”
Heal credited Martin for handling the pressure that comes with pitching.
“Every few years you see some young pitchers. She is doing a good job. Sometimes you have someone like the (Bailey) Sheets girl at Mohawk, who is pitching real well.
“Crawford had one. Bucyrus had the (Caleigh) Rister girl. You’ll have seniors like that and then they transition out and you’ve got young girls coming up.”
Headed to the post-season Heal noted improvement despite the team’s 2-14 overall record.
“We’ve been trying to improve our defense and be consistent and not give up big innings. We did pretty well today with that,” he said.
“Also, trying to understand what they’re pitching to us and what the pitcher is trying to do to get us out. And making the adjustments faster.”
Seneca East graduates four seniors — Jaelyn Barnwell, Hilary Bogner, Kayla Stiverson and KJ Easter.
“They’ve been with us all four years,” Heal said. “Two of them have been multiple-year starters (Bogner and Barnwell.) Kayla has been coming off the bench and providing us with a little bit of a spark offensively. KJ is our hustle player on the field, and I’ve used her as our courtesy runner.”
With the recent rainouts, both teams were a bit rusty. Despite that layoff, there were only a handful of errors committed.
“We got a lot going on in our gym. Sometimes we can’t get in the gym,” Hargis said. “You go 3 or 4 days without practice, and it shows. But I’m sure everybody else is in the same boat.”
Box score
Seneca East 001 001 1 3 3 2
Bucyrus 000 221 X 5 5 2
WP: Kendra Blizzard (3 SO, 2 W)
LP: Ella Martin (6 SO, 2 W)
HR: None.
Triples: None.
Doubles: None.
Multiple hits: (B) Addy Rister.
Records: Seneca East 2-14, 1-10 N10; Bucyrus 8-10, 4-7 N10.
Next: Seneca East at Liberty-Benton, Saturday; Bucyrus at Seneca East, Monday.