LEXINGTON — The Galion Lady Tigers were making their third straight appearance in the softball district final. The Bucyrus Lady Redmen were making their first trip to a district final since 2013.

The Tigers’ experience showed as they coasted to a 14-3 victory to claim the title of Division III district champions.

With the win, Galion (20-4) advances to the regional tournament at Findlay, where the opponent will be Sherwood Fairview, on Wednesday at 2 p.m.

“Our girls came out on fire,” Galion coach Doug Hunt said. “We’ve been hitting the ball hard.”

Hard does not completely describe how the Tigers hit the ball on this day as they pounded out 19 hits, including five home runs, four off Bucyrus ace Caleigh Rister, who came in with over 200 strikeouts.

“Today, we looked like we just started a week ago,” Bucyrus coach Pudge Hargis said. “We didn’t look very good. I’ll blame some of that on (the fact that) I’ve got five sophomores and a couple of freshmen.

“I’ve got three seniors on the field. The seniors have been doing a good job of leading. We were just flat, that’s all I can say and Galion’s a good team.”

Trouble started for Bucyrus (18-8) in the first inning. Gabby Kaple reached on a bunt single and Nicki Thomas was safe on an error. Navaeh Clark then drove a 3-2 pitch over the left field fence for a three-run homer. The Redmen trailed 3-0 before they had even batted.

It was the first of two dingers for Clark on the day and teammate Kate Schieber matched her with a pair of round-trippers, both two-run shots. Kaple joined the club with a solo job in the third.

“Kate Schieber is hitting over .600 this year and she’s been hitting home tuns left and right,” Hunt said. “Navaeh Clark the same way. And (pitcher) Madelyn (Thomas) has been pitching super, shutting teams down.”

Thomas faced the minimum through four innings, with the only Bucyrus base runner coming on a walk to faith Schifer in the second and she was picked off first by Galion catcher Emily Sedmak.

In the meantime, the Tigers’ offense added four runs in the second, three in the third and on in fourth to build an 11-0 lead. They tacked on a run in the fifth before Bucyrus finally broke through with three runs in the bottom of the frame to avoid a run-rule.

Jade Torres and Schifer led off with walks and Jadyn Lambert-Coleman singled to load the bases. Alexis Schiefer drove in one on a ground out before Haley Dye and Taisha Spears each singled home runs.

“We played (Galion) earlier in the year (a 4-1 loss) and they were like this,” Hargis said. “I put that on our youth. I want to tell you something: our youth showed up again when we played Galion again.”

Three Galion players had three hits to lead the onslaught, Nicki Thomas, Clark and Gracie Groves. Kaple, Schieber, Sedmak and Hailey Hunter had two each. Madelyn Thomas fanned nine and walked four.

Schieber credited the Tigers’ having been there as one reason they won handily.

“I think, definitely, a lot of experience is good,” Schieber said. “It definitely helps us, and it will help us continue farther in the tournament. I’m excited, I’m excited to be back, for our team to be back and we’re working to go even farther.”

Rister went only three innings before she was hit on her already-injured pitching hand on a comebacker to the circle by Teanna Greter in the fourth. Hargis hesitated to say how much Rister’s injury played into the loss.

“It’s hard to say about anything like that,” Hargis said. “You saw us swing the bats, you saw us let ground balls (go through), dropping balls and stuff like that. Caleigh didn’t do that.”

Galion can now turn its attention to the regional tournament on Wednesday.

“We’ve got to hit the ball, we’ve got to definitely hit the ball,” Hunt said. “I didn’t look at the bracket. I didn’t even want to know. I wanted to take one game at a time.

“I have a lot of respect for Bucyrus and I wanted to make sure we were focused on that game and not be looking ahead.”

Hargis felt bad that the seniors, Alexis Dye, Lauren Kohler, Schifer and Lambert-Coleman, went out of the tournament this way.

“It’s a little disappointing, I feel bad for our seniors,” Hargis said. “They deserved to go out in a 5-4 loss, 1-0, and we played good. It’s a different story than the way we played.”

The Redmen still have two games left in the regular season and can share the Northern 10 Athletic Conference title with Upper Sandusky if they win both.

“All we’ve got to do is win two more ball games,” Hargis said. “Hopefully, we can get that done, next week sometime, I think.”

Box score

Galion        343 110 2      14    19     0

Bucyrus     000 030 0       3     4     5

WP: Madelyn Thomas (9 SO, 4 W)

LP: Caleigh Rister (1 SO, 2 W)

HR: (G) Navaeh Clark 2, Kate Schieber 2, Gabby Kaple.

Triples: None.

Doubles: None.

Multiple hits: (G) Nicki Thomas 3, Navaeh Clark 3, Gracie Groves 3, Gabby Kaple, Kate Schieber, Emily Sedmak, Hailey Hunter.

Records: Galion 20-4; Bucyrus 18-8.

Next: Plymouth at Galion, Saturday; Bucyrus at Carey, Monday.