NEW WASHINGTON (Crawford County Now) — Mohawk, fresh off its third straight Northern 10 Athletic Conference clinching win 24 hours earlier, dispatched of No. 5 seed Lucas 20-0 in a five-inning affair in a Division VII district semifinal here Wednesday afternoon.

Top-seeded Mohawk (23-3) plays Hopewell-Loudon at 2 p.m. Saturday at Buckeye Central High School for the district title. The Lady Chieftains downed Arcadia, 14-2.

Junior ace Aubrey Gottfried was simply spectacular, not allowing a ball hit out of the infield.

She faced 15 batters, striking out 12 and issuing no walks. The other three outs were a pop-out to shortstop in the first inning, a ground out pitcher to first in the fourth and another ground out second to first in the fifth.

“She’s in a good place right now. She’s mentally shown improvement in the circle this year, just taking control of the game,” Lady Warriors head coach Mindy Walton said.

“Her location was very, very good tonight. The pitches that I was calling, her location was spot on.”

Mohawk erupted for 10 first inning runs, putting 14 hitters at the plate.

Blake Miller’s inside-the-park home run to the rightfield corner plated 3 runs. The Lady Cubs did themselves no favors with a pair of errors that inning.

“Blake said she had to work for her home run and Katie (Woodland) hit hers over the fence,” Walton said with a chuckle. “She struggled a little early in the season, but she’s put in extra time at home and after practice and you can tell that’s making a difference.

Woodland recently tied the N10 record for most triples in a season with 12.

“Katie also has put in work in the off-season and after practice,” she said.

Emily Brickner tripled to left and a 2-run blast by Woodland in the third inning keyed another 10-run inning.

“We made some good adjustments. It was some different pitching. It’s all about making adjustments in the batter’s box, whether you’re facing someone who is faster or someone who is slower,” Walton said.

Lucas head coach Greg Sweet knew his club faced an uphill battle.

“We expected to see that. We’re a young team. This will give us confidence so the next time we see them we’ll be ready. We have another year under our belt and hope we can get back here next year and give them a run for their money.”

Mallory Brickner added a double. Gottfried had a pair of hits, and 4 RBI and Emily Brickner drove in 3 runs.

“The N10 was our first goal this week,” Walton noted. “Saturday is our next one and we’ll have to come out ready to play, make adjustments at the plate again and play our defense.”

The Lady Cubs entered the season with zero varsity pitching experience.

“We’re learning and now we can put it together next year. She (Gottfried) really has good stuff. She can really pinpoint her pitches,” Sweet said.

“Then she brings that rise ball and, as you saw with that last at-bat, now you’re chasing. You don’t see a whole lot of that in Division VII. She was nasty.”

Box score

Lucas         000 00X X                    0       0       4

Mohawk   (10)0(10) 0XX X         20       7       0

WP: Aubrey Gottfried (12 SO, 0 W)

LP: Arya Ohm (1 SO, 7 W)

HR: (M) Blake Miller, Katie Woodland.

Triples: (M) Emily Brickner.

Doubles: (M) Mallory Brickner.

Multiple hits: (M) Emily Brickner, Aubrey Gottfried.

Records: Lucas 7-11; Mohawk 23-3.

Next: Lucas season over; Mohawk vs. Hopewell-Loudon, Division VII district final, Saturday.