Cougars clinch MVC Scarlet Division title

Cincinnati Christian finishes season with a perfect 10-0 mark in the conference.

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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer 1:17 AM Tuesday, May 17, 2011

NEW MIAMI — It was fitting that Cincinnati Christian School’s softball team ended the season in a circle of players with hands interlocked.

“Togetherness, that’s the main thing. The girls really enjoyed one another, appreciated one another,” coach Steve Gillens said of his Cougars, who had a brief team prayer after clinching the Miami Valley Conference Scarlet Division championship outright with a perfect 10-0 record, 12-3 overall.

The game itself wasn’t so perfect, a 17-7 victory in six innings at New Miami High School on a blustery Monday evening. The final run-rule score over the Vikings was lopsided, but much of the contest was anything but.

In fact, despite having taken a 9-2 lead into the bottom of the fourth inning, things got so interesting in the fifth inning that the Cougars had to start wondering whether they were going to get out of New Miami with any win whatsoever.

“We play that way against these girls (with big momentum swings) all the time,” Gillens said. “They always find a way to play us close.”

The Vikings had hoped to share the MVC Scarlet crown with the Cougars. Instead they finished 8-2 in the league, 10-3 overall, but not before slicing the Cincinnati Christian lead down to three runs and leaving the bases loaded in the fifth.

“We had a terrible start, which is hard to come back from,” said New Miami coach Amanda Mayer, whose team trailed 5-0 before it even got a chance to swing a bat. “It could have been over, but our girls kept fighting.”

The Cougars finally put the game out of reach in the top of the sixth inning when they scored seven runs with the help of one hit, one error, two walks and four batters who were hit by pitches.

The biggest hits of the game for CCS were a pair of two-run triples, one in the first inning by MVC Scarlet Player of the Year Krista Summe, the other in the third inning by winning pitcher Anna Wolford.

Wolford finished the day 3-for-4 with two triples and three RBIs. Other overall standouts were Claire McIntosh, 2-for-3 with an RBI; Jessica Adams, 2-for-3 with an RBI; Emily Schmitt, 2-for-3; and Bekah Lotspeich, 1-for-2 with two RBIs.

Hitting leaders for New Miami were Kristen Hacker, 2-for-3 with a walk and three RBIs; Brittany Miller, 2-for-3 with a double; Heather Thacker, 2-for-4; and Mercedes Wethington, 1-for-3 with two RBIs.

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