Page 14 — Thursday, May 27, 2021 — The Hastings Banner
Saxon softball team drops home doubleheaders
Valerie Slaughter
Contributing Writer
Hastings’ softball team hosted the Plainwell
Trojans at home on Thursday night, dropping
both games in the non-conference double-
header 13-6 and 16-1.
Hastings’ head coach Mike Davis said, “the
girls are starting to play a little better, using
their bats and making less errors in a game.
Tonight’s first game was one of the better one
played in a while, just seems like one inning
always kills us. It really hurts though to only
have one pitcher on the team. Right now, we
are focused on playing with no errors and
trying hard every day to accomplish that.”
In game one, the Trojans’ batters got an
early scoring two runs in the first inning. After
the third inning the Trojans only held a one-
run lead, but they would put six runs up on the
board in the fourth inning before closing out
the 13-6 win.
The Saxon bats were led by Morgan Deal
and Emma Alexander who had three hits each
in the opening game. Kaeli Jo West and Anna
English both racked up two hits each.
The Saxons struggled to get on the board in
game two. Deal again led the team at bat with
two hits in two at bats for the game. English
led with two stolen bases.
Sophomore pitcher Cassidee Easey threw
both games for the Saxons and collected six
strikeouts.
The Plainwell team kept its bats going all
night against Easey, racking up over 40 hits,
making the Saxon team play defense in the
field. The Saxons played a clean defensive
game though, not committing an error.
Alexander led the Saxon defense in game one
with seven fielding changes, and Sophia
Sunior had four in the field in game two.
On Tuesday night, the team hosted
Interstate-8 Athletic Conference rival,
Pennfield Panthers. The Saxon team again
struggled to put runs on the board beforedropping both games 16-4 and 14-3. Easey
was again in the pitcher’s circle for the night,
she had seven strikeouts for the night.
Hastings’ bats were busy as the team tallied
21 hits.. Sophomore, Isabella Storm had three
hits in three at-bats for the team in game two,
and Easey, Alexander and West had two hits
each in game one.
The Saxon team will be at home one last
time on Tuesday in a non-conference game
before facing Barry County rival Thornapple
Kellogg in the first round of Districts for the
Division 2 Michigan High School Athletic
Association state tournament. They will face
the Trojans at TK on Saturday, June 5, in the
district semifinals.Saxons close strong spring in top half of I-
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Saxon first and second singles player Brook
Youngs and Abby Beemer battled to try and
get into the championship match at their flight
Monday at the Interstate-8 Athletic Conference
Tournament hosted by Parma Western and
Lumen Christi High Schools.
They ultimately came up just short in the
semifinal matches, but bounced back to both
place third at their flight, matching the perfor-
mance of the Saxons’ top doubles team of
Erin Daniels and Baily Cook and the fourth
doubles team of Brinna Cobb and Sophia
Ahearns.
Parma Western captured the conference
championship Monday, winning the confer-
ence tournament for the first time after also
winning a regional title last week. The
Panthers finished the day with 59 points
Monday, ahead of Lumen Christi 55, Pennfield
42, Hastings 40, Marshall 38, Harper Creek
20, Northwest 19 and Coldwater 13.
Youngs opened her day by scoring a 6-1,
6-0 win over Harper Creek’s Sophia Brandt,
but then was upset by Lumen Christi’s Maggie
Page 7-5, 6-2 in the semifinal round as she
was slowed a bit by an injury. Youngs, who
was the second seed at first singles going into
the tournament, closed her day with an 8-
win in a pro-set against Pennfield’s Lauren
Saxton to finish in third place.
Beemer started her day with a 6-1, 6-4 win
over Coldwater’s Jillian Hawver in the second
singles flight, and then started strong with a
6-4 win in the opening set against second
seeded Renee Marson from Parma Western.
Marson rallied from that first set defeat to
score 6-2, 6-3 wins in the final two sets to get
a spot in the second singles championship.Beemer went on to defeat Marshall’s Addison
Powers 8-3 in the match for third.
Cook and Daniels started their day at one
doubles with a 6-4, 6-1 win over the Northwest
team of Mackenzie Rowley and Ashleigh
Black, and then eyed an upset of the top dou-
bles team from Pennfield, Molly MacKenzie
and Hannah Davis. Cook and Daniels took
just two points off the Panther pair when they
met a week and a half earlier, but split the first
two sets at the conference tournament. The
Pennfield girls took a 6-2 win in the first set,
but Daniels and Cook surged for a 6-2 win in
the second set. The two teams were back and
forth in the third set with the Pennfield girls
scoring a 6-3 win to send the Saxons to the
match for third where they closed out their
day with an 8-3 win over Lumen Christi’s
Caitte Webster and Genevieve Brawner.
Cobb and Ahreans at fourth doubles, scored
a 6-0, 6-2 win over Coldwater’s Lisset Beltran
and Jossy Martinez Monday morning and
then faced the top seeded Parma Western duo
of Teagan Robertson and Alena Engle that
knocked the Saxons to the match for third
with a 7-5, 6-1 win before going on to the
fourth doubles championship. Cobb and
Ahearns won the match for third at fourth
doubles 8-4 against the Marshall team ofReese Rellinger and Lucy Gensch.
“Overall, the season was a success,”
Hastings head coach Andrew Haines said
after his girls finished their season with a win-
ning record and a finish in the top half of the
conference Monday.
Third singles player Finja Schmidt and
fourth singles player Anna Haywood played
well Monday too. Schmidt was fifth and
Haywood sixth at her flight. Schmidt closed
out the third singles bracket with 8-5 pro-set
wins over the number three players from
Coldwater and Harper Creek.
The Saxon second doubles team of Skyler
Grego and Ella Carroll was fifth at its flight
and the third doubles team of Megan Rowley
and Calin Redman placed fourth for the
Saxons.
“While our seniors will be missed much of
the team will be back in 2022. I’m excited to
get back at it,” coach Haines said.
Parma Western took the conference cham-
pionship with teams winning the second, third
and fourth doubles flights Monday and first
and third singles championships. Western first
singles player Caroline Davenport proved theconference’s top player, knocking off Lumen
Christi’s Page 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the first singles
championship match.
The Saxons were in action at their Division
3 Regional Tournament hosted by Allegan last
Friday.
Cook and Daniels opened the tournament at
first doubles with a 6-3, 7-5 win over the top
team from Lakeshore, and the Saxons got
their other point from Beemer’s quarterfinal
win over Karley Way from Plainwell, 7-5,
6-2, to start the day at second singles.
Both Beemer and the Saxons’ number one
doubles team fell to eventual regional cham-
pions from Allegan in the semifinals.
Ahearns and Cobb were close to pulling off
one of the biggest upsets of the tournament.
They battled three hours with the second
seeded Allegan fourth doubles team of Grace
Davis and Kenna Baker before the Tiger team
took a 7-6(4), 5-7, 7-6(8) win.
Overall, Allegan captured the regional
championship with 17 points, ahead of Otsego
12, Hamilton 11, Lakeshore 11, Hastings 2,
Wayland 2, Plainwell 1 and Paw Paw 0.sports
Saxon first singles player Brooklyn
Youngs hits a volley during her opening
round win over Harper Creek’s top player
at the Interstate-8 Athletic Conference
Tournament hosted at Lumen Christi High
School Monday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)
Saxon second singles player Abby Beemer hits a forehand shot back at her foe from
Parma Western in the semifinals at their flight Monday during the Interstate-8 Athletic
Conference Tournament at Lumen Christi High School. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Saxon first doubles player Bailey Cook leaps up to hit an overhead winner as
teammate Erin Daniels backs her up during their match against Jackson Northwest’s
top doubles team at the Interstate-8 Athletic Conference Tournament hosted by Parma
Western High School Monday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)
The Saxons’ Cassidee Easey gets her bat on the ball during her team’s doubleheader
with Plainwell Thursday at Hastings High School. (Photo by Valerie Slaughter)Saxon outfielder Isabelle Storm charges a rolling ball on the grass during her team’s
doubleheader with visiting Plainwell Thursday in Hastings. (Photo by Valerie Slaughter)TK ladies take two lopsided
victories in last Gold games
The Thornapple Kellogg varsity softball
team overwhelmed Forest Hills Eastern a cou-
ple times in Ada Monday to close out the OK
Gold Conference season with an 11-3 record.
TK took the opener with the Hawks 12-1 in
five innings, outhitting the hosts 12-1.
The top of the fourth was the big inning for
the TK ladies. Eliana O’Riley and Paige
VanStee walked to start the inning and then
both scored on a two-run double off the bat of
Moriah Sprauge. Sprague raced to third on the
throw in and then came the rest of the way
home on a two-run home run by Carly Snyder.
Sprague was 3-for-3 in the ballgame with
four RBI and three runs scored. She doubled
twice. Snyder was 2-for-3 with two runs and
four RBI. Ebbie Appel singled and drove in
two runs for TK too.
VanStee and Natalie O’Riley had one RBI
apiece. VanStee was 2-for-3 at the plate with
three runs scored and an RBI, and she walked
once too. Maleah Bailey and Natalie O’Riley
had one hit each.
Bailey got the win in the circle. She struck
out nine in five innings, walking three and
allowing just two hits. The one run against her
was unearned.
TK took a 17-7 win in game two, slamming19 hits.
VanStee and Sprague had four hits each.
VanStee tripled, doubled and singled twice.
She had four RBI and four runs scored.
Sprague had two doubles and two singles to
go with two RBI and one run scored. Snyder
singled twice and drove in three runs while
scoring once. Bailey, Grace Zube, Emily
Offringa and Eliana O’Riley had two hits each
too, and Appel doubled and scored a run.
TK closed out last week with two losses to
a tough Otsego team. The Bulldogs took 11-
and 13-6 wins over the visiting Trojans in
Otsego.