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Wave
senior Ashley Hanes brings a pitch plateward against Sidney
Wednesday. Hanes got the win
and the Wave rolled to a 9-1 victory. More
importantly, Greenville captured its fourth straight GWOC
North title.
CNO Photos by George Starks
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Lady Wave win
fourth straight GWOC North title
Newland’s crew continues to roll
By George Starks
GREENVILLE- Rolling in with an 18- (8-1) mark, Greenville had at the
very least wrapped up a share of the Greater Western Ohio Conference
North Division title.
But like so many others, Wave coach Jerrod Newland doesn’t like to
share.
The Lady Wave made sure there would be no sharing of titles Wednesday
against Sidney.
After posting a win Monday over the Jackets, 7-4, Greenville did it
again with a 9-1 thumping of Sidney to finish with a 9-1 mark in the
North.
The win gave Newland and Greenville the North title for the fourth
straight year.
“The goal at the start of the year was to win the GWOC championship and
there’s only 10 games that matter,” said Newland. “We stubbed our toes
at the start of the year in the first one (loss to V-B 6-4) but we’ve
won nine in a row and I’m proud of the kids and proud of reaching our
goal to win the championship. We clinched it yesterday but I’m not very
good at sharing. We like to get things outright. No one gets banners
but us.”
In sports, no one ever said a win had to be pretty. Thus was the case
with the Wave.
At games end, the Greenville line read, nine runs, eight hits and three
errors.
“It wasn’t our best day or our best atmosphere but the bottom line is
Lady Wave 9-1,” said Newland. “It’s not the prettiest game and I don’t
know if we covered but we won.”
In softball, it all starts with pitching and defense and that was no
exception for the Wave.
“I think the pitching was solid and even with three errors, we had some
bang, bang plays out there,” Newland pointed out. “Albright made some
nice saves over at first and the outfield made a couple of real nice
plays on relays coming in to throw out runners. We didn’t play an error
free game but we played pretty tough today.”
On offense, Greenville got on the board in the first with two big runs
coming off the bat of Albright’s two run double to right.
The big blow came in the third and it was old time, Jerrod Newland
softball. With runs being hard to come by, it was senior Kelly Martin
that threw a monkey wrench into the Sidney plans. Standing on third,
Martin purposely got herself into a rundown.
In an effort to tag her out, Sidney threw the ball one time too many
and Martin was able to avoid a tag and score. That opened the
floodgates as Sidney pitcher Becca Thornton was rattled. Two outs
later, Greenville tacked on three more runs to take a 6-0 advantage.
“That brought back some memories of five or six years ago with the old
cat and mouse game,” Newland said. “We got on base and started wreaking
havoc. We use to get tied up in little pickles just to make things
happen and Martin has the skills to do that. The more times a team has
to touch the ball the more good things will happen. K-Mart (Kelly
Martin) is a true competitor out there and makes t happen but that was
classic.”
With Kate McDermitt out with injury, Newland was forced to put Rachel
Class in the line-up in right field. Class lived up to her name, Class,
on both defense and with the stick. In the field, she backed up several
plays and made a few tough catches on the run. At the plate, batting
seventh, Class was one for two with a run batted in. The lone hit, a
triple to right. Later Class was able to score the sixth run of the
third.
“She made some great plays out there and I’m very proud of her,”
Newland stated. “She came in, took her spot and gets better everyday.”
Greenville, 19-4 overall, will host Springboro tonight at 5 p.m.
Other scores from Wednesday:
Baseball
Greenville 10, Sidney 4
Softball
Bradford 5, TCN 1
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Senior
Kayla Harshbarger make a play at third against Sidney Wendnesday as
senior
shortstop Kelly Martin backs the play up.
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