The Ava Lady Bears opened the softball season at home Monday with a 10-3 win over Springfield Glendale. The Ava girls traveled to Mtn. View-Liberty Tuesday and took a South Central Association win, 11-1.
Junior Ashlyn Mitchell was in the pitcher’s circle both days, with sophomore Kayla Dougherty behind the plate.
Ava jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning Monday, only to see Glendale tie the game at 2-2 in the top of the fourth.
Ava got the two runs back in the bottom of the inning, then erupted for six runs in the bottom of the fifth to put the game out of reach.
Glendale picked up one more run in the top of the sixth inning to complete the scoring.
The Falcon’s catcher had to leave the game after taking a foul ball to the collarbone and throat area. Left with a limited number of players, Glendale cancelled the scheduled JV contest.
In the meantime, Coach Rex Sawyer worked all his available players into the game to see some action.
Melissa Coonts was 2-for-4 for Ava with an inside the park home run and three runs batted in on the day. Sierra Sharp was 2-for-3 with a triple and Hanna Johnson was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored.
Celena Clouse was 2-for-4 with a run scored and one RBI, and Mitchell was 1-for-2 with a double and an RBI.
Kayley Watson scored three runs for Ava.
Ava took a four-run lead in the first inning at Liberty Tuesday and expanded the lead to 5-0 in the second.
The Eagles picked up one run in the bottom of the third and Ava came back with one in the top of the fourth to make the score 6-1.
The Lady Bears scored five runs in the top of the seventh to reach the final score of 11-1.
Johnson was 2-for-4 with four RBIs on the day Tuesday and Dougherty added three RBIs going 1-for-1 at the plate.
Abbie Lansdown was 2-for-4 with a run scored and Morgan Emerich was 2-for-3 with four runs scored.
The varsity softball team will play in the Morrisville Tournament this weekend, beginning with a game vs. Norwood at 4:30 Friday.
The semifinals game will be played at 10 a.m. Saturday with the championship at 3:15 Saturday.
Marshfield is seeded first in the tournament, followed by West Plains, Morrisville, Ava, Norwood, Hartville, Miller and Sparta.
Looking ahead to next week, the girls will play Salem at home on Tuesday afternoon in SCA action.
