FILE PHOTO - Bath’s Olivia Foster went 4 for 5 and scored four times during Wednesday night’s win over Crestview.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
CONVOY — Bath entered Wednesday night’s non-league matchup against Crestview with one thing in mind, and that was to keep the positive momentum going that it has built up over the past handful of games.
With help from every part of the lineup, including hits from nine different players and seven solid innings from Kyree Stumbaugh, the Wildkittens picked up its fourth win in its past five games, topping Crestview 13-4.
“I think we’re trending in the right direction with the tournament quickly approaching,” Bath coach Hannah Slavin said. “Crestview has always had a long-standing tradition of being a solid team that’s well-coach and has good players, so it feels good to take a game from a strong program.”
Crestview (4-10, 2-1 NWC) worked back to a 1-1 tie at the end of the first inning, but the Wildkittens (7-6, 4-2 WBL) scored five straight runs before the Knights answered in the fifth.
Bath broke the game open with a five-run sixth inning, going up 11-2 and briefly threatening a run-rule on the Knights.
The Wildkittens recorded 14 hits on the night, something that Slavin credits to a renewed approach at the plate for her team.
“We started the year kind of settling in instead of attacking every pitch like we are now,” she said. “Lately we’ve raised our batting averages a ton and that goes to the extra hard work the girls have put in. We’re reading pitches better, being more patient at the plate and looking for the pitches we like to drive.”
Bath’s Olivia Foster, Claire Armentrout, Tea Sibert and Addi Gibson provided a large part of the offensive punch out of the middle of the order. Foster went 4 for 5 and scored four times, Armentrout had two hits in three at-bats and drove in four runs, Sibert added three RBI and Gibson hit a home run and reached base safely three times.
Sibert singled in the first run of the game, then Foster had an RBI single in the second, followed by a two-run double from Arementrout.
Sibert’s groundout and a sacrifice fly from Anne Oliver made it 6-1 in the top of the fifth. Gibson’s solo homer then capped off a five-run sixth inning for the Wildkittens.
Crestview scored on an error in the bottom of the first inning, and on an RBI groundout from Kenzie Harting in the fifth. Dakota Thornell and Haley McCoy each had run-scoring singles in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Bath starter Kyree Stumbaugh was credited with the win after working around five errors and holding the Knights to two earned runs on seven hits. Stumbaugh struck out three hitters and didn’t record a walk in the game.
“We have to clean some things up defensively to help her out, but she did a good job of working ahead of batters, and even in moments where she’d end up in a full count or was down, she worked back,” Slavin said. “No walks is a huge selling point that’s going to help us out the rest of the way.”
Kaylee Mollenkopf was charged with the loss for Crestview after allowing seven earned runs on 14 hits. Mollenkopf was also the only Knight to record a two-hit game at the plate.
Both teams are scheduled to resume conference play on Thursday night. Crestview visits Delphos Jefferson, while Bath makes the trip to Celina.
After losing two of its first three WBL games (losses to St. Marys and Kenton, win against Van Wert), Bath is now looking for its fourth straight win against league opponents (wins over Shawnee, Elida, Ottawa-Glandorf).
“We know they’re always going to be a good program that we’re going to face along with any other WBL team,” Slavin said of Celina. “I think we need to work to keep trending in the direction that we are. We’ve started to find our identity, so we need to stay within that.”
Box score (r-h-e)
Bath 1300252 13-14-5
Crestview 1000120 4-7-3
Bath 13 (ab-r-h-rbi)
Mara Davis 4-3-1-0, Brooklyn Moralez 1-0-1-2, Olivia Foster 5-4-4-1, Claire Armentrout 3-1-2-4, Tea Sibert 5-0-1-3, Addi Gibson 3-1-2-1, Anne Oliver 4-0-1-1, Kyree Stumbaugh 3-0-0-0, Lilly Miller 3-2-1-0, Madison Edelbrock 1-0-0-0, Totals: 35-13-14-12
Crestview 4 (ab-r-h-rbi)
Kaylee Mollenkopf 4-1-2-0, Kaci Gregory 2-0-0-0, Violet Dirr 4-1-1-0, Dakota Thornell 3-1-1-0, Katie Sawmiller 3-0-0-0, Zoey Miller 2-0-0-0, Haley McCoy 1-0-1-1, Lydia Grace 3-0-1-0, Kylie Williams 3-1-1-0, Kenzie Harting 3-0-0-0, Totals: 28-4-7-1
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so)
Kyree Stumbaugh (W) 7.0-7-4-2-0-3
Kaylee Mollenkopf (L) 7.0-14-13-7-4-1
Reach Chris Howell at 567-242-0468 or on Twitter at @Lima_Howell
