Bath’s Kyree Stumbaugh pitches against Wapakoneta during Monday’s game at Wapakoneta High School.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
WAPAKONETA — Bath’s 11-1 softball win over Wapakoneta on Monday was the kind of game the Wildkittens might look at and say, “We’ll take another one just like that any day.”
Meanwhile, Wapakoneta’s roster from top to bottom was probably thinking they did not want to see a repeat of this game any time for the rest of this season.
Bath came out swinging in the top of the first inning when five of its first six batters got hits, leading to four early runs.
Leadoff hitter Mara Davis started it with an infield single, Olivia Foster and Claire Armentrout had back-to-back doubles, Anne Oliver singled and Addison Gibson tripled.
Wapakoneta (13-6, 5-2 WBL) got its only run when Addison Fisher led off the bottom of the first with a triple and scored on Aubryn Schnarre’s sacrifice fly.
Bath (9-7, 6-2 WBL) added a run in the second inning, two more in the fourth inning, then scored four times in the fifth inning, with the big hit being a three-run inside-the-park home run by Armentrout.
The Wildkittens appeared confident from the start against Fisher, Wapakoneta’s junior pitcher who has committed to Purdue-Fort Wayne.
Armentrout, who went 3 for 4 and drove in four runs said, “We came into this game knowing Wapak is really good. We just came out with the confidence to relax and play our best game. It was a big game for us.”
Foster had a pair of doubles and scored three runs and Mara reached base in her first three plate appearances, stole four bases and scored three times.
Bath coach Hannah Slavin said, “This is a great group of girls that has that mentality of next person up, pass the bat, and I think they held true to that tonight.
“We struggled early on. We faced some really tough and challenging pitchers early in the year but we started to re-compose ourselves and kind of find our identity at the plate and we’ve really seen good progress there,” she said.
Bath pitcher Kyree Stumbaugh allowed only four hits, struck out three and walked two.
In addition to getting only four hits, Wapakoneta saw its No. 1 pitcher allow 11 hits and 11 runs and its defense commit five errors.
Wapakoneta coach Bill Sammons said all of those things were out of the ordinary.
“This stuff happens. It’s like in life, stuff happens, you swallow the pill and go on. They were prepared for us. They played defense just phenomenally. They hit the ball, they fielded the ball, they made plays, they deserved to win,” he said
“We hit the ball, we play defense. We’re 13-6 for a reason. They were just putting the bat on the ball. Addie pitched great, they just put the bat on the ball.”
Bath 11, Wapakoneta 1
Score by innings:
Bath 410 24 — 11 11 2
Wapakoneta 100 00 — 1 4 5
Winning pitcher: Kyree Stumbaugh (3 strikeouts, 2 walks)
Losing pitcher: Addison Fisher (6 strikeouts, 2 walks)
2B — Olivia Foster (B) 2, Claire Armentrout (B) 1, Tea Sibert (B) 1
3B — Addison Gibson (B) 1
HR — Claire Armentrout (B) 1
Records: Bath 9-7, 6-2 WBL; Wapakoneta 12-6, 5-2 WBL
