Panther power: Long balls send New Lex into regional

CHILLICOTHE - The Muskingum Valley League made another resounding statement in the Southeast District on Monday.

Just three days after Maysville and Sheridan punched their regional softball tickets, New Lexington fired up its own printer Monday, riding two homers and five RBIs from shortstop Emily Robinson and timely pitching from Bailey Harris to a 6-4 win against Williamsport Westfall in a Division III district final at Unioto High School.

The upstart Panthers (8-13) started the season 1-7 but have gone 8-6 since, a stretch that has included four tournament wins. Monday’s win sent them to their first regional since 2001 — they play Albany Alexander at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Lancaster High School — just two years after first-year coach David Ratliff graduated and before many of his players were walking.

They had nine hits against Mustangs pitcher Rebecca Brown, who allowed six runs in the final three innings. Three were homers.

“From day one when our coaching staff took over, dropping down to Division III, we felt regardless of our record that we could battle with anyone,” Ratliff said. “The girls bought into what we are coaching and preaching, and they’re a product of their own work ethic.”

It didn’t look good for New Lexington when the Mustangs loaded the bases in the third and scored three times — once on a bases-loaded walk to Samantha Tackett and another on Makayla Terry’s squeeze bunt — to take a 4-1 lead. They were aided by two Panther miscues, including a pop up between shortstop and third base that was played into a double.

Westfall had two chances to add to the lead in the next two innings, but Harris pitched around potential damage both times by inducing outs with runners on base.

It allowed the Panthers to tie the game on Robinson’s three-homer to center in the fourth  and gave her a chance to win it when she followed Harris’ fielder’s choice with a line drive homer in the seventh that sent the Panthers ahead to stay.

“I made that error (on the pop up) so I knew I had to go up there and make up for it,” Robinson said.

To end it, Westfall went down in order in the seventh, the fourth straight inning Harris held them scoreless. She retired 11 of the last 12 she faced.

That, Robinson said, was a product of Italian cuisine.

“She told me she had two bowls of spaghetti so I knew we would be in good shape,” Robinson said. “She’s done that before every game in the tournament so far.”

The truth is that it goes beyond carbohydrate loading and superstition.

“All of our wins have come when she is on the mound,” Ratliff said. “Our other pitchers have done a nice job, but Bailey works at her craft year-round. We have a group of girls who are starting to buy in to that type of system.”

Westfall’s Regan Stonerock, one of three seniors of the Mustangs’ state championship team last season, knew the Panthers’ record meant little. Her single sent home the Mustang’s go-ahead run in the third after they tied the game at 1 in the second.

Her team finished 17-10.

“Coming in, we all wanted it and worked hard, but it just didn’t play to our advantage,” Stonerook said. “We knew coming in that they were on a roll and they didn’t have a winning record, but they played in a tough league. So us being a higher seed, knowing they knocked off the No. 2 seed, they weren’t a team to take lightly. I felt we were ready to play too, but you have to keep your heads in it and do what you need to do.”

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