LANCASTER – This late in the high school softball regular season, both Lancaster and Chillicothe wanted to be challenged, hoping to prepare for the upcoming tournament.
The Cavaliers are in the midst of a fantastic season with 20 wins, while the Lady Gales, who struggled early in the year, entered Thursday’s game on a nine-game winning streak.
Both teams had opportunities to score, but because of the pitching of Chillicothe’s CJ Rittinger and Lancaster’s Kileigh Rohr, runs were hard to come by.
The Gales were able to scratch a run in the first inning, then added an insurance run in the sixth on a solo home run from Kendall Brown. The Cavaliers made it interesting by loading the bases in the top of the seventh inning, but Rohr was able to end it with a strikeout to preserve a hard-fought 2-0 non-conference victory on Thursday, May 7.
Lancaster improved to 15-7, winning its 10th consecutive game.
“One of our missions this year was to be more battle-tested in May,” Lancaster coach Allie Kinniard said. “We wanted to play a lot more games that put us in tough situations where we would have to have grit and toughness, where we would have to fight back, and that’s exactly what we did today.”
Chillicothe coach Andrea Morgan echoed those thoughts.
“When we scheduled, it was important to pay attention to the end of the season and who we scheduled,” Morgan said. “It’s not so much how you start but how you finish, so playing teams like Lancaster is important for us. We have been in this situation a lot. The more you get into the season, the more grit and desire it takes because the girls are tired, so it is important to find a way, and playing games like this is challenging, and they need to feel uncomfortable.”
The Cavaliers (20-5) certainly had chances to score, but just couldn’t come up with that clutch hit to plate a run. They left nine on base, including the seventh inning when the bases were loaded. They came close to tying it in the seventh. Danika Simpson ripped a shot over third base that was foul by only a foot. It would have scored two runs and tied the game, but Rohr was able to strike her out on the next pitch to end the game.
“We had several chances to score, so it’s tough to win when you don’t get runs across the plate when you have as many opportunities as we had,” Morgan said. “Execution is important. You have to be able to put it together and execute.”
The Cavaliers left runners in scoring position in the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh innings.
To Rohr’s credit, she was able to pitch out of those jams and came up with a key pitch when she had to, and the Gales’ defense was outstanding behind her.
Rohr scattered five hits and struck out five.
“The thing about Kileigh is she is a competitor,” Kinniard said. “She is a dual-sport athlete, and she is always 100 percent all in until the end of the game. She has developed over the course of this season, the toughness, the grittiness. She is now used to the pressure in these types of situations. I can’t say enough about her fight and her grit.”
The Gales scored a run in the first inning when Hailey Rings worked a leadoff walk, and Lana Prince followed with a bunt single. After a pop-up, Mia Griggs just missed hitting a home run. It ended up being a double, which scored Rings.
That’s all the Gales would score until the sixth inning when Brown hit her solo home run, which was her 12th of the season.
Rittinger kept the Gales off balance for most of the game. She gave up five hits and struck out four.
Tom Wilson is a sports reporter for the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette. Contact him at 740-689-5150 or via email at twilson@gannett.com for comments or story tips. Follow him on X at twil2323.
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Lancaster softball tops Chillicothe, extends win streak to 10 games
Reporting by Tom Wilson, Lancaster Eagle-Gazette / Lancaster Eagle-Gazette
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