By: Daniel Cooley
PETTISVILLE – Montpelier held off a late Pettisville rally to claim a 3-2 win and remained in the Buckeye Border Conference title hunt.
Montpelier (4-1 in the BBC and 11-5 overall) has remaining BBC games against Fayette on May 4 and North Central on May 5, with both games at home.
With wins in both, Montpelier would be co-champs with Hilltop. The Lady Cadets (6-1 in the BBC) clinched a share of the BBC title with an 11-0 win over Stryker.
Montpelier had led Pettisville 3-0 going into the bottom of the sixth inning.
But Pettisville’s Elizabeth Rochefort led off with a triple. She scored on a double by Olivia Miller, who then scored on an RBI single from Ella Richer.
Richer was on first, with no outs and Montpelier’s lead had been cut to 3-2.
“I just thought, I need to get people out,” said Montpelier pitcher Madelyn Hopper. “My dad (Brian) calls my pitches, and I was able to get two more strikeouts with my fastball and changeup.”
With the two straight strikeouts, a fly ball out ended the inning and Montpelier still had the 3-2 lead.
In the seventh inning, Hopper fired a strikeout, got a second out on a fly out to right field and then finished the game with her 14th strikeout.
“With just the one run lead, Madelyn did what she normally does and worked out of the threat,” said Montpelier coach Andy Robinson.
“We are a young team and when the nerves are on, being able to finish out with a win is good and we still have a shot at tying for the BBC crown.”
Montpelier jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning on a two out RBI double from Kelsie Bumb. She then stole third base and came home on a wild pitch.
The Lady Locomotives increased the lead to 3-0 in the top of the sixth inning. Jada Uribes led off with a single and then made it all the way to third base, on a fielding error. She then scored on an RBI ground out from Hopper.
“The error (that led to an unearned run and making errors at crucial times) has kind of been our downfall lately,” said Pettisville coach Lexi King.
“Hopefully, we get that cleared up by tournament time. Our first four hitters hit the ball well today, but we need all of our lineup to hit the ball.”
Rochefort took the hard luck loss for Pettisville. She allowed just one earned run on seven hits, while striking out five and walking one.
Leading hitters for Montpelier were Bumb, with two singles and a double and Bianca Phongphiou, who hit three singles.
MONTPELIER 002 001 0 – 3 7 1
PETTISVILLE 000 002 0 – 2 4 3
Records: Montpelier 11-5 (4-1 BBC), Pettisville 6-7 (4-3 BBC)
WINNING PITCHER: Hopper (7 innings, 2 runs, 1 earned, 4 hits, 14 strikeouts, 3 walks)
LOSING PITCHER: Rochefort (7 innings, 3 runs, 1 earned, 7 hits, 5 strikeouts, 1 walk)
LEADING HITTERS: (Montpelier) Phonghphiou – 3 singles; Bumb – double, single, RBI; (Pettisville) Miller – double, RBI; Rochefort – triple
Dan can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com