By: Nate Calvin
BRYAN – Celina managed just three baserunners (two walks, one error) against Bryan freshman Thea Staten as Bryan cruised to a 10-0 win in five innings at Recreation Park in Bryan.
Staten struck out three Bulldogs around a walk in the top of the first inning and then would help her cause with a two-run blast to left field in the bottom of the inning to put Bryan ahead 2-0.
Bryan tallied two more runs in the second with Thiel starting the frame with a base on balls and then scoring on an error when Celina’s pitcher overthrew first base after fielding Mylie Vollmer’s grounder.
Vollmer, who ended up at second after the error, would then score to make it 4-0 as Tabithah Taylor smacked a double to left center.
Staten remained in control over the next three inning in the circle allowing just a walk in the fifth, but the Golden Bear defense would turn a 1-6-3 double play to clear the bases.
The big fifth inning for Bryan started with singles from Taylor and Reese Grothaus and then Marlee Yoder singled to score Taylor and make it 5-0.
Celina would intentionally walk Staten to load the bases before Grothaus scored on a wild pitch and Yoder scored on a groundout by Caitlyn Dewitt to stretch the lead to 7-0.
It was Josey Arnold’s turn then as she would reach base on a hard-hit ball to the shortstop, scoring Staten from third.
Thiel continued the inning for Bryan by drawing a two-out walk leading to a Vollmer RBI single to left to make it a 9-0 game.
After a Celina pitching change, Taylor walked on her second at-bat of the inning to load the bases again and Grothaus would end the game by clubbing an RBI single to left.
In the inning, the Golden Bears sent 11 hitters to plate and strung together six hits to generate their six runs.
Taylor and Grothaus each finished with two hits and an RBI on the night for Bryan.
Bryan will take on No. 7 seed Napoleon (7-15), who upset No. 4 St. Marys 8-3 in the sectional finals, at UNOH in Lima on May 18 at 4pm.
The teams went extra innings when they faced each other on April 4 with Bryan getting the win 1-0 in eight innings.
CELINA 000 00 – 0 0 3
BRYAN 220 06 – 10 8 1
Records: Celina 10-13, Bryan 20-1
WINNING PITCHER: Staten (5 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 8 strikeouts, 2 walks)
LOSING PITCHER: Kuehne (4.2 innings, 10 runs, 5 earned, 1 strikeout, 4 walks) Other: Jenkins
LEADING HITTERS: (Bryan) Taylor – double, single, RBI; Staten – home run, 2 RBIs; Grothaus – 2 singles, RBI
Nate can be reached at sports@thevillagereporter.com