The Tinora Lady Rams hosted the Napoleon Lady Wildcats in a tuneup game prior to their OHSAA district opening game vs the #2 seed Elmwood Royals, the Lady Rams are the #3 seed in the district.
Tinora scored three unearned runs in the bottom of the first. After starter Jayden Wilcox recorded the first two outs, the next four Lady Rams all reached safely, plating three runs, all unearned.
A two out infield grounder that would have ended the inning, would up as an error, allowing Devona Holmes and Scyle Zolman to score on the Logan McQuillin infield chopper. The Lady Rams led 3-0 after the initial inning.
Both starters, Tinora’s Zolman and Napoleon’s Wilcox pitched neck and neck over the next four innings, neither team threatening to score.
Things would get interesting in the top of the fifth inning. The Lady Wildcats would close the gap on back to back home runs, both to the opposite field, right filed. The Lady ‘Cats Olivia Bump took a Zolman pitch deep to cut the Lady Rams lead to 3-1. Miranda Bachman followed suit, taking the same approach and hitting a homerun in almost the same spot as Bumb, cutting the Tinora lead to 3-2. Zolman would retire the next three Wildcats hitters to get out of the fifth with a 3-2 lead.
The Lady Rams bats finally awoke in the sixth, averaging over eight runs a contest, the Tinora bats had just three runs, all unearned, on just three hits through the first five innings of the sophomore Wilcox.
Tinora would send 10 hitters to the plate, scoring seven runs to bust open a close game. Lady Rams catcher Tanae Smith would send a pitch to deep center field for a grand slam, her first homerun in the 2022 season, giving the Lady rams a 7-2 lead. Scoring was Zolman, McQuillin, and Carpenter.
Tinora was not done. Mickey Starkey would double in the gap, then score on a Teegan Norden single, giving the Lady Rams a 8-2 lead.
Tinora’s leading hitter Devona Holmes would deposit a pitch over the right center wall for a two run homerun, giving Tinora a 10-2 lead after six.
Napoleon wouldn’t give up. The Lady ‘Cats would score three runs in the top of the seventh inning off Zolman and the Lady Rams. A two out rally for the Lady Wildcats, off three Tinora errors, would product three runs. Miranda Bachman again with the hot bat, plating two on an RBI single to shallow right field, scoring was Shank and Bump to cut the Tinora lead to 10-4. The Lady Rams third error in the inning plated Bachman, and trimmed the Tinora lead to 10-5.
Zolman would get the final out, stopping the Napoleon rally, and collecting her 15th win of the season. Zolman would strikeout 11, walk six, allow three hits and just tow earned runs while moving to 15-1.
Missed the game? Listen below:
https://tinoraramssportsaudio.com/past-games/
Tinora improves to 17-3 as they prepare to head to face Eastwood on Wednesday, game time 6 pm.
Tickets below:
https://www.ohsaa.org/tickets
Napoleon drops to 3-18.
Tanea Smith was voted the Higbea Embroidery Player of the Game, congratulations Tanae!!
