A-Lady Tigers hold on for close victory.
By George Starks

ANSONIA- No matter what the sport, it doesn’t matter how the game starts but how it ends. Down 3-0 early, Ansonia fought hard to come back and post a 7-6 victory over St. Henry Wednesday.

“”The girls kept their composure,” said Ansonia coach Floyd Jenkins. “St. Henry came up there in the first inning, hit a couple of shots but it’s a long game and we had to keep our composure and we had to chip away and we help on to get a big win.”

The redskins jumped on senior pitcher Catey Fischer right away. On the very first pitch of the game, senior Sidney Rindler drilled the pitch over the left field fence, giving the Skins a 1-0 lead.

With two down and one one, junior Elizabeth Uhlenhakle took Fischer deep to right and St. Henry had a nice 3-0 advantage with a half inning in the books.

Ansonia got things tied up in the bottom of the frame on RBI knocks from Fischer and junior Holli Hammaker.

Ansonia jumped on the Skins bug in the second and it all started after junior Sam Gasper grounded out to first, leading the frame off.

Sophomore Monica Stover followed with a single to left. Shelby Hartzell drew a walk before Taylor Twaits reached on an infield single.

Hartzell was called out on the play as the ball hit her in the field of play.

With two down and runners on the corners Hailey Wampler walked to load the bases for Allison Pillippi. The Tiger junior hit a shot to second that was too hot to handle, scoring two runs.

Fischer would then double and two more runs would cross the plate, giving the Tigers a 7-3 lead.

That would be the last of the scoring on the night for Ansonia but the Redskins still had life left in their bats.

St. Henry would score a run in the fourth and with the aid of three Ansonia miscues in the sixth, the visitors would tack on two more closing the gap to a 7-6 count.

Fighting with the adversity, the Tigers would stand tall, shutting the door in the seventh and getting the win.

“We try to have the mindset that if we make a mistake, we teach them the play is over and you have to forget about it,” said Jenkins. “If you swell on it, you’re going to hurt yourself and hurt the team. We have to forget about it and go on to the next play.”

Despite the three errors in the sixth by Ansonia, the Tigers played errorless ball the whole night.

“We are getting better and better and we’ve got a young defense out there, “ Jenkins pointed out. “We’ve got good pitching and good catching and that is huge when it comes to a winning team in softball.”

Ansonia collected only seven hits on the night but the sticks were there when they were needed the most.

“That’s what it’s about sometimes,” Jenkins said. “When you get runners in scoring position, you gotta step up and get them in. That’s what the girls did tonight.”

With the win, the Tigers improved to 15-9 on the season.