Union-Bulletin

DAYTON - DeSales and Dayton wrapped up regular-season softball play here Monday.

The Irish walked away from the twin bill with two victories, 14-1 and 11-10.

The victories move them to 12-0 in league and 14-4 overall, and secures the Irish the No. 1 seed in the Southeast 2B Conference heading into districts next week.

Dayton is 8-4 in league and 11-8 overall. It's the No. 3 seed for district play.

The first game was scoreless until DeSales opened the floodgates in the fourth inning with five runs. The Irish had four in the sixth and five more to close out the game via the 10-run rule, 14-1, in the sixth.

The Bulldogs' only score came in the fourth inning.

"Those last three innings were huge for us," said DeSales coach Russ Vera. "Both pitchers from both teams kept it scoreless in the first three innings, but we busted out hits, got stolen bases when we needed to and had runners on when our No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 hitters came up."

Janelle Hartford had three hits and five RBIs for the Irish; Ashlyn Lyons had four hits, including a triple, and three RBIs; and Amanda Warnick had one hit and three RBIs. Marcella Perez had three hits and Michele Prior had two, helping move runners.

"They came up huge for this game," Vera said of the batters. "They were able to move our baserunners around and score runs for us. They came up with big hits."

Dayton wasn't able to get the hits off, said Dayton assistant coach Desirae Jones.

"We didn't hit the ball in that first game," Jones said. "They had five girls with multiple hits, and that's exceptional hitting."

DeSales' pitcher Ashlyn Lyons gave up four walks and had 10 strikeouts, Vera said.

"She did well," he said.

The Bulldogs kept it closer in the 11-10 nightcap. It was 4-4 after the third and 6-2 after the fourth inning.

"(DeSales pitcher) Amanda Warnick struggled a little to find her strike zone, but our girls came up and got runs when we needed them," Vera said.

The Irish had 30 hits in the two games.

"The girls were hitting the ball," he said.

Dayton stayed close on the scoreboard, moving within one in the three-run seventh.

"In the second game, we battled but we didn't have enough innings," Jones said.

Eight Bulldogs were stranded at base in the second game.

The Irish won, but not without an effort.

"Dayton came back and got hits when they needed them this game," Vera said. "We had a few more errors, but Dayton came back and gave us a fight."

Lyons led the Irish with four, including two doubles, and five RBIs.

Samantha Harting was 3-for-4 and had two RBIs for the Bulldogs in game two. Katie Varney had three RBIs and Claire Lyman and Colleen Delt posted two each.

Both teams are off until district play next week.

Dayton hosts a playoff game with the No. 6 seed at 4 p.m. next Tuesday. The winner of that game will be determined in games today.

"We've got some time to work on our base-runnings skills," Vera said. "We didn't run the bases as well as we should have."

DeSales is off until the district tournament begins May 21 at the TRAC in Pasco.

"We've got the district tournament next week and we're looking to continue our season," Vera said.

First Game

DeSales 000 545 - 14 17 0

Dayton 000 100 - 1 5 5

Lyons and Arnzen. Turner, Bickelhaupt (6) and Lockard.

HR - none.

Hits - DeS: L. Zander, Arnzen, Hartford 3, Lyons 4, Warnick, Prior 2, Perez 3. Day: Harting, DeRuwe, Lambert 2, Tate.

Second Game

DeSales 202 401 2 - 11 12 6

Dayton 004 201 3 - 10 9 1

Warnick and Arnzen. Harting, Delt (6), Lockard (6) and Bickelhaupt.

HR - none.

Hits - DeS: L. Zander, Arnzen, Hartford 3, Lyons 4, Warnick 2, A. Zander 1. Day: Harting 3, Lyman, Turner, Varney, Delt, Lockard, Huwe, DeRuwe.