Brock Netter, Editor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
WELLSTON — Wellston’s Hannah Potts has been one of the most dominant pitchers in Southeast Ohio since she stepped onto the softball field as a freshman.
Meigs has seen her many times and her talent, more often than not, has led the Rockets to multiple wins over the Marauders in recent history.
However, Wednesday was a different story.
Meigs Was confident. The Marauders were calculated. They had timing. They got on base.
CREDIT: Brock Netter/SOSA
And, in the end, they escaped with an statement victory.
Behind 10 strikeouts from Natalie Goode in the circle, alongside an error-free defensive performance, Meigs (10-3, 4-1 TVC) handed Wellston its first loss this season with a 2-1 victory in TVC action.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the girls for how they played and the effort they gave,” Meigs coach Collin Roush said. “Hannah is such a phenomenal player and we knew it was going to be tough hitting against her because of how good she is. But the girls battled in their at-bats, took some really good cuts and made contact in the most critical of times. We really worked on speed and adjusting to the timing while keeping the same approach at the plate. We had strikeouts and they did too, but we got base runners on and drove them in.”
After two innings of hitless softball, Meigs struck first.
Following a walk to Shelby Yost and a groundout, Aubrey Newell stepped to the plate and ripped an RBI single into deep center field to put the Marauders ahead 1-0.
Wellston had the bases loaded in the bottom of the third, but struck out to end the threat and Meigs knew it had to take advantage of the missed opportunity.
Following back-to-back two-out singles, Yost stepped back into the box and found an opening in shallow right field for an RBI single that extended the lead to 2-0.
“SImply getting one or two hits off of her is tough, but we stayed aggressive at the plate and made some good contact with runners on,” Roush said. “The main thing was keeping our energy up the entire game and in tight games like this, it’s critical to not have a drop-off in energy at any point. Wellston is a great team and we brought the fight to them.”
Over the next two and a half innings, Goode recorded four more strikeouts and her defense made the plays behind her to keep Wellston off the scoreboard.
PHOTOS: Images from Meigs’ victory over Wellston
“We’ve had some shaky moments defensively, but that’s going to happen with young players at key positions,” Roush said. “But we made the key plays in the outfield when we needed to and really did a great job of supporting Natalie. It all comes down to effort, and I’m super proud of how they played.”
The Marauders knew Wellston wasn’t going down without a fight, and in the bottom of the seventh, the Golden Rockets got a jolt of energy.
RIght out of the gates, Karly Rinehart took the very first pitch and sent a moonshot well over the center field wall to cut the lead to 2-1.
A few batters later, with two runners on and two outs, Wellston had its final chance to score but grounded into a fielder’s choice to close the door on a Marauder victory.
“We talk about showing up every single night, but never getting too high because softball can bring you down really quickly,” Roush said. “The schedule is a sprint with how many games in a short amount of time we play. But you still have to treat it like a marathon. There is no turning back now and that’s what I told the girls. Let’s build off of this and keep showing up because it’s only going to get tougher from here.”
Yost finished 1-for-2 with an RBI, while Newell was 1-for-3 with an RBI for Meigs.
Potts suffered the loss for Wellston, going the distance and striking out 15 batters, while Rinehart had a home run.
Meigs earned a 7-1 victory over River Valley on Thursday, moving to 10-3 on the season. It returns to action on Monday in TVC play at Nelsonville-York.
Wellston (8-1, 4-1 TVC) earned a 13-0 victory over Oak Hill on Thursday and plays against Northwest on Saturday at Symmes Valley’s Thunder in the Valley.
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