Lady Lions drop DH against Notre Dame, New Richmond
On Saturday at Fairfield High School, the Lady Lions hosted a tri-match where the Lady Lions lost to two of the top teams in the area, Portsmouth Notre Dame and New Richmond.
In game one, Fairfield after playing errorless softball over the last three games, committed four errors in the top of the first inning that led to six unearned runs by Portsmouth Notre Dame.
Fairfield rebounded in the bottom of the first inning to score two runs on a single by Sydney Hooper, a double by Rilee Quickle and a single by Faith Miller.
Notre Dame erupted for six more runs in the top of the fourth inning to end the game early in five innings.
Katelyn Chambliss suffered the loss for Fairfield, and Kyndall Ford picked up the win for Notre Dame.
In the second game of the day, New Richmond and Notre Dame battled to a scoreless tie through the first four innings. New Richmond scored a run in the fifth inning to take a 1-0, but an inning later Notre Dame tied the score 1-1.
Notre Dame took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning and retired New Richmond in the top of the seventh inning to seal the win.
Game three was the battle of the Lady Lions, Fairfield — the visiting team on the scoreboard — faced off against New Richmond. Again, Fairfield gave up six runs in the bottom of the first inning. The big hit was a grand slam home off the bat of Rae Hartigan. Fairfield freshman pitcher Rilee Quickle rebounded to retire the next two hitters with no further damage.
Fairfield scored two runs in the top of the third inning. Carly Sanders led off the inning with an infield single. Sydney Hooper had a sacrifice bunt to advance Sanders to third base.
With two outs, Rilee Quickle doubled to centerfield driving home Sanders. Jobey Hattan forced a walk, and Sydney Sanders singled to centerfield, driving home Quickle.
New Richmond scored two more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take an 8-2 lead, but Quickle limited the opponent to just two runs in the inning.
Fairfield batted around in the top of the fifth inning with four runs on five hits to make the score 8-2.
Addison Bales led off the inning with a single to right centerfield. Sydney Hooper followed with a single to centerfield forcing New Richmond to make a pitching change. Quickle singled, Sydney Sanders reached on a fielder’s choice, Miller drove in two runs with single to left centerfield, Emmi Vance was safe on an error to drive in a run and Katelyn Chambliss singled.
Fairfield’s Quickle gave way to Emmi Vance, who entered to pitch the bottom of the sixth inning and retired the side in order.
Fairfield rallied in the top of the seventh inning needing two runs. Hattan quickly knocked down the margin to a single run with a towering home run over the left field fence. The home run forced the New Richmond coaching staff to change pitchers again.
Sydney Sanders ripped a single to centerfield and two outs later Chambliss singled to advance the tying run into scoring position. Kelsey Clark entered the game as a pinch runner for Chambliss.
Carly Sanders stepped to plate and laced a hard ground ball down the third base foul line that would have tied the score, but it was inches foul. She hit a hard ground ball, but right at the third baseman, who got the force out at third base to end the game.
Leading hitters for the Fairfield Lady Lions: Sydney Hooper (2-for-3, sac bunt, one run), Rilee Quickle (2-for-4, double, two runs, one RBI), Jobey Hattan (1-for-3, home run, one run, one RBI), Sydney Sanders (2-for-4, one run, one RBI), Faith Miller (2-for-4, one run, two RBI), Katelyn Chambliss (2-for-4), Carly Sanders (1-for-4, one run) and Addison Bales (1 for 2).
Rilee Quickle suffered the loss for Fairfield, as Joli Boggs picked the win for New Richmond.