CLAY CENTER — In the final doubleheader of the road stretch to end the regular season, the Concordia High School softball team fell to rival Clay Center.
In game one, the Panthers lost 5-2.
The Panther offense struggled throughout the first two innings, with Clay Center able to score in the bottom of the second with a hit-by-pitch and a hit to take a 1-0 lead. Concordia tied the game with a Katelyn Reedy hit before being brought in by Morgan Lister. The Tigers scored three runs in the third to take a three-run lead. The Panthers knocked in one run in the fifth after Kinsleigh Bethune was walked and brought in on a Camleigh Hake at bat. An error got Hake on base to make it a 5-2 game before Clay Center scored a run of its own in the fifth to make it 6-2 game. The Panthers got four runners on base in the sixth but weren’t able to get any home as the Tigers took game one.
In game two, the Panthers lost 6-1.
The Panther offense struggled to generate offense to open the game, picking up their first hit in the third inning. Meanwhile, the Tigers scored three runs in the first to take a 3-0 lead. Concordia’s bats started to heat up in the second half of the game, with Hake getting into scoring position in the fifth, Catelin Benyshek getting to third, and Lister getting out at home in the sixth. The Tigers scored two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it 5-0. The Panthers got on the board in the seventh with Hake scoring the lone run, before falling in game two.
At the halfway point of the six-game road trip, this time out in Marysville, the Panthers dropped both games to the Bulldogs.
In game one, the Panthers lost 5-0.
With a three-up-three-down first inning for both teams, Concordia got on base first in the top of the second inning with an Alyssa Patterson walk, but couldn’t generate anything. The Bulldogs got the first hit in the bottom of the inning with a solo home run to get the lead. Marysville scored again in the fourth. Concordia finally picked up its first hit in the fifth inning with a Kenlee Williams double. She would get to third, but couldn’t get across the plate. Marysville closed the game with a three-run sixth inning to take game one.
In game two, the Panthers lost 17-7.
The Panthers scored first. After Kinsleigh Bethune was walked, a Williams single allowed her to score and take the 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the first inning, the Bulldogs scored four runs to take the lead. A Camleigh Hake run in the second would get negated by seven Bulldog runs in the bottom of the second to take an 11-2 lead, and five more runs in the third and one run in the fourth would make it a 17-2 game. The Panthers offense heated up, with a Bella Stuber run in the fourth and four runs in the fifth, with Williams, Jaylin Roush, Stuber, and Hake crossing home, before out three led to the run-rule kicking in.
