SHELBY, Ohio — It may not have been vintage Addy Horne, but first-year Plymouth coach Tracy Arnold couldn’t have been happier with her senior ace.
The area’s leader in strikeouts, Horne whiffed 11 batters and the Big Red advanced to the district championship game for a second straight season with a 2-1 win over Firelands Conference rival New London in the nightcap of Tuesday’s Division IV district semifinal doubleheader at Shelby High School.
Plymouth (19-4) will play Lucas in an all-Richland County district title game at 5 p.m. Friday at Shelby. The Cubs beat Mohawk 13-6 in Tuesday’s opener.
“She was struggling a bit tonight. She was a little disappointed in herself,” Arnold said. “We just said, ‘Play your game.’
“She did a fabulous job.”
Early Offense: The Big Red gave Horne all the run support she would need in the home half of the first. Mallory Miller led off with a single and moved to second on Katie Bushey’s base hit. Miller eventually scored on a passed ball before Janet Arnold lifted a sacrifice fly to right, plating courtesy runner Leslie Mack.
“That first inning, they jumped on us and we could have folded,” New London coach Chip Motolik said. “We showed a lot of heart. I’m proud of them.”
Horne was dominant early. She struck out seven of the first nine batters she faced before encountering trouble in the third. With two out, Ashley Parr bunted for a base hit and stole second. She scored on Kathy Vangilder’s double.
The Wildcats threatened again in the fourth and fifth innings, but couldn’t push across the tying run. New London stranded six runners in the final four innings.
“We got timely hitting, but we didn’t get clutch hits when we had runners in scoring position,” Motolik said.
Vangilder and Delaney Porter each had two hits for the Wildcats (15-8).
Dealing: Vangilder matched Horne pitch for pitch. The left-hander retired 11 straight batters at one point.
“After that first inning, she settled down,” Motolik said. “From the third inning on she was having fun.
“We believed up until that last out that we had it.”
First of Three: Because of rainouts earlier in the season, Plymouth and New London will play three times this week. The teams meet again Wednesday and Thursday.
“It’s a three-game series for us,” Arnold said. “We got the one that counted and we really want another one off them in that we want to be conference champs.”
