Friday Flashback: C’view wins district title

Note: The latest installment of the Friday Flashback goes back to May of 2017 when Crestview won the Division IV softball district championship and locked up a spot in the regional semifinals. Below is the story as it appeared on the VW independent Sports page.

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

ELIDA — The Crestview Lady Knights are regional bound again, after Monday’s five inning, 10-0 win over Antwerp in the Division IV district softball championship game at Elida’s Dorothy Edwards Field.

The game was scheduled to be played Friday, but inclement weather pushed it to yesterday.

The defending state champions opened the scoring in the first inning with a solo home run by Sydney Bowen.

“I think Syd kind of set the tone by driving the ball over the fence,” Crestview head coach Carl Etzler said. “Hitting is contagious, and I think we had base hits tonight from everybody in the lineup.”

The Lady Knights (14-11) put up four more runs in the third inning. Cora Millay reached first base on an error, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch, then scored on an RBI single by Bowen.

A single by Codi Miller drove in Millay, then Bowen and Miller crossed home plate on a two-RBI single by Hannah Binnion. Bowen and Millay went on to increase Crestview’s lead to 5-0 on a two-RBI single by Binnion.

“We had some key base hits playing some small ball in the bottom of the lineup, and we had some key base hits with two outs,” Etzler added.

After a scoreless fourth inning, Crestview had just one hit in the fifth, but took advantage of four Antwerp errors to score five runs and trigger the 10-run rule.

Caitlin O’Hagan opened the inning with a single, advanced to second on a grounder by Lexi Gregory, then reached third on a throwing error. Another Antwerp error allowed Alyssa Gent to reach first and scored O’Hagan. The third error of the inning put Millay on first and plate Gregory.  Antwerp (13-7) committed seven errors in the game.

Avery McCoy’s triple to deep center field scored Miller and ended the game early.

While Crestview’s bats were busy, Victoria Lichtensteiger enjoyed a dominant performance in the circle, by pitching a complete game shutout. She held the Lady Archers to just two hits, while striking out four.

“Her level of improvement from the beginning of the season to now has just continued to go up, and as a coach, that’s what you want,” Etzler said. “We’re very pleased with her.”

Crestview’s regional semifinal opponent will be No. 1 Gibsonburg (24-0), tomorrow at Findlay’s Marathon Diamonds.

“They have a tremendous winning tradition, a tremendous program,” Etzler said. of the state’s top ranked Division IV team. “We’re just going to go and try to compete as hard as we can, maybe carry what we did here and see what happens.”