DIVISION III SOFTBALL Marsh's one-hit game advances Springfield

The Tigers rolled to an 11-0 tournament victory over Lisbon.
By JOHN BUTERA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
LISBON -- The Springfield High softball team knew it would be the Tigers' day when they scored four first-inning runs without a batted ball leaving the infield.
Those four runs were all the Tigers needed as ace pitcher Maggie Marsh fired a rain-shortened one-hitter Wednesday to lead Springfield to an 11-0 victory over Lisbon in a Division III sectional tournament game.
"In the tournament, it's always good to get off on the right foot," Springfield coach Terry Dobson said.
Face United next
Marsh (14-6) keyed the Tigers to their 16th win in 24 outings as Springfield advanced to face United next Wednesday.
On Monday, the Tigers complete regular season play at McDonald. A win would enable the Tigers to tie South Range for the Inter-County League title.
Marsh, who yielded only a double to the Blue Devils' Emily Gerber in the fifth inning, wasn't upset about losing her bid for a no-hitter.
"It didn't really matter that much," Marsh said. "The main thing was I just wanted to get my players out of the rain."
Springfield opened the game with Danielle DeWitt reaching on an infield single. After Jessica Snyder walked, Marsh hit an infield single, scoring DeWitt.
It was the only two hits that the Tigers produced in the inning, but thanks to another walk, six stolen bases and a passed ball, the Tigers carried a 4-0 lead into the second inning.
Springfield added another run in the second inning without hitting the ball out of the infield.
Six-run third
In the third inning, the Tigers used two hits and took advantage of two costly Lisbon errors to score six more runs to put the game out of reach.
"I'm disappointed," coach Dave Crisman said of the Blue Devils (9-10). "Truly, this is not as good as our team is."
Crisman chose to have the game end after the Blue Devils batted in the fifth inning.
"Despite today," Crisman said, "we came out of this year with a lot of positives and we have a lot to look forward to."