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Bristol’s Slusher blanks McDonald
By eric Fortune
BAZETTA TOWNSHIP
After the second-seeded McDonald softball team was blanked by Bristol pitcher Ashlyn Slusher 1-0 in a Division IV District Semifinal, Blue Devils coach Tom Senich said he didn’t know much about Slusher.
“She was pitching well out there today,” Senich said. “I hadn’t heard too much about her, but she certainly did well today. We ran into her and it didn’t work out well for us.”
Slusher flew under the radar because, as her coach Emily Woodford pointed out, this was just her second game back after breaking her foot in the opening game of the season.
Slusher was on top of her pitches throughout with nine strikeouts and limiting the Blue Devils (14-4) to three hits.
“She did a great job of mixing in a changeup that kept us off balance all day,” Senich said. “She also had a good rise ball that gave us some trouble.”
McDonald had a prime opportunity in the bottom of the fourth to break a scoreless game after Hannah Jones and Kendra Kelly started off the inning with back-to-back singles.
Slusher responded by getting cleanup hitter Rachel Ward to line out to second and striking out Kerrigan McDermott.
From there, Cheyenne Titus hit a sharply hit ball into the gap that Kendyl Switzer was able to field, but it looked like she would have no play to make as Jones was ready to score. But Kelly, going from second to third, bumped into Switzer resulting in an interference call and ending the inning.
“The ball was hit hard to the shortstop and she came up to make a play,” Senich said. “Our girl on second base was getting a good jump like she should and they just collided and the fielder has the right to make the play so it was interference.
“It was the right call. It just didn’t go our way. You can’t blame the runner at all, it was a bang, bang play. There was nothing she could really do about it.”
The Panthers (14-9) responded in the bottom half of the inning with Kayla Adam’s one-out single scoring Emily Bush from second. That was all Slusher needed as she retired eight of the final nine batters she faced.
“We went into this as an underdog,” Woolford said. “They knew that. We kept going over the idea at least 100 times before we came here that underdogs come out on top. It was all heart from Ashlyn tonight.”
Titus did what she could to keep the Blue Devils within striking distance with eight strikeouts and limiting the Panthers to five hits as they stranded eight baserunners.