Fulton County Ohio Media

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Alexa Faber went 3 for 3 in four trips to the plate including a walk, a single, a double off the centerfield fence and a home run to left field to help power the Swanton Lady Bulldogs to a 7-3 victory over the Genoa Lady Comets in the DIII Sectional Championship game at Genoa High School Friday night.  Swanton pounded out nine hits, drew two base-on-balls and were aided by a couple of Genoa errors and never trailed in the game after taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

Not only did the Bulldogs defeat the higher seeded Comets on their own field but they also were facing one of the best pitchers in Northwest Ohio in Kaylin Shields, Genoa’s all-time career strikeout leader with over 800 Ks and committed to play softball next year at Wheeling University in West Virginia. Shields managed to add eight more strikeouts to her school record but was hit hard overall by the Swanton lineup.

“She did a great job.  She threw hard, she did everything right.  We just came ready to go and really hit the ball,” said Lady Bulldog Head Coach Lauren Yoder explaining her team’s success at the plate against the Genoa ace.  “All the credit to her but we had a really great day today.”

It appeared that the Swanton hitters were not at all intimidated by Shields’ press clippings and a first-inning leadoff double by Payton DeTray helped set the tone and gave her teammates, including Faber, confidence.  “It felt really good.  I wasn’t sure how I was going to be against her but when I saw her, I got really excited,” commented Faber on her performance against Shields.  “She hit one to the moon.  She had a killer day today,” added Coach Yoder.

For the most part, the game was very close.  After the Bulldogs went up 2-0, the Comets scored to pull within one.  Swanton opened their lead to 4-1 with two runs in the third inning only to see Genoa answer with two of their own in the bottom half.  In the top of the fifth, Jordyn Rameriz stroked a clutch two-strike single to right field, giving the Bulldogs a three-run cushion again.  Taylor Forrest shut down the Comets’ bats from there and Faber launched her “moon shot” in the top of the sixth inning for the 7-3 final.

An interesting side story to the game was the pitchers that faced each other, Genoa’s Shields and Swanton’s Forrest. Both pitchers are seniors, both are their school’s career leader in strikeouts and they became friendly over the past few summers competing against each other in travel softball.  “It’s like a travel rivalry.  All good blood, nothing bad,” said Forrest who will be taking her softball talents to Heidelberg University in Tiffin the Fall.  In this game, they both had two hits and drew one walk, basically breaking even in the head-to-head matchup, except for the final score.

Swanton, now with a 13-10 record on the season, moves on to the DIII District Semi-Finals to be played on Wednesday, May 15^th at 6:00 PM at Springfield High School.  Their opponent will be the Tinora Lady Rams, the 2024 Green Meadows Conference Champions, who improved to 20-3 after a 4-0 Sectional win over Archbold..

Click on the link above to access photos from the game. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

Photo: 2024 DIII Softball Sectional Champions