By Cort Reynolds
SPENCERVILLE–The visiting Ada High School softball team convincingly defeated Spencerville 10-2 in their Northwest Conference season closer on Thursday evening, May 4, accomplishing their best league finish ever.
The win, coupled with a 7-4 Crestview victory at Lincolnview, gave Ada sole possession of second place in the final conference standings.
Ada finished one game behind champion Crestview (8-0) and a game ahead of third-place Lincolnview (6-2) in the nine-team league standings.
After tying for second place twice before, coming in second alone marked the best NWC finish in program history for the Bulldog girls. A Knight loss to the Lancers would have given Ada a three-way tie for first in the league.
The Bulldogs improved to 16-3 overall and finished 7-1 in the NWC with the victory, a five-game improvement in league play over 2022.
Spencerville fell to 3-13 overall and 1-6 in the NWC with the defeat.
Bulldog sophomore hurler Jenna Bassitt struck out 12 Bearcats as she earned her 14th pitching win of the season. She also doubled and hit two singles.
Junior Katie Sizemore slugged a home run and added two singles.
“I am happy to get the win,” said Ada second-year head coach Jeff Bassitt. “We had four errors, so we still need to clean up our errors.
“The hitting has been good,” he added.
In the top of the first, Ada scored a run and they never trailed. The Bulldogs tallied three runs in the second inning to go ahead 4-0.
Spencerville cut the deficit in half with two runs in the home fourth.
But Ada pushed four runs across home in the sixth frame to take command. The Bulldogs tacked on two more runs in the seventh inning to win going away by eight runs.
Sophomore shortstop Karley Wagner contributed three singles, while classmate third sacker Belah Price stroked two singles.
Ada went 7-2 in 2011, and 6-2 in 2016 in NWC play to tie for second both years. The Bulldogs tied with Paulding and Bluffton in 2011, and tied with Columbus Grove in 2016.
Ada ended up knotted for third in the NWC at 6-3 with Grove in 2012. The 2018 district champion Bulldogs finished fourth in the league at 5-3.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Ada 1 3 0 0 0 4 2 10 13 6
Svl 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 7 1
WP- Bassitt (14-3) LP-K. Lee
2B-Hurtle (S), Bassitt (A)
HR-Sizemore (A)
The Bulldogs play at Vanlue (6-8) Friday and visit Arcadia (9-6) Saturday as they face two non-league BVC foes on the road.
Ada added a home game Tuesday, May 8 vs. Green Meadows Conference member Wayne Trace (8-10, 2-5 GMC) to its schedule.
The Bulldogs are one win shy of tying the school single-season record for wins set by the 17-9 squad of 2018.
