Photos by Scott DeCamp | CatchMark
HOLTON — Holton’s softball team hung with Division 3 top-ranked Evart for much of Thursday’s nonleague doubleheader.
At the end of the day, the visiting Wildcats delivered in the clutch and showed why their program made a deep tournament run to the state finals last season.
Evart swept Division 4 fourth-ranked Holton in the nonleague tests, using a three-run sixth inning in a 4-2 Game 1 win and putting up five runs in the sixth inning of a 10-4 Game 2 victory.
Evart runs its record to 18-1 on the season, while Holton is 13-7-1.
Here are more details and notables from the doubleheader:
- Evart left-hander Addy Gray pitched all 14 innings in picking up both wins. In Game 1, she allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits with eight strikeouts and four walks. In Game 2, Gray allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits with seven strikeouts and five walks.
- The first game was tied at 1-1 in the sixth when Evart’s Ally Theunick hit a home run to put her team in the lead for good. It keyed the three-run inning.
- Trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth in Game 1, Holton’s Aubrey Goyings nearly tied it with a drive off the upper part of the fence in left-center field. Her double scored a run to pull the Red Devils within 4-2, but a few more feet and it would have been a three-run shot.
- Goyings went 2-for-3 in Game 1 to lead Holton.
- For Evart, Jojo Tiedt doubled in the first game and Theunick had two RBIs.
- Kenzie Greene took the pitching loss for Holton in Game 1. She allowed three runs (two earned) on two hits with seven strikeouts and one walk.
- Game 2 was tied at 2 after one inning. Evart led 3-2 after four and 5-2 after 4 1/2 before Holton rallied to pull within 5-4. But the Wildcats erupted for five runs in the sixth to effectively put the game away.
- Greene and Ryann Robins led Holton in the second game with two hits apiece. Robins hit a home run and had two RBIs.
- Abbie Fowler took the pitching loss for the Red Devils in the second game. She allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits with three strikeouts and no walks in four innings.
- Kyrah Gray went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI to lead Evart in the second game. Addy Gray had two hits and scored two runs for the Wildcats in Game 2, while Kate Gostlin homered.
- In last year’s run to the Division 3 state finals, Evart fell to Millington in the championship game, 3-2 in eight innings. In the semifinals, Evart defeated Grandville Calvin Christian, 6-1, after Calvin Christian edged Ravenna a couple games earlier in the regional finals (1-0).
- Next up for Holton is the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association tournament. The fifth-seeded Red Devils are competing in Tier 1 at Reeths-Puffer, where they’ll face top-seeded Ravenna at 11 a.m. and fourth-seeded Mona Shores at 9 a.m. in pool play. Ravenna (18-1), which is receiving votes in the Division 3 poll, swept Holton in West Michigan Conference Rivers Division action on April 12.
