Leopards Tie Team Record with 3 Homers in the 5th Vs. North Royalton – Softball

Louisville 18, North Royalton 2

The Louisville Leopards Varsity Softball Team upended the host North Royalton Bears 18-2 in a run-rule 5 inning victory Thursday. With the win, Louisville is now 6-2 on the season. 

Teagan Rice batted 4-for-5, scored twice, and hit a Grand Slam during the Lady Leopards 11-run fifth inning. Rice’s slam was the third of 3 home runs hit that inning to tie the school record. Shae Thomas and Alex Fankhauser led off the inning with back-to-back jacks. The next five Louisville batters reached base before Rice went yard to center field.

The grand slam made it 14-2 Leopards, but they weren’t done. The next three Louisville batters smacked extra base hits and all scored as the Leopards scored 10 runs in the inning before a single out was recorded. Kaycee Ollis tripled to right and Katie Porter doubled to right to bring her in. Thomas followed with a double to right to swap spots with Porter and then came home via a Fankhauser single. Louisville nearly batted around the lineup in bringing 17 to the plate and scoring 11 runs on 13 hits. Lauren Stillwagon also recorded an RBI single and Ashley Zifer drove in a run via a sacrifice fly to round out the Leopards scoring in the fifth.

The Lady Leopards earlier third inning foreshadowed their fifth inning explosion. Ollis, Kaylee Nolte, and Sarah Cantley hit back-to-back-to-back RBI doubles in a span of 4 pitches to put Louisville ahead 3-0. Justina Sirohman hit a 2-out RBI single to right scoring courtesy runner Katie Porter for another run. Lauren Bennett capped off the inning with a 2-run home run to center to put LHS in command 6-0.

Sydney McKeever scored the only other Leopards run in the fourth inning. She reached base on error and advanced to second as a result. The speedy McKeever swiped third and then home putting Louisville ahead 7-0 in the middle of the fourth.

The Leopards offense banged out 21 hits and recored 16 RBIs as a unit for the game. Fankhauser, McKeever, Nolte, Ollis, Rice, Stillwagon, and Thomas all registered a multi-hit game for the blue and white. Ten different Louisville players scored in the content with 8 crossing the plate twice.

In the circle, Cantley pitched the first four innings, gave up 0 earned runs on 2 hits, and struck out 5. She improved to 4-1 on the season with the win. Thomas closed out the game working a scoreless fifth inning.

This was the first ever meeting between the two schools.

Single Inning Home Run Record

The 2014 Leopards were the only other team to hit 3 home runs in a single inning. Kylie Zifer, Annie Woolf, and Emily Cantley all homered in the fourth inning during Louisville’s 20-0 victory at Marlington on May 20, 2014. The Leopards hit 5 homer runs in that game at Marlington, which is also a team record to this day.

UP NEXT: The Louisville Leopards Softball Team will next travel to Perry for two games on Saturday, April 13. They will take on the host Perry Panthers in a rematch of last year’s District Championship at 11:00 AM and then take on the Hillsdale Falcons at 1:00 PM.

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VARSITY SOFTBALL BOX SCORE

LEOPARDS 18, BEARS 2

Team 123-45–R-H-E

Louisville 006-1(11)–18-21-1

North Royalton 000-20–2-2-2

LOUISVILLE LEOPARDS SOFTBALL VARSITY BATTING STATS

LOUISVILLE LEOPARDS SOFTBALL VARSITY PITCHING STATS

LOUISVILLE LEOPARDS SOFTBALL VARSITY BATTING STATS

LOUISVILLE LEOPARDS SOFTBALL VARSITY PITCHING STATS

Records: Louisville 6-2