Decatur Dominates In Regional Playoff, Defeats Riverwood 9-1 and 15-3

The Lady Bulldogs brought both their gloves and their bats Wednesday afternoon to soundly defeat Riverwood High School heading into next week’s State Playoffs. The tone was set from the start of Game 1 as Decatur retired the Raiders in the top of the 1st inning on a perfectly executed 5-4-2 bunt defense double play. Camilla Schneider collected Anaya Chennault’s bunt down the third base line and threw a strike to Elise Marrah covering first who in turn quickly threw to catcher Abbey Gilbert cutting down Virginia King trying to reach home. The bang-bang play was a spark that set the tone for the afternoon and into the evening.

Hannah Lariscy and Marrah led the offense Wednesday with a steady stream of hard hit balls. Lariscy, who went 3 for 4 in Game 1, led off the bottom of the 1st with a lined shot into the left center gap for a triple, and later reached home on a sacrifice fly to center by Abbey Gilbert. Marrah started the second inning with a hard ground ball to left which was followed by some well executed small ball by Kailyn McArthur and Emily Miranda who both reached on their bunts. Lariscy then knocked in Marrah on a single up the middle, and McArthur and Miranda both scored when Gilbert reached on an errant throw by shortstop Avery Andrew. In the 3rd inning, Marrah lined a ball over right fielder Tania Ford for a triple, driving in Schneider who had reach on a walk. Marrah later scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Emily Miranda. Decatur put up three more runs in the sixth inning, started once again by a hit by Lariscy.

Quincy Pritchard threw 77 pitches over six complete innings in Game 1 for Decatur, striking out five and allowing just one run that was unearned. Catherine Hentz started Game 2 for Decatur and pitched one inning, but had to come out of the game due to a sore knee that has hampered her much of this season. With Hentz out and junior pitcher Kyra Council still unavailable due to an ankle injury, Prichard returned to the circle to throw another 66 pitches over four complete innings. In Game 2 Prichard, struck out four and allowed one earned run. She continued her effectiveness throughout the evening successfully mixing up her lively fastball, her screwball and a nasty change that consistently kept the Riverwood batter off balance.

Riverwood was the home team for Game 2, and after quickly retiring Decatur to start the game, jumped out to a 2-0 first inning lead. As momentum appeared to have shifted over to Riverwood, the Bulldogs unleased eight runs in the second, capped by a grand slam by senior Camilla Schneider. Schneider started the inning with a lead-off walk, then scored on another triple to right by Elise Marrah. McArthur singled in Marrah on a ground ball to the right side and then scored on a sharp single to left by Lariscy. Gilbert knocked in Lariscy with her own single to left to make the score 4-2. Sarah Moss followed with a walk, and Prichard was hit by a pitch to load the bases with two outs. As Schneider was fooled and took her second strike looking to reach a full count, the game was still very much uncertain with two outs. Starting pitcher Alisa Steel delivered another fastball in effort to bring the inning to a close, but Schneider drove it high into the twilight sky and over the left field wall extending the lead to 8-2. From that point forward Decatur had complete command of the game, quietly putting up another five runs over the next three innings and ending the evening and home season with a 15-3 victory.

Decatur is now 7-2 against regional opponents and 11-11 on the season, and they will represent Region 6 as the 3rd seed in the upcoming Class AAAAA State Playoffs. Decatur travels to Walnut Grove (Region 8 - #2) on Tuesday for the first round, best of three series. Game 1 start time is 4PM.

Senior Hannah Lariscy sliding into home to score the first of Decatur’s nine runs in Game 1. Lariscy had four hits and 3 RBI on the day.

Elise Marrah hitting one of her two triples on Wednesday. Marrah finished the day 3-5 with two triples, a single, two walks and 5 RBI.