The Mattoon High School softball team left very little doubt in Saturday’s Regional championship game. The Lady Wave beat Charleston, 17-4 in five innings.
The first inning told the story of the game. Avery Jackson led off with a walk. Ivy Nichols came to the plate and laid down what was intended to be a sacrifice bunt. The ball was well-placed and it became an infield single. On the throw to first, the ball sailed down the right field line. Jackson scored and Nichols went all the way to third.
Kyliegh Basham followed with an RBI-single as did Shelby Youngblood. Bella Coffey knocked in two more runs with a single. Cassi Dow reached on an error, Mariah Spurgeon singled, and Kelsey Farmer hit a run-scoring single. Avery Risinger drew a walk to load the bases. Jackson took a free pass to force in a run. Nichols drove in a pair with a base hit to center field. Basham followed that with her second RBI-single of the inning. Youngblood then collected her second hit, a single. The score was 11-0 when Bella Coffey came up for the second time in the inning. She laced a two-run triple into right center field. The Lady Wave had scored 13 runs before a single out was recorded.
Bella Coffey was 3-3 with two singles, a triple, two runs scored, and four runs batted in.
Mattoon scored single runs in the second and third to make it 15-0. Two more tallies in the fourth made it 17-0 before Charleston put four runs on the board in the fifth. Emily Sweeney drove in the first run with a single. Ally O’Dell’s two-run triple made it 17-3, and Lauren Spour’s third hit of the game was an RBI-single.
The game ended after the top of the fifth by the run rule as the Lady Wave captured the Regional title, 17-4.
Mattoon (23-7) advances to face the Glenwood Titans in the Sectional on Tuesday, May 31st at 6:30pm. The Lady Wave will host that tournament at the Roundhouse in Mattoon. You can hear that game on 101.3 WMCI. Charleston’s season came to an end with a record of 18-10.
