Heartland Nationals win big at World Series

The Heartland Nationals 12-and-under softball team, an all-star team made up of players from Kelso, New Hamburg and Oran, defeated host Varina, Va., 10-3 in its second pool-play game Saturday at the Babe Ruth 12U World Series.

Heartland, which lost its pool-play opener Friday, now stands 1-1 in the tournament.

One day after falling 7-3 to Lodi, Calif., the Nationals had their way with the host squad. They had 11 hits to just three for Varina and took advantage of three errors. Six of Heartland's runs were unearned.

Brandi Glastetter went 3-for-3 to lead the Nationals. She doubled twice and drove in two runs.

Kaitlin Glastetter, Halle Woodfin and Nicole Blattel all added two hits for the Nationals. Glastetter and Woodfin each doubled. Emily Echols delivered two RBIs.

Katie Bond pitched all six innings for the victory. She allowed three hits and two earned runs, with seven strikeouts and five walks.

The Nationals never trailed, but the teams were tied 2-2 after three innings. Heartland went ahead for good by scoring two runs in the top of the fourth. Leading 4-3, the Nationals put the game out of reach with a six-run sixth.

Heartland will be back in action today at 3 p.m. against Mount Olive, N.J., which has won both its games so far. The Nationals will then wrap up pool play Monday at 11 a.m. against Londonderry, N.H.

Each team plays four pool-play games in the 10-team field, with the top three teams from each pool advancing to the double-elimination portion of the tournament that will begin Tuesday.

Central's Hannah Kinder makes swim finals

Central senior-to-be Hannah Kinder finished 16th in the 50 freestyle Friday at the Speedo Junior National Championships in Irvine, Calif.

The 50 free was the last of three events Kinder competed in at the event. Kinder swam the 50 free in 26.98 seconds in the preliminaries, off from her qualifying time of 26.66. In the consolation finals, Kinder finished in 27.19 seconds.

Kinder also made the finals in both the 100 free and 200 free, finishing seventh in the 100 free and 22nd in the 200 free.

-- From staff reports