Jackson softball cruises to district semifinal

The Jackson Indians softball team defeated the Warriors from Fox 13-3 in the Class 5 District 1 quarterfinal on Thursday in the Jackson City Park. Jackson used a big second inning to take an early lead and put the Warriors away in the fifth via the 10-run rule.

The Indians' big second inning consisted of seven runs, including doubles by both Zoe Flath and Miley Conklin and singles by Jaylie Walther and Kaiden Weisbrod. Fox also helped out the Indians with an error that brought in a run. Jackson head coach Shawn Wilding said the “small ball” as well as the speed of the Indians helped them jump out to that big lead.

“Just hitting a little small ball there in that second inning, scoring seven was huge. You score two runs on us on a slant bunt you're doing something right, we're fast and we're executing very well,” Wilding said. “We’re fast and we get burners on then we like to move a little bit, we broke the state record as a team for stolen bases so we’re definitely quick.”

Walther led the offense of the Indians with a 2-3 day that included three RBIs, two on her double, and an additional run in the third inning. In the circle for the Indians, Ashlyn Dawes tacked on another win while going all five innings with nine strikeouts and one walk.

Fox avoided the shutout in the top of the fifth inning by finding some gaps in the Indians' defense and scoring three runs. Wilding said he is glad they had an 11-run lead when they made some of those mistakes.

“They got three on us and that's a hard pill to swallow. They're gonna put a couple of hits together, a couple of things snuck through and we had some communication over there,” Wilding said. “It happens, I'd rather do it there up 11 than if you're up three and they tie the ballgame on something like that. So we talked about that and said ‘Hey, you know get that out your system now’, and that's out of the way.”

Jackson moves on to face Oakville in the district semifinal game on Saturday at 12 p.m. at Lindbergh High School.