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Parkway players celebrate after defeating St. Henry and capturing an outright Midwest Athletic Conference softball championship on Saturday at the Wally Post Athletic Complex.
ST. HENRY - After two innings, it appeared that the Parkway-St. Henry softball matchup was going to be a high-scoring contest.
Parkway kept up its end of the bargain, and made sure defensively that St. Henry could not keep up.
The Panthers scored 11 runs in the third and fourth inning and pitchers Bryn Schoenleben and Brittyn Bruns shut down the Redskins over the final three innings to win the outright Midwest Athletic Conference title in a 19-5 rout on Saturday at the Wally Post Athletic Complex.
The win puts Parkway at 17-4 and 6-1 in the MAC for the program's 15th title and first title since sharing with Minster in 2023 and first outright title since 2017. St. Henry, looking for its first conference crown since 2010, moves to 8-12 and 5-2.
"One of our goals every spring is to win a MAC title," said Parkway coach Trey Stover. "It's an honor to play in the MAC. It's obviously one of the best small-school leagues in Ohio. It's an honor to bring home a championship."
Parkway had their hitting on point from the first at-bat as Bruns led off with a triple. The Redskins quickly got two outs, with Megan Hughes' groundout scoring Bruns for the opening run. Schoenleben followed with a single. Adria Miller followed with a shot over the left-center fence to make it 3-0.
St. Henry didn't waste time in answering in the bottom of the first. Lauren Thieman led off with a single. Natalie Schwieterman followed with a double to right to score the first Redskin run. Rya Buschur stepped in and took a 1-1 offering over the center field fence to tie the game.
St. Henry players greet Rya Buschur after her two-run home run during Saturday's game with Parkway.
"I knew both teams were great hitting teams," said coach Stover. "The first inning showed that."
It appeared that St. Henry would get through the top of the second unscathed in turning a 6-3-5 double play for two quick outs. Bruns stepped in for the second time and singled. Emmery Temple hit a hard fly to left that was in and out of the glove to allow Bruns to score the go-ahead run. Back-to-back RBI singles by Hughes and Schoenleben were followed by an intentional walk to Miller to load the bases for Cali Bollenbacher, who walked on five pitches to bring home another run. Madelyn Stover followed with a two-run single to make it 8-3. St. Henry coach Alexis Ontrop made the switch from pitcher Renee Wendel as Leah Lefeld moved from first base to the circle, where she enticed Leah Suzuki to fly out to end the inning.
Parkway's Madelyn Stover tries to make contact with the ball during Saturday's game at St. Henry.
St. Henry managed to trim the deficit in the bottom of the inning as the Panthers were tagged for three errors resulting in two runs to make the score 8-5.
The coup de grâce came in the top of the third as Parkway sent 10 batters to the plate for the second straight inning. After a groundout, Parkway hit three straight singles with Bruns coming home on a passed ball. Miller struck again with a two-run single to bring up Bollenbacher, who blasted a shot to left-center for the second Panther home run of the game to make it 14-5.
"I couldn't be happier for (Miller and Bollenbacher). They're two of our seniors. I couldn't ask for two better senior leaders," said coach Stover. "They came out and definitely led the way today."
Emma Buschur came on to pitch for St. Henry in the fourth, and Parkway greeted her with five straight hits. Bruns and Temple had singles, then came home on Hughes' double. Schoenleben then brought home Hughes with a single to bring up Miller, who went to dead center for her second home run of the day to make it 19-5.
St. Henry catcher Kennedy Wendel waits for the ball as Parkway's Megan Hughes comes home.
"They defintely had all our pitchers' number tonight," said St. Henry coach Alexis Ontrop. "We just have to find a way to work the count and pitch to their weaknesses. We did not do that today."
Meanwhile, Schoenleben shut down St. Henry in the third and fourth innings with 1-2-3 innings with four strikeouts. To no surprise, coach Stover called on Bruns to lock down the title in the fifth. Bruns needed just 13 pitches to get a fly to right and back-to-back strikeouts to end the game.
"Bryn really settled down after (the second inning) and let her defense work," said coach Stover.
Miller finished the day with six RBI as part of a 3-for-3 day. Bruns was 4-for-4 with four runs scored. Schoenleben was 3-for-3 with four runs scored with Hugh going 3-for-4 with four RBI.
The postseason gets underway Tuesday for both teams, who are both in the Division VI Wapakoneta district. Parkway plays host to Marion Local in one sectional final with St. Henry hosting Delphos Jefferson in another.
