Bulldog Scoreboard

SPORTS

PHOTO BY MARK PERRY YSHS sophomore Duncan Silvert-Noftle fires a return during his match Friday, April 11, at the Antioch tennis courts, as the Bulldogs blanked Xenia Christian.

YSHS tennis opens season 4–0
The YSHS tennis team easily beat its first three opponents, then slipped past a previously unbeaten team to remain undefeated this year.
Last week, the Bulldogs collected 5–0 wins against Cedarville, Belmont and Xenia Christian, and defeated London, 3–2, Monday, April 14.
In Monday’s contest, YSHS took both doubles matches and Emma Robinow won the No. 2 singles slot to lead the Bulldogs. In the first doubles match, Mike Gordon and Scott Keyes teamed up to beat Dave Stewart and Brett Cooper, 7–5, 5–7, 6–1. In the second doubles match, Wes Richeson and Matt Carr swept their opponents 6–3, 6–2. Robinow had to fight through three sets to win the match clincher, downing London’s Carlos Merino 6–4, 4–6, 6–2.
In the No. 1 singles match, London’s Cody Arabia swept Duncan Silvert-Noftle 6–1, 7–5. In the No. 3 match, London’s Richie Boyd topped Amy Price in straight sets.
The match with London was the closest of the year for the Bulldogs, who moved to 4–0 with the victory. First-year coach David Robinow said that he was pleased with his team’s performance.
“This was a good win for us,” Robinow said. “We pulled out the two three-set matches we needed, and on the two courts we lost, our players improved their games in the second set.”
The ’Dogs won every individual and doubles match in their first three contests last week.
Silvert-Noftle won twice and Emma Robinow once in the No. 1 slot, and Price and Gordon each won two individual matches. Richeson, Keyes, Lucas Chard and Carey Dixon were all a part of two winning doubles pairs in the first three matches. Other netters who helped collect first-week wins included Tina Chen, Nick Rittenhouse and Carr.
Robinow said that the competition would continue to get tougher as the season went on, but he was encouraged by the way the team began the season.

Girls softball—
Lady ‘Dogs rally to steal opener
After enduring two rain outs to start the season, the Yellow Springs High School softball team opened its first full season of play since the mid-1980s with a dramatic come-from-behind win over Metro Buckeye Conference foe Troy Christian, 10–9, last Friday at Gaunt Park.
The Lady Bulldogs stole the victory in dramatic fashion when, in the bottom of the seventh inning, they scored two runs on passed balls.
The first came with one out, when junior Lilith Claire scored after the Troy catcher could not handle a low pitch, tying the game at 9.
Then with two outs, junior Jessica Trivett scampered home on a passed ball to score the game winner, leading to a joyous celebration on the YSHS bench. After retrieving the ball, Troy’s catcher actually beat Trivett to the plate, but Trivett was able to slide under the tag.
The Lady ’Dogs went into the final frame trailing 9–7 with the top of the order due up. Claire sparked the rally with a double that the Troy right fielder misplayed, which scored freshman Allix North and put YSHS behind by just 1 run.
Early on in the game YSHS showed a few of the jitters that might be expected of such an inexperienced team. But after the third inning the Lady Bulldogs had built a 3-run lead.
Troy Christian ran the bases well, and used its speed to collect 3 runs in the top of the fourth to tie the game.
YSHS failed to score in the bottom of the fourth, and defensive mistakes by both teams allowed the lead to go back and forth in the fifth and sixth innings.
YSHS junior Janell Martin pitched the entire game and collected her first win for the Lady Bulldogs. Behind her, Trivett, North and juniors Dana Ingham and Rose Blakelock had outstanding games in the field.
Claire led YSHS at the plate, collecting four hits, two of which went for extra bases.

High school track—
Boys 4th, girls12th at meet
The YSHS boys track team finished 4th out of 17 teams at Cedarville’s Impson Invitational Saturday, April 12.
With better exchanges on relays, that finish could have been even higher. The ’Dogs collected 49 points, 48 fewer than meet winner Western Brown, and 25 behind third place Cedarville.
YSHS coach John Gudgel said that mishandled baton exchanges in several relays cost the Bulldogs many valuable points. Only one Bulldog relay team managed a top-three finish. The 4x800 meter team of Dylan Borchers, Travis Dean, David Warren, and Aaron Cobb posted a meet record time of 8:32.79.
No other YSHS team or individual finished higher than second, at least on the boys side.
In the girls competition, freshman Tina Peters led the Lady Bulldogs to a 12th-place finish.
Peters was the only Lady ’Dog to earn points in the meet, finishing first in the 3200 and third in the 1600. Peters said that she was happy to win her favorite event even though her time of 13:10.8 was 10.8 seconds slower than her goal going into the meet.
A bad exchange also cost the girls 4x200 meter relay team, which finished 9th out of 17 schools.
On the boys side, Borchers and senior Andrew Richlen both collected second place finishes in their best events. Borchers was edged out in the 800-meter run by Micah Harding of Cedarville. Harding finished the race in 2:02.2 and Borchers crossed the line in 2:02.9.
Richlen was just as close to winning the long jump with a leap of 18 feet 5 inches, a quarter of an inch shorter than Western Brown’s Davis Moler.
A host of Bulldog boys finished just off the podium. Anthony Brandon was fourth in the long-jump, Brad Benning-Clark was fourth in the 300 hurdles and Warren fourth in the 3200 and sixth in the 1600. The 4x200 relay team of Brandon, Richlen, Brandon Frye and Brent Robinson was fourth with a time of 1:44, and the 4x400 team of Borchers, Robinson, Brandon and Cobb also finished fourth in 3:41.5. Benning-Clark was fifth in the high jump, clearing 5 feet 6 inches. Although they didn’t score, Gudgel congratulated Joe Lawhorn, Randy Pasch and Issa Walker on strong individual performances.
The girls team also received strong performances from a number of athletes who did not score.
Sara Finn ran well in the 400, and Trisha McLinden had good races in the 200 and 400. Becky Pasch just missed qualifying for the finals in the 100 meter dash. In the field events, Anna Kyaio jumped 4 feet 2 inches in the high jump, and Amanda Bush threw well in the discus and shot put events.

Boys baseball—
Bulldogs lose MBC opener
The Yellow Springs High School boys baseball team continued to struggle last week, falling 14–9 in its home opener to conference rival Troy Christian.
With the loss, the Bulldogs fell to 0–1 in the Metro Buckeye Conference, three games back of the conference leading Eagles, and 0–3 overall.
The Bulldogs fell behind early, surrendering 4 runs in the top of the first. Each of the first four Eagle hitters reached and scored, including catcher Jordan Wright, who hit a home run over the center-field fence. It looked as if the damage would continue to mount as the next batter was hit by a pitch, stole two bases and scored on a passed ball. The next Troy batter singled to center, but was doubled up by center fielder Dustin Rudegeair after he snapped up a line drive.
The double play seemed to relax Bulldog pitcher Sam Jacobs, who struck out the next batter to end the inning.
In the bottom half of the first, YSHS pulled to within 2 runs after Jacobs and Nate Adkins scored. YSHS then cut the lead to 1 in the second.
The game remained close through three innings, and the ’Dogs tied it at 6–6 in the bottom of the fourth when Rudegeair drove home Jacobs, who reached on a double to right-center field.
In the top of the fifth, the Eagles offense broke open the game, pushing across 5 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks. The Eagles added 3 more in their half of the sixth, then with their reserves on the field allowed the Bulldogs to score 3 runs in the bottom of the seventh.
Rudegeair led the Bulldogs offense, going 2–4 with five RBI.
Earlier in the week the Bulldogs’ game against Ridgeville Christian was rained out. No makeup date has been announced.

FC Springs wins first game
The FC Springs youth soccer team began its spring season by winning its first game in the 13 and under first division of the Miami Valley Youth Soccer Association.
Coming from a goal down early in the first half, the Springs rallied for 2 goals to beat the Tipp City Comets, 2–1.
The Comets took the early lead, scoring off a long pass that caught the Springs defenders out of position 11 minutes into the game.
Five minutes before the half ended, Alexis Onfroy-Curley netted the equalizer on a penalty kick. Springs was awarded the penalty kick when forward Andrew Ferguson was tripped in the box while chasing a pass from Onfroy-Curley.
The Springs took the lead midway through the second half. Ferguson started the attack for FC Springs, dribbling out of trouble and hitting Onfroy-Curley with a pass on the left flank. Onfroy-Curley then beat his man down the left side of the field and slipped a pass through the defense to Joe Fugate, who one-touched a shot past the keeper for the game winner.
The Comets tried without success to tie the score, due largely to the defensive play of Brock and Jacob GunderKline, Asa Casenhiser, Alex Turner and Zeke Hardman.