Adena Lady Warriors make their case for the SVC's top spot after beating Piketon

FRANKFORT — To be atop the competitive SVC, teams have to come out every night ready for battle.

As the Adena Lady Warriors hope to establish a new winning culture, they have taken that challenge as a personal one.

"We don't want to be the chasers, we want to be chased," Lady Warriors' coach, Brad Jarwin said. "We know that we have to come prepared every night because it is always going to be a dogfight. Mentally, we have to stay engaged and not take any teams lightly."

The latest team on their tails were the Piketon Lady Redstreaks, who despite their sub-.500 record fought hard in their 9-2 loss to Adena.

The Lady Redstreaks had a nice start as they took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning.

Zoey Fuchs got the runs started by hitting an RBI double which brought home, Laney Brown.

Their next batter, Kaylee Maynard hit an RBI of her own, this time an RBI single.

Facing a rare deficit, the Lady Warriors kept things together to bounce back in the bottom of the inning.

Their third batter, Caelan Miner hit an RBI double, which brought Kiera Williams home for the team's first run.

Two batters later, Greenlee Bossert hit an RBI single, replicating what Piketon had done in the previous inning.

With the game tied at two, Coach Jarwin said that his team facing the deficit helped them to get their heads back in the game.

"We knew that we had to stay patient," Jarwin said. "We had to get back to doing the things that we do well and stay within the game. We came out a little flat, but with it being the first inning, it was too early to panic."

Unlike how they began the game, the Lady Redstreaks were unable to get a run in the second inning, rather the Lady Warriors' defense stepped up and got three outs in quick succession.

While it looked like Piketon's defense was going to do the same to Adena, senior, Cheyanne Ater stepped up.

She hit an infield home run to break the tie and give her team the 3-2 lead.

They opened the game up even more in the third inning, where they scored three more runs.

With two batters already on base by the time Emily Jones got up to the plate, she hit an RBI single. Then, back-to-back batters had sac-bunts to bring runners home.

As the game seemed to quickly shift, Lady Redstreaks' coach, Mark Blakeman said that Adena took advantage of all of the space on the field.

"Adena's a good hitting team," Blakeman said. "They were hitting the ball in the gaps, but we were hitting balls into play and they went right to them. I am still proud of how we handled things."

In the fourth inning, Adena got their seventh run of the game after an RBI double but their pitcher, Greenlee Bossert.

Her run brought home Miner, who had scored three runs on the night.

She was also perfect from the plate, hitting 4-4 with an RBI.

With confidence a premium in the sport, Miner said that she hopes that Thursday's production will carry over to the team's next game.

"Hitting like this gives us momentum," Miner said. "It makes us excited because we know that we all are playing so well. We don't want to stop anything that we have going for us."

Adena went off to score in the fifth and sixth innings respectively, on their way to their seventh straight game of the season.

While the scoreboard may not have reflected it, Coach Blakeman was proud of his team for how they competed against the Lady Warriors and said that it shows that the team is gradually getting better.

"The team is looking at this game as a win," Blakeman said. "Holding Adena to nine runs and staying in the ballgame for almost the entire time, is a big difference from what happened to us last year. We have worked really hard and it is starting to show that we are a lot better than we used to be."

This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Adena looks like the class of the SVC after defeating Piketon