Dixie Fastpitch – Young but Resilient.
By Chelsea Tilton

An interview with Dixie Varsity Softball coach Derek Jacobs revealed that it was a rough week for Dixie Varsity Softball team. The girls played Tri-County North on Monday and started the week off with a loss. The team had eight graduating seniors on the team last year leaving this year’s roster with only three seniors and few girls with varsity experience. This 2010 season will likely be a tough one for this young team, but will surely be a year for "experienced gained”.

However, Dixie did put up a valiant effort against Tri-county North, with a score of three to nothing at the bottom of the sixth. Tri-county North did not relent and battled back to win with a final score of five to three.

Dixie played two more games this week; Thursday the team played Waynesville. This game also resulted in a loss for Dixie with a final score of three to one. The team held them off until the fifth ending when they gave up the lead, but was not able to pull a win from Waynesville either.

The team however, did gain a win against Northridge. The final score was an impressive twelve to three. What was sure to be an appreciated victory for this young team. The ‘stand out players’ so far this year have been: Bethany Patterson, and Amber Naves. Defensively Patterson a pitcher that has greatly contributed to the win, and Amber Naves also left an impression on offense as a ‘stand out hitter’.

The team faces another quick week with games nearly back to back as they play three games in a four day time span. Monday they will be facing Monroe at Monroe. Preble Shawnee is the next game at home, what is sure to be a hard game as Preble Shawnee has beaten Dixie in past years. Then Dixie will travel to face Madison at Madison on Thursday. The team will be down a player part if not all of this coming week as Courtney Hawk is out due to injury. Which is too bad, as the coming week’s schedule is sure to be exhausting.

Greyhounds are Rolling
Chelsea Tilton
Dixie varsity boys baseball team had a very busy but prosperous week, playing seven games in the past week but walking away winners from almost every single game. The start of the week was slightly disappointing. Dixie faced Tri-County North at North, the grey hounds lost to the panthers by one point in the bottom of the seventh. The final score was North with five and Dixie with four. The pitcher Ryan Hayes went three for four, with two doubles, and 3RBI's. However, Hayes suffered his second pitching loss of the season.
The very next day the, Tuesday, the boys hosted their first home game, facing Troy Christian; they also gained their first W for the season. This time around the greyhounds dominated the ball field, with a final score of fourteen to Troy Christian’s six. The grey hounds started off strong with 8 runs in the first inning and four more in the second. The games hi-lights were Ethan Hayes who had two home runs and six RBI's, Ryan Hayes had a home run and five RBI's, and Aaron Worley picked up his first pitching victory of the season.
Wednesday saw the grey hound boys at Waynesville playing an exhausting ten ending game. It was a close game as Waynesville came out with a run in the first ending. Neither would score again until the fourth ending, when both scored a run. Dixie then tied it up in the sixth ending, the game would remained tied until the tenth ending when Dixie scored the winning run. The stand out players in this game was again, Ryan Hayes whom picked up his second home run of the season and pitched 9 strong innings. Aaron Worley, who came on in relief to pick up his second victory of the season, Luke Bowling, who doubled in the bottom of the ten and Mike Hall who luckily knocked him in with a game winning single ending the never ending game.
Without a break the team played its fourth game in a row on Thursday, hosting a game against Valley View in which, they pulled yet another victory. The first two ending of this game were rather uneventful offensively as neither teams started getting runs until the third inning. In the third inning both teams were tied three to three, the fourth inning the Valley View Vikings did not score and the grey hounds, however, got another three runs. The fifth inning the tables turned as the Viking held the grey hounds from scoring any runs. The sixth inning the grey hounds scored six runs while the Vikings scored zero. The seventh inning only one point was scored by the Vikings with a final score of six Valley View and twelve Dixie. Garrett Moore pitched for five strong innings, picking up his first pitching victory. Ryan Hayes was three for three with three RBI's, and Ethan Hayes doubled and drove in two.
Without missing a beat the team played Friday. The grey hounds traveled to Northridge and won the fourth game in a row, with a run rule after the fifth inning. The final score was three Northridge to Dixie’s twenty three. Wes Smith picked up his first pitching victory of the season. the stand out players of the game were Ryan Hayes, whom hit home run number three and four in the victory and added seven RBI's Garrett Moore doubled and drove in three runs.
Saturday was a double header; the boys played Arcanum scoring yet another win. The game started slowly offensively as neither team scored a run until the fourth ending. Arcanum scored two runs and Dixie scored one run at the end of the fifth ending. Dixie prevented Arcanum from scoring the rest of the game with a total score of four runs Dixie and two runs Arcanum.
Coach Dave had this to say about the second game, “In the second game we came out swinging and took control and coasted to a ten to three victory”. Ryan Hayes hit home run number five and added three RBI's, Luke Bowling was two for two with two doubles and 2 RBI's. The grey hounds are strutting away this week with a six game winning streak and a season record of 6-2 so far for the season.

Panthers Win Blazer Relays

Despite losing two key athletes due to injury, the Twin Valley South boys track team won the Blazer Relays last week. Fortunately, the team has some depth and was able to overcome this adversity. Eaton finished second, Trail and TCN finished 8th and 9th. On the girls side Fort Recovery garnered the win. Eaton and TVS were 2nd and 3rd; TCN finished 5th while Trail finished 7th.

TVS Coach Fahrenholtz was pleased with the result, “The 4X200 relay team won, and the 4X800 team did really well. It was a long, long night. We didn’t get the results very quickly and so we did not know where we were until the very end. But anytime you win its fun, the kids got their trophy. Now Steve Balthis hurt his ankle and will get it x-rayed. So we don’t know when he will be back. Jesse Koeller is out for a couple of weeks. So we are a little thin right now. I hope we get things back together.” Josh Hemmelgarn won 4 events at the North track meet later in the week, so South has some athletes stepping up until the team is at full strength.

TVS girls track Coach Mabry is happy to have more athletes out this season. “Last year we only had about 11 girls out and so we really couldn’t do very much. This year we have over 20 and although they are young, we expect to do better. But it will be difficult to compete against teams like Miami Valley – they are loaded this year.”

The North coach was happy with the girls 4X800m performance. “They took first and we did well in the 4X100 and the 4X1600m relays. This year we have coach Gibbons and coach Worley to help with the throwers and distance – they are really coming along well. I am pleased with what I have seen so far. This year we have a lot of freshman and sophomores out – so a lot of young people, but they are developing.”

Finishes by local teams(all events were relays): 4X800m boys TVS 1st,Eaton 5th,TCN 6th,Trail 8th. 4X800m girls TCN 1st TVS 3rd, Eaton 6th, Trail 7th. 4X100m boys Eaton 2nd, TVS 3rd, Trail 5th, TCN 7th. 4X100m girls TVS 2nd, Eaton 4th, TCN 5th, Trail 8th.

4X400m boys Eaton 1st, TVS 5th, Trail 6th, TCN 8th. 4X400m girls Eaton 2nd, TCN 4th, Trail 5th, TCN 7th. Shuttle hurdles boys TVS 4th, Trail 6th. Girls TVS 2nd, Eaton 3rd, TCN 4th, Trail 5th. Medley Run boys TVS 1st, Eaton 3rd, Trail 4th, TCN 8th. Medley Run girls Eaton 3rd, Trail 4th, TCN 5th, TVS 6th.

4X1600m boys Eaton 1st, TVS 2nd, TCN 7th, Trail 8th. 4X1600m girls Eaton 2nd, TCN 3rd, TVS 6th, Trail 7th. Shotput TVS 4th, Eaton 5th, TCN 6th, Trail 9th. Shotput Eaton 1st, TCN 3rd, Trail 4th, TVS 6th.

Discus boys TVS 3rd, TCN 7th Eaton 8th, Trail 9th. Discus girls Eaton 2nd, Trail 3rd, TCN 4th, TVS 6th. High Jump boys: TVS 5th. High jump girls TVS 2nd, Trail 3rd, Eaton 4th.

Long Jump TVS 2nd, Eaton 3rd, Trail 7th, TCN 9th. Long Jump girls TVS 2nd, Eaton 3rd, Trail 5th. Pole Vault Boys Eaton 1st, Trail 2nd, TCN 3rd. Pole Vault Girls Eaton 2nd, TVS 3rd.