From the first pitch Paris saw on Monday night, a district championship seemed like it was very possible.
The state No. 8 Lady Coyotes scored in every inning, including seven runs in the third inning to defeat state No. 7 Community R-6 15-0 in four innings in the Class 1 District 4 championship game at Community R-6 in Laddonia. The district title is the first for Paris softball since 2001 and third in program history. The Lady Coyotes (22-6) finished with 13 hits against a team they had went 1-2 against this season in a combined margin of five runs. Emma Ashenfelter led the offense by going 3-for-3 with six RBI, her sister Kennedy Ashenfelter went 3-for-4 with four RBI, Sylvee Graupman was 2-for-3 with three runs scored and seven of the nine Paris bats had at least one hit. Community (21-12) finished with one hit against Kennedy Ashenfelter.
Paris hosts the District 3 champion and state No. 3 Cairo (24-4) on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Coyotes' first meeting with Cairo was one of their worst outings but only the third game of the season in which they committed seven errors and allowed 12 unearned runs in the 12-3 loss.
Look for the full story Tuesday on the Mexico Ledger website.
