SHERWOOD — With the contest tied 3-3 entering the bottom of the fifth inning, Fairview’s summer softball team tallied six runs across the final two innings to best Montpelier 9-5 in the first game of Wednesday’s twinbill at Fairview High School in Sherwood. 

“I thought that the in first few innings we were kind of getting a lay of the land, the heat’s obviously a factor, but both teams have to battle that and I think once we got a few at bats, we were able to time the pitcher up, get some more quality at bats, make solid contact, splitting the ball in half and got good base hits and found gaps,” Fairview coach Katelyn Dumire said. 

The Locos (0-2), however, started the scoring right from the start in the top of the first inning.

Morgan Bechtol drew a walk to start the game and was driven in via a ground out from Maggie Jacob for a 1-0 edge.

Fairview responded in the bottom half of the inning when Samantha Coolman drew a leadoff walk as well to start the frame and moved into scoring position via a single to left from Sarah Bok.

Coolman was plated on a sacrifice fly to left field from Grace Poper which tied the game at 1-all.

After a scoreless second on both ends, Montpelier got out in front in the third as Rowan Brown drew a leadoff walk and soon scored on a passed ball, but Fairview again responded in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead.

Amelia Strezinski and Stella Brown both drew walks to start the inning but Coolman hit into a fielder’s choice where Brown was tagged out at second with runners on the corners with one out.

Bok then bashed a double to left which plated Strezinski and soon after the double, Coolman scored on a wild pitch for a 3-2 Fairview advantage. 

The Locos brought the contest to a 3-3 tie in the top of the fourth as Jacob drew a one-out walk and was driven in on a two-out single to right center from Myleigh Dye. 

Both teams went scoreless in the fourth, but Fairview opened up offensively in the fifth and soon held a sizable lead. 

Dakota Alvarez led the frame off with a single to center as Strezinski and Stella Brown followed with walks to load the bags up for Coolman.

Coolman lifted a sac fly to center that scored Strezinski for a 4-3 edge but the second out was recorded shortly after when Bok was fanned. 

Poper, however, came through with a two-run single to center that further extended the lead to 6-3 in favor of the Apaches.

Quinn McCann laced a single to left center field to keep the inning going and then Brianna Moninger whacked a single to right that plated Poper and topped off Fairview’s four-run fifth with a 7-3 advantage. 

“With this group this summer we have a lot of utility players, a lot of girls that can do a lot of different things on offense and defense for us,” Dumire said “We’ve got good speed, we’ve got girls that can pitch and also play about every position, so having true utility players in depth, I think that they really contributed to us, being able to kind of get everything going there in the fifth.”

The Apaches further added to their lead in the sixth inning.

Lilly Warner smacked a leadoff single and Alvarez smoked a double shortly after and Warner soon scored on a wild pitch and Alvarez stole home for a controlling 9-3 lead. 

The contest received its final score in the top of the seventh.

Jacob drew a leadoff walk and Alyvia Repp corked a single to left and Dye plated Jacob on a ground out as Repp scored via an error. 

“This was the first summer game for us and we lost three seniors this year so we’re trying to fit some new pieces in and we just had too many walks in that fifth inning where the bottom of their order gets on and they’ve (Fairview) got some good girls there at the top that can knock them in,” Montpelier coach Andy Robinson said. “I think we’re starting to find some bonds with the new 2027 team that is coming up next year so that was good and I really liked our bats today. I thought we were aggressive with hitting the ball hard and we swung at good pitches.”