JEFFERSON — Ashlyn Enke’s dominant regular season carried right over into the postseason.
Enke, a junior right-hander for the top-seeded Jefferson softball team, struck out 14 in a one-hitter as the Eagles beat ninth-seeded Evansville 6-0 in a Division 2 regional semifinal on Tuesday.
“We had an outstanding pitching performance from Ashlyn, who was spot on,” Jefferson softball coach Jeff Agnew said. “Ashlyn was keeping them handcuffed, mixing her pitches very well and controlling their batters. Our defense, when they did put it in play, played very well. It was a great defensive performance, which included Chloe Smith catching a great game.”
Enke struck out the side in the first and second innings, notching her first eight outs via punch out. Enke took a no-hit bid into the sixth inning, when her counterpart — Hailey Ross — doubled to left-center with two outs. Enke threw 84 pitches, 61 for strikes.
Hildie Dempsey led off the Jefferson first with a single, took second on Lily Fairfield’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Bre Mengel’s ground ball single to right. Enke dug in next and plated Mengel on a hard-hit ground ball double down the third-base line.
In the Eagles’ third, Fairfield singled with one away, stole second, reached third on a passed ball and scored via error. With two outs, Aeryn Messmann drove home Mengel on a single to right.
“We jumped on them offensively right away, which was key,” Agnew said. “Girls were really running the bases well, stole three bases and we moved the runners very well with bunts too.
“We did a good job of plating runs early in the game. Bre went for a ball way outside with two strikes in the first inning and slapped it to right to score a run. That was a really impressive display of going out there and putting the ball where they aren’t.”
Sixth-ranked Jefferson (21-6) tacked on two-out runs in the fourth (via error) and fifth (when Mengel scored on a wild pitch) for the final margin.
The Eagles host fourth-seeded Lakeside Lutheran, which beat fifth-seeded Whitewater 7-3, in Thursday’s regional final at 5 p.m.
“Lakeside coach Matt Doering and I have a good relationship and a long relationship of coaching against each other,” Agnew said. “Every team Matt has always improves throughout the season. We told the girls, this will be a better team than we faced on April 13 (in a 9-1 win) and we need to be ready to bring our best performance.”
JEFFERSON 6, EVANSVILLE 0
Evansville 000 000 0 — 0 1 1
Jefferson 202 110 x — 6 8 0
Leading hitters — E: Ross (2B); J: Mengel 2x3, Enke (2B).
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — E: Ross L; 6-8-6-5-0-2; J: Enke W; 7-1-0-0-1-14.
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