By Jim Henry

jhenry@morningsun.net

St. Thomas Aquinas worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the final inning and edged Pittsburg 4-2 Tuesday night in a Class 5A softball quarterfinal game in Baldwin City, Kan.

The fourth-seeded Saints (24-3) took a 3-0 lead in the third inning. A walk and singles by Sage Glodowski and Gabriella Bachkora loaded the bases with nobody out. Clara Pinkham’s sacrifice fly scored one run and advanced the other two runners one base, ad Addison Sabers followed with a two-run single to center.

Purple Dragons pitcher Breck Slaughter got out of the inning by getting Lauren Huenfeld to hit a ground ball that shortstop Laney Trisler turned into a double play.

Pittsburg (22-5) tallied two runs in the sixth.

Kenleigh Warford was hit by a pitch with one out, and Peyton Morey singled to center. Trisler’s sacrifice bunt advanced both runners, and Brilee Mantooth singled to center to score Warford. Mantooth then stole second, and Morey came home on an errant throw.

Peylan Ellsworth’s two-out, RBI double in the bottom of the inning increased the lead to 4-2, but the Dragons didn’t go quietly in the seventh.

Brecken Campbell singled with two outs, and Brette Pasteur walked on a 3-2 pitch to end the night for Saints starter Alayna Vaeth. Reliever Huenfeld walked Slaughter on four pitches to fill the bases, but Huenfeld retired the next batter on an infield popup.

The Dragons also left the bases loaded in the fourth. Walks to Slaughter and Morey sandwiched around a Warford double to left field filled the bases with one out, but Vaeth retired the next two batters on popups to shortstop Pinkham.

Warford’s double and singles by Morey, Mantooth and Campbell accounted for the Dragons’ four hits.
Slaughter allowed six hits in six innings, struck out two batters and walked three. She thew 95 pitches, 63 for strikes.

Vaeth fanned two and walked six in 6 2/3 innings.

The Saints face top-seeded Great Bend (26-1) in a semifinal game at 1 p.m. Thursday at Wichita State’s Wilkins Stadium. The other semifinal has No. 2 Basehor-Linwood (26-2) vs. No. 3 Wichita Bishop Carroll (26-3).

Pittsburg 000 002 0 – 2 4 1

ST Aquinas 003 001 x – 4 6 1

Breck Slaughter and Peyton Morey; Alayna Vaeth, Lauren Huenfeld (7) and Brooke Harris. 2B—PHS: Kenleigh Warford; STA: Peyton Ellsworth.