ARCANUM – The two best teams in the Western Ohio Athletic Conference battled it out for the league championship on Saturday and when the dust settled it was the Bradford Railroaders who came out on top with a 7-4 win over Arcanum.
The win is the 13th in a row for Bradford as it finishes the conference schedule with a perfect 11-0 record and improves to 19-5 overall. The primary focus now for the Lady Railroaders is advancing through the state tournament one game at a time with hopes of defending a state championship won a year ago.
Arcanum is a very solid program as evident by its 23-5 record and is extremely difficult to beat on its home field, but Bradford wasn’t phased at all by the challenge as the Lady Railroaders built a 7-0 lead with two runs in the first, one in the fourth, two in the sixth and two more in the top of the seventh.
In the process, pitcher Nylani Beireis and the Bradford defense was on their game as they limited a high-powered Arcanum team to just six hits and no runs until the Lady Trojans came to the plate in the bottom of the seventh. Arcanum managed to plate four runs in the inning, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the advantage Bradford built throughout the game.
Beireis picked up the win, while Izzy Hamilton recorded the save for Bradford.
Offensively, Bradford tallied 11 hits on the day with the big hit coming from Remi Harleman on a two-run home run. Both Abby Fike and Izzy Hamilton doubled in the contest, while Austy Miller, Nylani Beireis and Zoe Brewer connected on two hits each. Alani Canan and Rylee Canan also connected on base hits to assist in a complete team effort for Shon Schaffer’s squad.
With the conference championship in the books, Bradford looks to keep the momentum rolling against Ansonia next Tuesday in the sectional final.