Michelle Lyons, Carter Wachtel come up big in Triway's win over Loudonville

CRESTON — Michelle Lyons is one of the area’s fastest rising stars.

The Triway junior catcher has shown a penchant for delivering when the stakes are the highest and Tuesday proved to be a classic example. In a Div. III Norwayne District semifinal against Loudonville, it was Lyons toting the big stick and her pitcher Carter Wachtel was doing Carter Wachtel things.

It all added up for the Titans in a 7-1 win over Loudonville as they advanced to Thursday's district final, where they will play a familiar opponent in Manchester.

The Panthers split the season series with Triway, but due to a split with Tuslaw, finished second in the Principals Athletic Conference. The high stakes rubber match will take place at 5 p.m. at Norwayne High School.

“I have no words,” said Wachtel when talking about Lyons. “She comes up profusely with those big hits, all the time. She is just a clutch hitter, goes at it with a mindset to give it her all and she does that.”

Tuesday, with the game still hanging in the balance and Triway clinging to a 3-0 lead entering the fifth, it again became Lyons Time. Wachtel walked and gave way to courtesy runner Payton Snyder, who advanced to second on a Callie Robson groundout. Hanna Massaro made it runners at the corners with a bunt single before advancing to second on defensive indifference. Myah Lester then drew a full-count walk after Emma Flinner’s fly out to second to load up the bases and bring up Lyons.

“I just kind of think of nothing,” said Lyons. “I just tell myself that I can do it and just bat the ball, the most basic thing. It’s really just about trusting in me and trusting in my team that they will get me if I end up missing something, but overall, it’s just confidence.”

Lyons hit a soft fly just out of the reach of Redbird second baseman Alesha Felix that allowed Snyder and Massaro to score and extend the Titans lead to 5-0.

“It was a little nerve-racking,” said Lyons. “There was a hope that they would drop it, they did and, in the end, it created two more runs and that’s what we needed to secure our win.”

And on a night that Wachtel was dialed in from the onset, it proved to be the game. As the other half of this lethal battery, Wachtel was simply on fire in twirling the complete-game no hitter with a dozen strikeouts.

“She gets locked in and does what she does best,” said Lyons. “We let them help us as much as we could, and she threw a heck of a game.”

Wachtel started the game off with a pair of strikeouts in the first frame and ended the game with her last two strikeouts in the final frame. In between, she kept a scrappy Loudonville squad at bay with a mixture of pitches as she adjusted throughout the game.

“It was a great game. They are scrappy, a great team, we just had to come out and play our game and see where the chips fell,” said Wachtel. “I was just kind of relying on my pitches, knowing what works and going through their batting order the first time, we saw what kind of batters they were. Like do they swing at the first pitch, do they watch a few and then we can kind of branch off from there.”

Wachtel helped her own cause out in the first inning when she was hit by a pitch from Redbird hurler Natalee Buzzard. Snyder came on to run and scored on Emma Flinner’s sacrifice fly and in the second, Wachtel lined a two-run double to center field. She finished the day 2-for-2 with two doubles and three RBIs.

“I think that I am better than last year,” said Wachtel about her hitting prowess. “I am just seeing the ball really well right now. Obviously, I could fall into a slump, and I’ve been there before, but right now, I am just going up there with the mindset that I want to do anything to help my team. I know that if I don’t come through, someone else will, they got my back and I trust that.”

Her only blemish came in the sixth inning, when she misfired to first base to allow Kenzie Cutlip to score for Loudonville. That triggered a player's meeting inside the circle initiated by Lyons as the entire infield huddled up.

“We just talked about relaxing and not letting this snowball into something else,” said Lyons. “We just wanted to relax, say we got it and let’s get the next out. We made some jokes, relaxed again and then we got right back at it.”

That’s the mindset that proved lethal for Triway as it kicked off district play and saw Robson, Massaro and Lyons all finished with two hits apiece. It’s a mindset they want to continue.

“Every team is going to give us their A-game,” said Wachtel. “We can’t go into any game expecting something, we have to go into it literally with a bulldog mentality. They don't know us, we don’t know them, but we are going to give it our all, play our game and we won’t look at anybody differently.”

For the Redbirds, the third inning proved to be tough as Buzzard was hit by a pitch and was replaced by Lily Carr as the courtesy runner. Despite multiple attempts to move Carr over by bunts, it all proved fruitless as Wachtel ended the threat with three straight strikeouts.

“That was huge, because you have to try and scrape something together every inning, which is something they did early on until that blooper,” said Loudonville coach Serena Fenton. “Unfortunately, scraping things together with two outs with Carter inside the circle is really hard.”

The Redbirds were led on the day by Buzzard, who worked tough by scattering 11 hits in the complete-game effort. Offensively, they produced base runners in two innings as they struggled to mount anything on the attack.

“Going toe-to-toe with Carter is tough and I thought Natalee did a good job,” said Fenton. “I am not disappointed overall. Obviously, we didn’t give them our absolute best today, but we didn't roll over and die. Triway gave us their best today, Carter looked phenomenal like usual, and their defense played really well.”

With the page closing on the season, Fenton thanked her seniors.

“We are going to miss our seniors; they provided a lot to this team. We also have some good upcoming freshmen, so the future remains bright.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Softball: Triway beats Loudonville in district semis