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LENOX — Lenox hammered out a season-high 18 hits here Tuesday, rolling past Taylor County rival Bedford 13-3 in the opening round of Class 1A Region 7 play.
The Tigers advance to tonight’s Region 7 quarterfinal in Kimballton against Exira/EHK. That game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Exira/EHK beat Orient-Macksburg 16-0 in the first round on Monday.
Lenox hit the ball early and often against Bedford pitcher Rachel Armstrong.
The Tigers scored one run on two hits and an error in the first inning, before exploding for six runs on six hits in the second inning for a 7-0 lead.
The rally started with Jessica Anderson’s leadoff double, as Megan Brown followed with an RBI single.
A bases-loaded squeeze play resulted in the first out of the inning at the plate, and then Beth Christen drove in one run with a single. Aurora Arevalo then smoked a two-run single off the left field fence.
Shantelle Brown hit an RBI single and Emily Powell hit a sacrifice fly.
Lenox head coach Tom Shields said building the early lead was important for his team.
“We just played them towards the tail end of last week,” he said. “When you see an opponent that many times in a short period, I don’t know how it affected the girls, but coach and I were awful nervous about it anyway.”
Megan Brown started a rally in the third inning with a leadoff single and Bailey Schmitz reached on an error.
Katie Dukes then hammered a three-run home run, one of her five hits on the night, to dead center to put the Tigers up 10-0.
Dukes finished 5-for-5 with a pair of stolen bases and three RBI.
“Anytime she gets on base, the other team has got to worry about her,” Shields said. “That sets the table for us. That’s important.”
Needing just three outs in the bottom of the fifth inning to end the game by the 10-run mercy rule, Lenox couldn’t close things out.
Instead, Bedford rallied for a pair of runs, thanks to three straight hits to lead off the inning. Emily Weed hit an RBI single and Armstrong brought a run in with a bases-loaded walk.
“We took two or three innings off there without putting anything else up,” Shields said. “I don’t know if we just felt a little complacent, like, ‘Hey, we just beat them last week and now we’re up 10-0, we’re just going to coast here.’ But Bedford didn’t have any quit in them. You’ve got to admire that. They kept fighting.”
Lenox scored three more runs in the top of the seventh inning, as Christensen hit an RBI single to score Dukes and Arevalo smoked a two-run homer to center field.
“That was big to just kind of take the pressure off,” Shields said. “Beth kind of struggled in the middle to late innings. I think the closer that team stays, the more pressure you get. So it was nice to put some numbers on the board in the seventh.”
Christensen pitched the complete game for Lenox, giving up seven hits and two earned runs with three walks and two strikeouts. Three of Bedford’s hits came in the two-run fifth inning.
Fallyn Beemer recorded two hits for Bedford, finishing as the Bulldogs’ only multiple hitter.
For Lenox, Arevalo finished with three hits and four RBI. Christensen had two hits with two RBI, while Anderson recorded three hits and Megan Brown had two hits with one RBI.
Lenox, now 16-11 for the season, turns its attention to Exira/EHK, which improved to 21-10 for the season with Monday’s win over Orient-Macksburg.
“The last I’d seen on Quikstats, their record was like 16-9, in that area,” Shields said. “I’m guessing they’re a team that’s comparable to us. Playing in the Pride of Iowa Conference, that usually prepares you for anything you’re going to see. Our girls did a good job of fighting back in the past 10 days or so, ending up fourth in the POI. It’s one game at a time this time of the year.”
Lenox 13, Bedford 3
R H E
Lenox 163 000 3 — 13 18 3
Bedford 000 020 1 — 3 7 4
L: Beth Christensen 2K 3BB and Aurora Arevalo. B: Rachel Armstrong 1K 0BB and McKenna Russell. W — Christensen. L— Armstrong. HR — L: Katie Dukes 1, Aurora Arevalo 1. 3B — none. 2B — L: Jessica Anderson 1. B: Armstrong 1. RBI — L: Arevalo 4, Dukes 3, Christensen 2, Shantelle Brown 1, Megan Brown 1. B: Armstrong 2, Emily Weed 1. Multiple hitters — L: Dukes 5, Arevalo 3, Anderson 3, Christensen 2, Megan Brown 2. B: Fallyn Beemer 2.