Summary by Bob Ashby:
If you noticed a glow in the western sky yesterday evening that was coming from a Home Run explosion at the Lakota West/Middletown-Madison high school softball game at Madison. There were six dingers hit in the game, five by West, as the Firebirds won the game 13-2 in seven innings.

The Firebirds were tuning up for a district championship tournament game against Springboro at Lakota East, at 1:15 PM Saturday. Both Madison and Lakota west found themselves with five day gaps between tournament games and due to early season rainouts were both under the season games allowed limit. It was on short notice that they took the opportunity to insert another regular season game onto the schedule as the best way to prepare for the upcoming tournament game. Nobody expected the type of game that would ensue however.

The first inning ended in an uneventful 0-0 tie. However, shortly after that the bombardment started sending small animals scurrying into the woods. Rodney Howard the Madison head coach said, “Our outfield fence is eight feet high and a uniform 202 feet from home plate. It was a weird night, I’ve never been involved in such a game.”

The main contributor to this home run onslaught was West senior Lauren Betz who went yard three times in four at bats. Betz also threw in a double just for good measure. She becomes the first Firebird to hit three homers in a single game.

Senior shortstop Allison Cummins hit her career 25th long ball establishing both Lakota West and Lakota school district records.

Junior Casey Bramble, a speedy junior outfielder, best known for her base stealing got into the spirit of the evening and engaged in an uncharacteristic leisurely trot around the bases during one of her at bats.

Coach Keith Castner stated,”Our coaching staff is very happy with the way our players have been hitting the ball this season. However, we need to keep hitting the ball in the upcoming tournament game against Springboro, It was just our night at the plate last night and it is great to see 5 home runs fly out of the there for Lakota West. I am very proud of our girls.”

All the players mentioned and several others who participated in this historic game are climbing the career top ten lists which are found on our westfirebirds.com Archives and Records tables and all our fans are encouraged to check them out.