The Chillicothe Lady Hornets were the #1 seed looking to get revenge on Savannah in the Class 3 District 8 tournament championship game Monday Night after the Savages defeated Chillicothe in the district final 2-1 last season.
Down in Excelsior Springs, the Lady Hornets started strong with three straight strikeouts from Landry Marsh followed by a run in the bottom of the first to open the game with a 1-0 lead. The fireworks ensued from there, first it was Savannah’s Addisyn McCush crushing a ball into left field for a home run which put Savannah up 2-1 in the top of the 2nd. To answer Chillicothe’s pitcher and star player Landry Marsh belted a ball into the same vicinity, over the fence for a three run home run to restore the lead for Chillicothe at 4-2.
The Savages cut the deficit in half, scoring once in the third before taking the lead in the 4th on RBIs from McCush and Olivia Schaub. Chillicothe came right back in the bottom of the 4th with a two out rally jump started by a Hope Donoho double. Donoho then scored on a single into the outfield from Maicee Albrecht.
Tied at 5-5 entering the 5th, both pitchers put on an impressive perfomance, Brailyn Fox for Savannah and Chillicothe’s Landry Marsh each shut out the opposition for the next 4 innings. Still tied at 5 runs into extra innings, Savannah moved a runner into scoring position in the 9th put could not capitalize, then in the bottom of the 9th Marsh was walked and proceeded to steal 2nd. Albrecht bunted Marsh over to third, and with one out Hayden Hansen hit a ball deep into left field to bring Marsh home for the winning run.
Marsh was sensational all over the field, striking out 7 batters while pitching all nine innings for Chillicothe. She went 2/3 at the plate scoring 3 runs including the tide turning home run and the game winning score.
Chillicothe improves to 26-7 on the season and wins the district title for the third time in the last five years while exorcising the demons from last season against Savannah at this stage. Chillicothe will play in the state quarterfinal on Saturday.