Holt Can’t Solve Troy’s Pitching, Ends Season With Championship Game Loss In ‘District of Death’

TIMBERLAND HIGH SCHOOL – Sparked by an 11-game winning streak to start the season and another six straight wins at midseason, the earned themselves the No. 1 seed in what many believe was the toughest girls softball district in the entire state.

Led by the Holt High squad, the Class 4 District 8 pool featured three teams with at least 20 wins this year, and three other teams that had won at least 15 games.

Some were calling it “The District of Death.”

And unfortunately for the Indians, that death came swift Friday afternoon, as second-seeded Troy Buchanan High, led by the magnificent pitching of junior Elizabeth Weigand, ended Holt’s season with a 3-0 championship game loss.

“It just didn’t go our way today,” Holt head coach Joel Adam said. “We had some runners at third early in the game, and we just didn’t get them in. You can’t point the finger at one kid. This was the first time we were shutout all year.”

And the reason for that was Troy’s Weigand was flat-out fantastic, stranding runners at third both times Holt managed to advance a player that far, while allowing the Indians just two hits the entire game, and striking out six.

“You’ve got to tip your cap to her,” Adam said. “She pitched great. She really did. But we had our chances, we just didn’t take advantage.”

Holt managed to get a runner to third with less than two outs, in both the first and second innings, but both times Weigand pitched out of it.

In the first, Holt leadoff hitter Courtney Kitson walked, then advanced on a wild pitch and a infield out, but couldn’t get off third as teammates Lindsey Dawson and Alyssa Lilly struck out to end the inning.

Then in the second, Kaylee Brueggeman doubled to lead off the inning and advanced to third on a groundout.

But the Indians’ senior catcher stayed stuck right there as Troy third baseman Whitney Richardson snagged a smash off the bat of Holt’s Kaley Hansen, then tagged out Brueggeman before she could safely get back to the bag. 

“The whole day was like that,” Adam said. “I don’t want to say it was bad luck or anything like that. But we just didn’t have any of the breaks go our way.”

Holt junior Jordyn Piel got her team’s only other basehit, a two-out single in the fifth, but she and Hansen, who reached on a hit by pitch, were left on when Indians’ pitcher Amber Boehme struck out to end the inning.

Boehme, who was dominant in , was also pretty good on Friday.  

She allowed nine hits and four walks, but also struck out 12, pitched out of difficult jams in nearly every inning.

Unfortunately for the senior righthander and four-year varsity starter, she couldn’t solve Troy’s Morgan Oliver, who drove in all three Trojan runs, with a double in the first, and a long two-run homer (her sixth of the season) in the third.   

“We didn’t want to let (GAC South Player of the Year Emily Crane) beat us,” Adam said. “We wanted to make somebody else be the one to beat us, and today (Oliver) got the job done."

Holt finished the year with a 21-5 record, while Troy advances to the state sectionals on Wednesday, where it will face Fort Zumwalt South, which defeated Francis Howell on Friday, to win Class 4 District 7.

Scoring Summary

Score by Innings

R

H

E

Troy

1

0

2

0

0

0

0

3

6

1

Holt

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Troy 1st: Morgan Oliver double, Emily Crane scores – 1-0

Troy 3rd: Morgan Oliver two-run HR (6), Oliver scores, Savana Grover scores – 3-0

WP: Troy—Emily Weigand

LP: Holt—Amber Boehme