Western

Western soccer team, with eight freshmen, has chance to close out I-8 title   By Mike Moore Staff Writer   Parma — It was a year ago the Western girls soccer team caught fire in the I-8 Conference soccer tournament and rode its hot streak to a championship game victory over Marshall.   But the Panthers placed third in the I-8 standings leading into that mini-postseason, and, as second-year coach Randi Greenslade put it, “I’m not sure when we last won a regular season conference title.”   Well, Greenslade and the Panthers have a chance to do just that over the next week or so.   And the fun begins Friday night against No. 7-ranked Lumen Christi at 6:30 p.m. at home.   “The main goal right now is to win the conference title,” Greenslade said. “We’re pretty set in doing what we do best. It’s gotten us to this point. We’re going to go out and play our game and see what happens.”   It’s worked all season for the Panthers, who as of Thursday afternoon, were 6-3-2 overall and 3-0-1 in the conference, alone in first place.   “We’re young but talented as a group,” Greenslade said. “Most…

Western softball team clicking on all facets, runs out to 17-2 start to the season   By Mike Moore Staff Writer   Parma — Tonya Bassett is being spoiled right now, and she knows it.   The Western softball coach has a pair of dominant pitchers, a defense holding its own, and an offense slugging roughly 12 runs every time out.   The result so far is a 17-2 overall record as of Sunday night, and a team taking aim at some lofty goals moving forward.   “We’re really building on last year,” Bassett said. The Panthers were 25-14 in 2015. “We have a lot of returning girls, and we’re playing exceptionally well right now.”   And, as is usually the case come spring time success, most of that winning starts with the efforts coming from the circle.   Taylor Nichols is half of a dominant duo of pitching for Panthers, and in her most recent effort this weekend, earned the win in a 3-1 decision against Quincy in which she struck out 18 batters and allowed one hit.   The lone hit prevented what could have been her fourth no-hitter of the season.   And then there’s junior Kortney…