Columbia Central celebrates with the MHSAA district trophy. Photo by Bart Hawley, JTV Sports.
David Rice & Trey Richmond | JTV Sports
Friday May 30th
(5-30-2025, 9:30PM): Columbia Central’s bats showed up late to take down Clinton for the softball district title in Napoleon late Saturday afternoon.
Clinton started off the scoring early as Annabell Preston hit a double, stole 3rd, then made it home to score on a pop out in the bottom of the 1st. That gave the Redwolves a 1-0 lead that held until the 4th inning which ignited the Golden Eagles offense.
Top of the 4th inning, Hailey Wetherby for CC hit a line drive to right field for a single. Leelyn Brown followed suit with a single of her own. Wetherby scored on a fly out to knot up the game at 1.
At the top of the 5th Columbia Central’s offense pushed on as they put 5 more runs on the board. The inning started with singles by McKenna Hoskins, Kelsey Fausz, and then Gianna Evans getting a single of her own and an RBI getting Hoskins home to take the lead 2-1. Wetherby stepped back up to the plate and continued to give the Golden eagles more momentum hitting a 2-RBI double. Regardless of the change, CC continued their monstrous inning as Brown hit a 2-RBI double making it a 5 run lead, 6-1.
Clinton gets on the board again at the bottom of the 5th, as #4 hits a ball deep left field for a double tallying an RBI to end scoring for the day. The Golden Eagles took home the district title over Clinton with a final score of 6-2.
Hailey Wetherby pitched the entirety of the game for CCHS, only giving up 2 runs while racking up 10 strikeouts. At the plate she had 2 hits including a 2-RBI double and scored twice as a runner. Leelyn Brown and Gianna Evans each added two hits.
“We came in here knowing this is what we work all season for, we went out and gave 110%. The bats were hot and the girls had the energy” said Columbia Central coach Kylee Cochrane. “We’ve been focusing on deep breathing and mental focus with the game over the last few weeks,” said CC pitcher Hailey Wetherby. “It was a big win for us and we definitely deserved it”.
