NTL SOFTBALL: HILEY TOSSES 2-HITTER; ATHENS BLANKS WILLIAMSON, 7-0 (24 PHOTOS) (2025-04-09)
Valley Sports ReportATHENS — Sophomore Gretchan Hiley was nearly unhittable, leading Athens to a 7-0 win over Williamson here Wednesday afternoon in NTL softball action.
Hiley tossed a two-hit shutout, striking out 15 and walking none in seven innings to earn the win.
"It was another high-quality start by Gretchan (Hiley),keeping the Williamson team at bay," said Athens coach Brian Wendela.
"She is just fierce, plays with lots of passion and I love watching her compete," noted Wendela. "When she did fall behind tonight in counts she battled back and won individual matchups with some big strikeouts.
"She also trusted her defense who made a lot of nice plays when needed," he added.
After a week off, Wendela was pleased with his team's performance.
"I'm proud of the girls and the effort tonight after not playing for a week and not getting much outside practice," he said. "Williamson is that team that you can’t sleep on and I’m happy with the energy and focus we had as a team tonight.
"Offensively, we left too many runners in scoring position, in my opinion, but we did have lots of quality at-bats throughout the lineup," noted Wendela. "It’s been a mix of top , middle and bottom of the line-up putting up runs thus far in the season and that’s a sign of a good softball team.
"At the moment, if we are failing at the plate we are competing and becoming tough outs and that’s nice to see," he added. "The girls are all really getting a good understanding of the little things and the situations."
Athens took a quick 1-0 lead in the home half of the first inning on a one-out triple by junior Maddie Hiley and an RBI single by sophomore McKenna Jarvis.
The Wildcats had a chance to open the game up in the third inning, but Williamson starter Kenna Thomas avoided serious damage.
After back-to-back line-drive singles by Gretchan Hiley and Maddie Hiley, Jarvis beat out a sacrifice bunt for a single to load the bases.
After a strikeout, senior Ella Coyle drove in a run with a groundout to make it 2-0, and Thomas induced the next batter to ground back to her in the pitcher's circle to end the inning.
Junior Savannah Finan led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a single, but pinch-runner Kendall Galasso was thrown out trying to steal moments later.
Junior Danica May followed with a single, and with two outs, Gretchan Hiley singled up the middle.
With runners on second and third, Maddie Hiley hit a hard grounder that was misplayed, allowing both runners to score to extend the lead to 4-0.
Athens tacked on a run in the fifth inning on an RBI single by Finan, and Coyle capped a two-run rally in the seventh with an RBI single to provide the final margin.
Jarvis singled three times, stole two bases, and scored one run to pace Athens' 11-hit attack, while Maddie Hiley tripled and singled, scored one run, and drove in one run, Gretchan Hiley singled twice, stole two bases, and scored three runs, and Finan singled twice and knocked in one run.
Coyle singled and drove in two runs in the win, while May singled and scored one run, and freshman Memphis Paul scored one run.
Athens, now 6-0, travels to NEB Thursday.
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IN PHOTO 1: Athens sophomore Gretchan Hiley. IN TOP PHOTO: Athens sophomore McKenna Jarvis. ... PHOTOS BY TIM BIRNEY.
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