BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Kinley Carlton gave the Keystone Heights High School softball team the lead for good with a two-run single in the third inning as the Indians defeated visiting University Christian 6-3 to conclude the regular season on April 29.
The Indians (15-9) now enter the District 3-3A tournament as the top seed. They’ll host either fourth-seed Interlachen or fifth-seed P.K. Yonge in a semifinal game on Tuesday, May 3, at 7 p.m.
Keystone fell behind 2-0 to University Christian, with the visitors hitting two doubles in the top of the first. The Indians came right back and evened the score in the bottom of the inning. Alaina Kinsal and Kiley Channell hit back-to-back one-out singles. Kinsal, who stole second, scored on Channell’s hit. Channell would steal second as well and come around to score when an error was committed on a fly ball hit by Abbie Roach.
University took advantage of a double and an error with two outs to score a run in the top of the third.
In the bottom of the third, Channell reached on an error with two outs. After Roach was hit by a pitch, pitcher Madi Mitzel helped her own cause with a single that scored Channell and tied the score at 3-3. Carlton would then single to score Roach and courtesy runner Amberlea Wagner as Keystone took a 5-3 lead.
Mitzel pitched a complete game, giving up five hits and one walk. She struck out six.
The Indians added the final run in the sixth when Wagner (running for Mitzel, who doubled) scored on a ball put into play by Delia Johnson.
Mitzel finished as the team’s only multi-hit batter, going 2 for 3.
Keystone entered the game off a 3-2 loss at Baker County on April 26. The Wildcats hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning that proved to be the difference.
Mitzel hit a two-run single that put the Indians up 2-0 in the top of the first, while Channell and Kinsal went 3 for 4 and 2 for 3, respectively.
