WILLARD — Jillian Morr and her Lexington teammates turned up the heat Tuesday afternoon.
Morr was 4-for-4 with a pair of hustle doubles and scored four runs as top-seeded Lady Lex cruised to a 7-1 win over No. 6 Ontario in the first game of a Division II district semifinal doubleheader.
Lexington’s senior leadoff hitter set the tone in the home half of the first. She bunted for a base hit, moved up on Quinn Patrick’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Kylie Galownia’s one-out double to center.
Galownia advanced to third on a Makaree Chapman groundout and scored on Kaylie Eichorn’s two-out double for a 2-0 lead.
“It’s always our emphasis, play fast and make (the opponent) make mistakes,” Lexington coach Todd Galownia said. “Jillian is a phenomenal base-runner.”
Ontario cut Lex’s lead to 2-1 in the top of the second. Morgan Pearson led off with a single and moved to second when the ball was misplayed in the Lexington outfield.
Autumn Taylor singled, putting runners at first and third with nobody out. Brylie Ireland drew a one-out walk to load the bases before Kennedy Weiler drove in Pearson with groundout to second.
Lexington (25-2) answered in the bottom of the second and Morr was again in the middle of things. She stroked a two-out single to left, stole second and came all the way around to score on Patrick’s infield single to second to give Lady Lex a 3-1 lead.
“I think it pumped everyone else up,” Morr said of her aggressive base-running. “It was like, ‘If we can score on that then we’ve got it.’ ”
Lexington pushed the lead to 4-1 in the third when Eichorn singled to lead off the frame and eventually scored on Madyson Taylor’s two-out single to center.
Lady Lex put it away with two more in the fourth. Morr again got things going with a lead-off double and moved to third on Patrick’s infield single. Kylie Galownia’s groundout plated Morr and Chapman, who reached on a fielder’s choice, eventually scored on Eichorn’s two-out single to left.
Lady Lex scored one final run in the sixth. Morr doubled, moved to third on Patrick’s bunt base hit and scored on Kylie Galownia’s groundout to first.
Patrick was 3-for-3 with a pair of stolen bases and one run batted in. Eichorn was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a double. Kylie Galownia had a pair of doubles and three RBIs.
Chapman went the distance for Lady Lex. The left-hander surrendered four hits while striking out seven and walking four.
“We knew coming into it they were going to hit the ball well, they were going to pitch well and they were going to run the bases well,” Ontario coach Jamee Burke said. “We knew coming in we were going to have to play our best game of the year.
“They played really hard today.”
Trista Jewell had a pair of base hits for the Warriors (12-13). Pearson and Autumn Taylor each had a hit, while Weiler drove in Ontario’s only run.
The Warriors will lose just four seniors to graduation.
“I had a phenomenal group of seniors. All four of them made my job easier,” Burke said. “Obviously we would have liked to go a little further this year … but we’re looking forward to next year.”