BOURBON – A softball semi-state rematch highlighted a night of sports action at Triton High School. The Triton softball team hosted defending Class 1-A state champion North Miami and arguably the state’s best player in pitcher Josie Wood. The Warriors once again proved to be too much for the Lady Trojans as they claimed a 4-0 victory.

“We just played really well tonight. We had great communication on defense,” stated North Miami head coach Rob Cooley. “It’s nice to be able to come here and get a win. I know a lot of girls on Triton from travel ball. It gives you some momentum to come out and play well against a good team, it’s a team we could definitely see again.”

Cooley’s team did remain solid on defense and that started in the circle with Wood’s dominant pitching performance.

Wood, an Indiana University commit, recorded a season-high 19 strikeouts and just two hits on her way to her eighth victory of the year (8-1). Triton’s Nicole Sechrist recorded the first hit of the day for the Lady Trojans by tagging a double off the fence. Courtney Jennings had the other hit for Triton. There were only three other base runners for the home team in the game.

Kayla Kreft throws a runner out at first in the seventh inning of Tuesday’s loss to North Miami. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

“That was obviously the best pitcher we’ve faced,” began Triton head coach Steve McBride. “You have to play pretty close to perfect against a team, and pitcher, like that. Outside of that one inning, we pretty well did that.”

No. 1 ranked North Miami took advantage of a walk and two Triton errors in the top of the second inning to score the game’s only four runs. That one bad inning by the Lady Trojans truly was the only poor stretch they had all game, especially on defense.

Starting pitcher Brycelyn Garbison was in the zone for Triton Monday night. The senior was able to keep a powerful North Miami lineup at bay with her off-speed approach. The performance by Garbison garnered praise from her head coach.

“I thought Garbison pitched a heck of a game tonight,” McBride remarked. “She was marvelous out there. She had them guessing at times and just did a really nice job.”

Moving forward, McBride expects to see more of this solid play from his team in hopes of seeing another deep postseason run.

“We’re getting real good at having games with just one bad inning,” McBride joked. “We’ve done well against quality teams, we’ve been close. We just need to clean a few things up.

“North Miami is a good team. We did some things that we needed to tonight to play with them. Hopefully we can get another chance against them.”

Triton (5-5) will get back to work in the Northern States Conference with a game at Jimtown Wednesday night. North Miami (11-1) will host Tippecanoe Valley on Wednesday.