Softball: Newman Catholic battles but falls to top seed Athens in D-5 regional final despite three hits from Keene.

The Newman Catholic softball team didn't go away easily in their WIAA Division 5 regional final at Athens on Thursday. The Cardinals got three hits and two RBI from Madison Keene and a pair of hits from Maddie Jankowski but came up short to the Bluejays 16-7. Athens advance to a sectional semifinal vs. Elcho on Tuesday of next week. 6th seeded Elcho surprised 2nd seeded Rib Lake 17-5 in their regional final.

In Thursday's game, Athens jumped out to a big early lead with 3 runs in the first inning and 5 more runs in the 2nd to lead 8-1. However, Newman came charging back with a 6 run top of the 3rd inning to pull within a run. Madison Keene hit a bases loaded single that drove in two runs with another run coming around on an error on the same play to make it 8-4. Addison France then singled home Keene with Lauren Thiel following with an RBI triple and it was 8-6. The final run of the inning scored on a Claire Bodenheimer ground out to pull Newman within 8-7 after 2 1/2 innings.

However, the high powered Athens offense continued to push across the runs as the Bluejays scored one in the 3rd, 4 more in the 4th and 3 in the 6th to pull away for the win. Brinley Kornack had three hits and 4 RBI while Autumn Diethelm and Jaelin Switlick each added three hits and three RBI for Athens.

Keene finished 3 for 4 with 2 RBI while France was 2 for 4 with 2 RBI and Jankowski also was 2 for 4.