No. 2 Silver Hawks stop Patriots

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By LORI GRIFFIN / Lincoln Journal Star

Amazing.

One word summed up Southwest senior Ashley Janssen’s feelings about the second-ranked Silver Hawks’ second district championship in six years.

Southwest (30-6) earned the District A-2 title with a 3-0 win against No. 7 Millard South on Friday at the Doris Bair Complex.

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Lincoln Southwest's Becca Changstrom pitches against Millard South in the A-2 District championship on Friday, Oct. 10, 2008. (Gwyneth Roberts)

Lincoln Southwest's Becca Changstrom pitches against Millard South in the A-2 District championship on Friday, Oct. 10, 2008. (Gwyneth Roberts)

The Silver Hawks, the state runners-up in 2007, won their last district championship in 2003. Southwest advanced to state last year via a wild card.

“It’s amazing. We lost some of our strongest players last year and we’ve bonded this year and accomplished so much,” Janssen said. “I never thought this would happen with so many new starters.

“I didn’t really feel any pressure (to return to state). We lost some big hitters and some of  my best friends, but the nonstarters from last year have been playing really hard this year and we’ve all been having fun doing it.”

Southwest junior pitcher Becca Changstrom recorded 17 strikeouts, including the first nine batters. She gave up just three hits.

The Silver Hawks took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Changstrom tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Alex Schmidt.

Southwest added its other two runs in the third. With one out, Changstrom singled. Schmidt singled and advanced to second on an error. Changstrom scored after Janssen singled. Schmidt came home on an error.

“Millard South is a quality team and they beat us last weekend (in the Millard South tournament),” Southwest coach Mark Watt said. “We knew that it was going to be tough. Becca was throwing with a little extra zip tonight. She was really on in the middle of the game.”

Liz Dike, Monica Knabe, Janssen and Changstrom each finished with two hits for Southwest.

“When the bottom of the order is hitting (Dike and Knabe), you know you’ve got something going on,” Watt said. “And we did tonight.”

Reach Lori Griffin at 473-7174 or lgriffin@journalstar.com.