Student defeats teacher on the softball diamond

NEW LONDON - When Danville head coach Ben Fry was in high school, he played baseball for Coach Mark Chiri. Fast forward to Monday night, and Fry found himself back in New London, but wearing Danville Blue and sitting opposite Chiri for a SEISC South Division softball game.

Fry's Bears scored a comeback win over Chiri's Tigers, 7-4, to earn a season split.

'Mr. Chiri was one of the best coaches I ever had growing up,” Fry said after the game. 'He gave me so much knowledge about the game, and I can't thank him enough for that.”

After a Danville run in the top of the first, New London scored the next four. The Tigers put up two runs in the bottom of the first on a two-RBI single by Alexa Wenger. Layney Loyd smashed a solo homer in the bottom of the third, and Chloe Heitmeier brought home another in the third with a single.

'You could see the energy deflate when Layney Loyd hit that homer,” said Coach Fry. 'It just took a little bit of them out there on the field, and the dugout, to pick them up a little bit.”

Danville came back with five runs in the top of the fifth to steal the lead 6-4, and held onto momentum throughout the rest of the contest, adding one in the seventh to go up by three.

'We're still making too many fundamental mistakes,” said head coach Mark Chiri. 'The last three runs they got were uneared. We just either made bad throws or couldn't catch the ball.”

Loyd had another big day, going 3-4 with a home run and an RBI. Wenger finished 1-3 with two RBIs. Heitmeier was 1-2 with an RBI.

In the circle, Heitmeier gave up seven runs over seven innings, but just one of them was earned. She struck out four batters in the loss.

Danville's top five batters in the lineup each had one RBI in the win. Sarah Cross, Makenzie Morris, Alyssa Pfadenhauer, Haiden Molter and Kelsey Jackson each knocked in a run for the balanced Bears offense.

The Bears moved to 4-7 with the win. New London, who has had a rough go of it after starting the year 7-3, is now 7-10. But while the Tigers try and turn their season around, Coach Chiri knows he won't be getting any trash talk from his South Division rival.

'It's fun, but you don't want to lose to the person you coached yourself,” Chiri said about Fry. 'But on the other hand, he's a good guy, and he's a gracious winner and gracious loser, so I don't have to worry about getting any eggs or tomatoes on my house.”

New London and Danville both play on Wednesday June 19. The Tigers head to Mt. Pleasant for a doubleheader, and Danville will host Wapello.