SANDWICH – Newark junior softball standouts Kodi Rizzo and Ryan Williams enjoyed a pair of excellent performances against local nonconference rival Sandwich on Tuesday afternoon.

Rizzo (7-0) was her dominant best, allowing only four hits, striking out 14 and yielding two walks. Williams proved proficient at the plate, racking up three hits with two doubles and three runs batted in as the Class 1A No. 2-ranked Norsemen (26-1) earned their 11th straight victory with a 10-0 triumph against the Indians.

“I’ve played with the majority of the Sandwich girls at times in my softball career, so I know them pretty well,” Rizzo said. “I just wanted to go out there today and make sure I got the job done by locating my pitches, executing our game plan, and overall I was very happy with the way things went after a nice win.”

Williams concurred with her classmate.

“I’ve been working on my swing every single day making sure I stay through it, trying to work mechanically better, and today was a good day for me and for all of us,” Williams said. “We slowly but surely got the runs we needed to keep our momentum going before the playoffs start next week.”

Newark also received three hits from junior Danica Peshia, who produced some great defensive catches in center field. Senior Kaitlyn Schofield added a pair of booming doubles and two RBIs as the Norsemen inched away inning by inning.

“Kodi [Rizzo] was definitely on today with her pitching, and the girls hit the ball well with 16 hits against a tough Sandwich team that never gave up,” Newark coach Tim Schofield said. “Danica made some great plays in the outfield defensively, but we couldn’t put them away until the last inning.

“We did what we needed to do, and it was definitely a good win for us even though it took some time and a full game to get it done.”

The only Sandwich player who could solve Rizzo was senior Breanna Sexton, who ripped three solid hits, including a double. Junior Johanna Freemon added the Indians’ other hit. The Indians committed five errors.

“[Rizzo] was lights-out pitching, and her changeup was dirty, and we couldn’t adjust to it even though we tried to prepare hard for what we knew was coming,” Sandwich coach Mattie McGuire said. “We made too many mistakes defensively against a state-ranked team like Newark, and inning by inning their great hitting allowed them to pull away even though we hung in there until the end.”

The Norsemen went up 1-0 in the top of the first inning after an RBI single by Peshia against Sandwich starting sophomore pitcher Aubrey Cyr (4 IP, 5 R, 3 ER, 8 H, 6 K, 2 BB), who suffered the loss. Newark would tack on two more in the top of the third with Williams’ first RBI double.

Senior Peyton Wohead then plated two more of Newark’s three runs in the top of the fifth off Sandwich relief pitcher Hailey Hoffman with a two-run double that gave the visitors a 6-0 advantage. Williams belted her second double of the ballgame, driving in two more runs in the visitors’ half of the sixth to put the Norsemen ahead 8-0.

All that was left was for Kaitlyn Schofield to slam a two-run double about 230 feet that caromed high off the extended Sandwich fence in left and made the score 10-0 before Rizzo retired the Indians in order with two more strikeouts.

“This field is much bigger than we normally play on,” Kaitlyn Schofield said. “I hit it well and just missed a long home run, but it got us more runs before Kodi (Rizzo) closed it out for us.”