Fulton comes out fast in 1A regional title win over Putnam County

FULTON – With a large 2018 regional championship sign being looked at all year on their home field’s backstop, the Fulton Steamers wanted to add another to it Friday in the 1A regional final they hosted against Putnam County.

Kylie Smither and her fellow senior teammates waited four years to get that next sign – and regional plaque, too. Smither led her team with two RBIs in the first two innings as the Steamers cruised to a 10-1 win over the Panthers at Drives Park.

Fulton scored four runs each in the first and second innings with nine hits, setting the tone early to not just win another regional, but to get its second straight 20-win season.

“It’s been a while since we put a new sign up, so I think each and every one of us went into this game [saying], ‘We just want to hit so bad,’” Smither said. “Every single time we hit, we were so early because we were all so eager to hit the ball. It really meant a lot to do this on our home field.”

The Steamers (20-11) began the first with four straight hits. Kira Wilson singled to start things off then Zoe Kunau singled, but a pair of errant throws brought both around to score. Belle Curley and Haley Smither followed with singles and scored, Curley on a wild pitch and Haley Smither on a groundout by her sister Kylie Smither.

The Smither sisters and Curley each had RBIs in the second inning. The lone run for the Panthers (14-18) came in their half of the second when Myah Richardson singled in Kennedy Holocker.

“We said we wanted to jump on them as much as we could, and it showed,” Fulton coach Derek Germann said. “We knew we could bunt a little bit and could run a little bit, and we cleaned that up.”

After allowing the lone Panther run, Jessa Read had little trouble in the circle, having struck out seven and allowing only two hits for the rest of her complete game.

“Starting out on top was a big thing,” Read said. “Putting the runs up and backing up our fielding helped us stay on top the whole way through, and keeping up with good energy helped us.”

Fulton’s final two RBIs came on singles from Wrenn Coffey in the fourth and sixth innings. She was one of six Steamers with multi-hit games. Kunau had three.

“We played very well as a team and hit very well,” Coffey said. “There’s always room to improve, obviously, but I think we did very well. We worked really hard as a team to get here. It just feels so good to play together and play well and play one more game.”

Holocker took the loss for the Panthers, who will lose just one senior, Valeria Villagomez, to graduation. Despite coming up short for its first regional title since 2018, Panthers coach Adrianna Rolando was pleased with the way her team played this year and expects to do better next year with eight starters poised to return.

“Looking at our whole program of 10 and having one senior on the team, I think everyone out there was trying to do everything they could for her,” Rolando said. “Emotions overcame us. It’s been a great year. It’s been a lot for them to take in, but all you can hope for for them is that they come back strong after it.

“We grew a lot from where we started, and that’s all you can ask for.”

Fulton advances to play West Central at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the AlWood Sectional in Alpha.

“It’s an absolute blessing to this group of girls,” Germann said. “They work hard, they put in the time in the offseason, they’re fun to be around. They’re family. They bought in and understood their roles. This puts us on the map. We were a little short last year, but we’re going in the right direction because of what these kids do.”

Meanwhile, the Smither sisters have one more championship to shoot for this weekend representing the Steamers. They compete at the 1A state track and field meet Saturday at O’Brien Field in Charleston. Kylie Smither advanced to the finals in the shot put with a throw of 11.37 meters on Thursday. Haley Smither reached the finals in both the 4x100-meter (50.20 seconds) and 4x200 (1:46.20) relay teams. Read, as part of the 1,600 and 3,200 relays, didn’t advance from Thursday.

The two-sporters have racked up plenty of travel miles this week, but aim to add to their solid springs with more achievements.

“We’ve done a lot of traveling the past few days going back and forth,” Kylie said, “so it’s really meant a lot to be successful in both areas for sure.”