By SCOTT NOVAK
Dowagiac Daily News

STEVENSVILLE – Top-ranked St. Joseph made short work of defending Division 2 state champion Niles Saturday morning.

The Bears defeated the Vikings 13-0 in the opening game of the district tournament being hosted by Lakeshore.

The second game between the No. 2-ranked Lancers and Edwardsburg was stopped after one inning due to heavy rains that pushed through the area about mid-day.

The game will be continued today at 3 p.m., with the championship game to follow.

After the first two innings were scoreless, St. Joseph broke the game open with four runs in the top of the third.

Alesya Schalk doubled home the first run, while Colby Wittman singled to drive in a pair to make it 3-0.

Courtney Caid singled to plate the fourth run of the inning.

After holding Niles to its only hit of the game in the bottom half of the inning, the Bears added two more runs in the fourth to increase their advantage to 6-0.

Both of those runs came off the bat of Katie Mavis, who homered to right-center field.

To make sure the game didn’t go any farther, St. Joseph (28-5) put seven on the scoreboard in the fifth inning.

Alex Wittman, Schalk, Jessica Fratzke and Caid all drove in runs, while two more scored on wild pitches.

Freshman Rachel Knapp tossed a one-hitter for the Bears, which included eight strikeouts and just one walk.

Knapp is now 8-2 on the year with an ERA of less than one run per game.

St. Joseph finished with 13 hits in the contest off of losing pitcher, freshman Brooke Wilson.

Mavis and Kaitlyn Burnett both had three hits, while Fratzke, Kaitlin Vukorpa and Caid all had two hits.

Niles had just one hit on the day, a single by Wilson. The only other Viking to reach base against Knapp also came in the third inning as Ashley Evans drew a lead-off walk.

Niles finishes the year at 11-21, but Vikings coach Gary Collins said that his team made strides over the course of the season.

“We were really young this year,” he said. “We played in a hellacious conference and we had a tough time competing this year. But we got better. I’m disappointed that we didn’t play better today. We had two bad innings and you can’t have bad innings against good teams.”

The Vikings avoided giving up runs in each of the first two innings by making some solid defensive plays after runners reached scoring position.

Collins was pleased with that, but with a lack off offense Niles was unable to build on its momentum.

“I give Trish Kretchman a lot of credit,” he said of the St. Joseph pitching coach. “She’s been a pitcher and she knows how to pitch and she’s got those girls throwing different balls. They just had us off balance. We knew what they were going to do, it’s just she had us off balance and that’s the game. That’s the whole game.”

Reflecting back on his first three seasons, Collins pointed out that 2010 was a rebuilding year.

“We had our big year last year and the year before,” he said. “Now we are rebuilding. You know my little freshman pitcher, when she gets some confidence in her change-up, she’s going to be okay. She got two strikes on a lot of batters and just couldn’t get the change-up across. She’s getting better.”

St. Joseph 004 27 – 13 15 0
Niles 000 00 – 0 1 2
Rachael Knapp (W) and Colby Wittman
Brooke Wilson (L) and Hannah Porterfield
2B: Alesya Schalk (SJ), Kaitlyn Burnett (SJ)
HR: Katie Mavis (SJ)
Varsity records: St. Joseph 28-5, Niles 11-12

Division 3 softball
BERRIEN SPRINGS – The Buchanan softball team won its fifth straight district championship Saturday afternoon at Berrien Springs High School with a 12-1 win over the host Shamrocks.

The Bucks (28-11) defeated Cassopolis 25-0 in three innings in the semifinals.

Buchanan scores 17 runs in the first inning and never looked back.

The Bucks finished with 16 hits, including doubles by Devinn Adams (2), Rachel Briggs and Alexis Lenox, who was also the winning pitcher.

Erin Glavin had a triple for Buchanan, which will face Bronson on Saturday in the regional semifinals.

Cassopolis, which was in the state Final Four two seasons ago, had just one hit and finishes the year at 2-24.

Buchanan (17)17 – 25 16 0
Cassopolis 000 – 0 1 1
Alexis Lenox (W) and Jayla Carrigan
Olivia Stewart (L) and Stephanie Vlasicak
Varsity records: Buchanan 28-11, Cassopolis 2-24