It was a perfect evening for softball at the Wayne Sports Complex, in more ways than one.
On a pleasant, sunny fall evening Monday, Wayne High softball coach Rob Sweetland won his 500th game as the team's coach, doing so with a perfect outcome as senior Tori Kniesche threw a perfect game to help Wayne to a 3-0 win over Seward in the B-6 subdistrict tournament.
The win improves the Blue Devils to 27-3 on the season and puts them in Tuesday's 3:30 p.m. championship game in the double-elimination tournament against the survivor of the 2 p.m. losers game between the Bluejays and Blue River, and came with a number of former players, their families and Sweetland's family in attendance.
Wayne broke a scoreless tie in the fifth when Dorey tripled to right field and then came home on an errant throw to third base. The Blue Devils added two insurance runs in the sixth when Brooklyn Kruse walked and later scored on a passed ball, and Taytum Sweetland rolled an RBI single to left, scoring Aliah Schulz.
That was all Kniesche would need, as she mowed down all 21 Seward batters in order, all but one by strikeout, to move her season total to 369 strikeouts. She threw 90 pitches in the game, 66 of them for strikes.
The Blue Devils opened the tournament with an easy 12-0 win over Schuyler in a three-inning matchup that saw Kendall Dorey hit a two-run homer and Kniesche knock out three doubles to highlight a 12-hit attack. Brooklyn Kruse also had a double in the win. Dorey scored three times and Kniesche, Hope O'Reilly and Nicole Fertig both came home twice. Dorey tossed a three-inning no-hitter, striking out six.
The win improves Sweetland's career record to 500-96 in his 18 years as the Blue Devils' only head softball coach.
