WELLSTON — With the potential winning run on first base in the bottom of the seventh inning, Southern Lady Tornadoes’ pitcher Jaylyn Hupp knew she had to be careful. Hupp was facing Symmes Valley junior slugger Marley Ferguson, a Valparaiso commit who had 10 home runs on the season. As it turned out, she wasn’t careful enough. Following a leadoff single by Maci Bland, Ferguson connected with the first pitch and drove it deep over the center field fence to give Symmes Valley a

WELLSTON — Not even a 70-minute rain delay could ruin the Symmes Valley Lady Vikings’ appetite. Behind the one-hit pitching of Brenna Tibbs and the home run power of Maci Bland and Marley Ferguson, the Lady Vikings rolled past the Green Lady Bobcats 16-0 in a run rule win in the Division 7 district semifinals on Tuesday. “The group of girls has a lot of experience and they are hungry,” said Lady Vikings’ coach Jeff “Odie” Estep. “This bunch of kids gets up for the occasion no

AID — Holland the country is known for windmills. Holland — the Symmes Valley pitcher is —know for fighting opposing batters. Gradee Holland battled opposing batters like Don Quixote battled the windmills as the Vikings beat the Chesapeake Panthers 6-4 on Friday. Holland scattered 10 hits, struck out 8 and walked just 2 as the Vikings built a 6-1 lead and held on for the win. Chesapeake (11-15) took a 1-0 lead to start the game when Kaden Perkins reached on an error, stole se

AID — The Fairland Dragons pushed across a run in the 8th inning to edge the Symmes Valley Vikings 2-1 on Tuesday. The game was a pitching duel between the Dragons’ Josh Gillespie and Nolan Fleming and the Vikings’ Tanner Corn and Gradee Holland. Fleming went the final 2 innings to get the win as he gave up one hit. Gillespie went the first 6 innings and allowed 3 hits, one earned run with 11 strikeouts and 3 walks. Corn went 7 innings striking out 12, walked 2 and he gave u

AID — If this was a tune-up for the postseason tournament, the Symmes Valley Lady Vikings are starting to click. Brenna Tibbs pitched a 2-hitter and the Lady Vikings beat the Lawrence County Lady Bulldogs 4-2 on Tuesday. “Lawrence County is one of the top teams in Eastern Kentucky, so that was a good win,” said Lady Vikings’ coach Jeff “Odie” Estep. “Brenna pitched a great game, we got clutch hitting and we had two errors but for the most part we played good defense.” Tibbs s

AID — The pitchers were in the spotlight, but Marley Ferguson was in the starring role. Ferguson was instrumental in both runs as the Symmes Valley Vikings edged the South Point Lady Pointers 2-1 on Monday. Ferguson was 2-for-3 including a home run and scored both runs as Symmes Valley improved to 22-3. The Lady Vikings’ Brenna Tibbs pitched a 5-hitter and struck out 13 batters while walking only one. South Point’s Kota Copley gave up just 3 hits as she struck out 6 and walke

PORTSMOUTH — One big inning proved to be big for the Symmes Valley Lady Vikings. The Lady Vikings used an 11-run second inning to fuel a 17-7 run rule win over the Portsmouth Lady Trojans in a recent non-league game. The Lady Vikings took a 3-0 lead in the first inning as Brenna TIbbs singled, Maci Bland doubled her home, and Marley Ferguson followed with a two-run home run. Natalie Simpson began the big second inning with a walk, Lydia Saunders singled, a wild pitch moved th

Postgame interview with Saint Joseph's Blake Medinger, Carson Willis and Evan Aldridge. The three talk about the team rebounding from a tough loss to Green on Friday, the offense dominating all afternoon and looking ahead to tournament play. AID — A huge 5-run outburst in the first inning helped the Saint Joseph Flyers ride the wave of momentum and beat the Symmes Valley Vikings 9-6 on Saturday. “Barrett did a phenomenal job throwing strikes and his defense backed him up,” sa

AID — The Symmes Valley got key contributions from both Andy Strow and Tanner Thompson to help beat the Southern Tornadoes 6-3 on Saturday afternoon. Strow delivered from the mound with a 5-hit performance in seven innings of work and went 2-for-2 with an RBI at the plate. Thompson came up big with a double and a pair of RBIs to help with the win. Other Vikings that contributed offensively were Tanner Corn who went 2-3 with an RBI, Carson Brammer went 1-3 and an RBI. Mason Ca

BEAVER — Give the Symmes Valley Lady Vikings a challenge and see how they respond. After Friday’s game, it looks like they responded quite well. In a game where Symmes Valley slugged 4 home runs, the Lady Vikings came from behind in the seventh inning to beat the upset-minded Eastern Lady Eagles 8-5 in a Southern Ohio Conference 2 game. “There’s no quit in these girls. They are resilient and don’t want to lose,” said Lady Vikings’ coach Jeff “Odie” Estep. “We hurt ourselves g

CROWN CITY — Wilson Phillips sang “Hold on for one more day.” The Symmes Valley Vikings had to hold on for one more inning. The Vikings survived a big seventh inning rally to edge the South Gallia Rebels 9-7 in a Southern Ohio Conference-2 game on Thursday. The Vikings (6-7, 6-1) scored twice in the top of the seventh to take a comfortable 9-2 lead. But the Rebels (4-8, 3-6) rallied in the bottom of the inning for 5 runs with the aid of some Symmes Valley errors. Gradee Holla

BEAVER — Tanner Corn had nothing to give the Eastern Eagles and that’s exactly what they got from him. Nothing. Corn did not give the Eagles a hit as he turned in a dominating performance by throwing a no-hitter in the Symmes Valley Vikings 7-0 win over the Eagles in a Southern Ohio Conference-2 game on Friday. Corn struck out 12 and did not issue a walk to earn his masterpiece. The only blemishes on the day were three Viking errors. Symmes Valley is now 9-8 on the season and

AID — Brenna Tibbs threw a one-hitter and hit a home run. And yet, it was still somewhat of a Bland performance. While Tibbs was doing her part, Maci Bland went 3-for-5 with a double, a home run and drove in five runs as the Symmes Valley Lady Vikings blanked the Ashland Kittens 10-0 in a five-inning run rule game on Thursday. Tibbs struck out 10 and walked one in getting the win. She threw 48 strikes among her 73 pitches. “That was a great win for us,” said Lady Vikings’ coa

AID — And the race is on. The Northwest Mohawks used an 8-run seventh inning to beat the Symmes Valley Vikings 11-2 on Monday and throw the Southern Ohio Conference race into a near deadlock. Northwest improved to 11-3 on the season and took a half-game lead in the SOC race at 6-1. Symmes Valley is now 5-6 overall and 5-1 in the SOC. Symmes Valley won the earlier meeting between the two teams 2-1 in 8 innings. Chase Kingrey pitched a 5-hitter for the win as he struck out 12 a

AID — Go ahead and make up another Southern Ohio Conference championship banner. The Symmes Valley Lady Vikings rolled past the Northwest Lady Mohawks 10-1 on Monday to clinch the conference softball title. The Lady Vikings are 17-2 overall and 8-0 with a three game lead and only two league games remaining. “One of our goals we set every year is to win the conference and we’ve accomplished that,” said Lady Vikings’ coach Jeff “Odie” Estep. “We want to keep playing well and ke

OAK HILL — The Symmes Valley Vikings are using a team effort to keep up their winning ways. Gradee Holland and Tanner Corn combined on a four-hitter and the offense banged out 13 hits as the Vikings beat the Oak Hill Oaks 9-3 in a Southern Ohio Conference 2 win on Friday. Holland went 4.2 innings for the win as he gave up 4 hits, 3 earned runs and had 6 strikeouts and just 2 walks. Tanner Corn finished and struck out 7 of the batters he faced. He also walked one. Andy Strow w

OAK HILL — Someone must have said this game was double or nothing. The Symmes Valley Lady Vikings knocked out 9 extra base hits including 7 doubles as they blanked the Oak Hill Lady Oaks 11-0 in a Southern Ohio Conference 2 game on Friday. Besides the Lady Vikings racking up the extra bases, Addy Hawk pitched 5 innings of two-hit ball with 10 strikeouts and one walk. Marley Ferguson was part of the double dipping but she also slammed a home run as she went 2-2 with 3 runs ba

AID — The Symmes Valley Vikings came into this week atop the Southern Ohio Conference Division 2 standings. After two games this week, the Vikings they’re still in first place. The Vikings left little doubt about their position with a 13-2 win over Beaver Eastern Eagles on Monday and they followed that with a 23-2 pounding of the South Gallia Rebels. The Vikings (4-5, 4-0) used the six-hit pitching of Gradee Holland and a 17-hit attack to beat Eastern. Holland struck out six,

AID — The Symmes Valley Lady Vikings came out swinging. The Lady Vikings had a big first inning and kept on scoring as they beat the South Gallia Lady Rebels 17-0 in a run rule Southern Ohio Conference 2 win on Wednesday. Symmes Valley (15-2, 6-0) wasted little time in determining the outcome with 9 runs in the bottom of the first inning. Kaycee Thompson and Marley Ferguson each had a 2-run double to highlight the uprising. The lead went to 13-0 in the second inning. Emily Ja

AID — The only thing missing from this pitchers’ duel was having Brenna Tibbs and Leah Rader start the game back-to-back and taking 45 paces to the pitching rubber. The Symmes Valley Lady Vikings relied on the one-hit pitching of Tibbs while the Eastern Lady Eagles rode Rader’s 3-hit pitching in a pivotal Southern Ohio Conference 2 game on Monday with the Lady Vikings getting a 1-0 win. Tibbs was dominant with 16 strikeouts and only one walk as she fashioned her one-hitter. R