Greene’s Payton Yahner and Rhea Malmquist high-five after Yahner scores the first run of the game in the 6-0 win over Tioga. (Photo by Morgan Golliver)

GREENE – After receiving a first round bye, the Greene Trojans softball team was prepared to face Tioga in the second round of the Section IV, Class C tournament.

The Trojans scored late and kept Tioga off the board with a 6-0 shutout victory to advance to the semi-finals.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning. Payton Yahner hit a ball to right field that went rolled past the fielder and stopped at third with a triple. Yahner was caught heading home in her first triple in the first inning. Yahner scored the first run of the game on a sacrifice out by Kenzie Button. The opposing pitcher didn’t know where to throw at first and Yahner was called safe at the plate after a try at home following the out.

Yahner continued to hold the Tigers on defense, which allowed Greene to get their bats going in the bottom of the sixth inning. Claire Flanagan lead the inning off and reached base off an error by the third baseman, which moved her to second. She scored on a bases-loaded RBI single by Rhea Malmquist. Abby Yahner drove in two runs in the next at-bat and scored on a wild pitch. Audra Doll also drove in run with a groundout.

Payton Yahner was strong on the mound as she only allowed three hits, two off the bat of a tough lead-off batter and one off a girl that kept fouling the ball off, and walked one batter for the only Tigers base runners of the day. She also found her rhythm with 16 strikeouts through seven innings to pick up the win. She even caught a line drive and made a play to first for fielding chances while Abby caught a ball at first and Rhea made a great catch in foul territory.

While Greene appreciated playing in front of their home crowd for this one, they, unfortunately, will be traveling to face top seeded Thomas A. Edison on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. The winner will advance to the sectional championship held in Horseheads on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Box Score:

Runs by Inning: R H E

Tioga:

0-0-0-0-0-0-0 0 3 2

Greene:

0-0-0-1-0-5-X 6 7 0