CLAYTON — With sectional tournament victories over Wayne on Monday and Springboro on Wednesday, the Northmont fastpitch softball team advanced to district where the Lady Bolts will face longtime conference rival Centerville.

That game is scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday at Centerville.

Northmont jumped on Wayne early in the opening round of the Division I, Southwest IV sectional softball tournament Monday to take a 4-0 first inning lead.

When the dust settled the Lady Bolts walked away with a 9-0 victory powered in part by a pair of three-run home runs, one by Sam McGilton and another off the bat of Zoey Hodge. Hodge led Northmont by going 3-for-3 with three runs and three RBIs.

Wayne got a leadoff single by Neveah Benson, who reached second base on a sacrifice bunt by Anna Geaslen. After that, Northmont pitcher Jadyn Johnson got Kendal Mason to hit a flyout to center and then struck out Jayden Cochran.

Johnson gave up only three hits in seven innings with no walks and seven strikeouts.

The bottom of the first inning set the tone for the rest of the game. Emma Smith got on base with a one out walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Zoey Hodge singled to left and Sam McGilton hit a towering home run to center field to put Northmont up 3-0.

Johnson singled to right center with Jaiden O’Dell coming in as a courtesy runner. Lacie Knick laid down a sacrifice bunt to move O’Dell to second and Cardie McCormick drew a walk. Morgan Pendleton singled to right field to score O’Dell for a 4-0 lead.

Northmont added three runs in the bottom of the second. Sydney Strickland drew a walk, stole second and third and Smith got hit by a pitch. Hodge followed with a home run to right center that clanged off the scoreboard to increase the Lady Bolts advantage to 7-0.

The lead swelled to 9-0 in the bottom of the fourth. Smith drew a leadoff walk and scored on a double to left center by Hodge. Ava Oberer hit a line drive single to center to score Hodge.

“We had lots of hits and two home runs by Zoey and Sam, and we got everyone in except one player,” said Northmont coach Kris Mangen. “It was nice to have our JV players get a little bit of experience to see what it’s like. I thought the girls did really well.

“Defensively we had no errors and offensively we hit very well… hard hits,” Mangen added. “Zoey has been crushing the ball and Sam has been real consistent for us as well. It was nice to see some people that have been struggling to step up and hopefully get over the hump.”

Momentum from the victory carried over to the sectional final Wednesday when the Lady Bolts scored a 5-1 victory over Springboro. Northmont lost both regular season games to the Lady Panthers by scores of 3-2 and 5-0.

Wednesday’s game saw McGilton hit another home run to help power Northmont’s victory. McGilton went 2-for-2, scored twice and had two RBIs.

Strickland went 2-for-4 with a double and scored once. Johnson went 1-for-2 with a double. Smith went 1-for-4, scored a run and had one RBI. Knick went 1-for-2 and Hodge 1-for-4. Pendleton drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

Northmont jumped out to a 3-0 first inning lead, added a run in the fourth and one in the sixth. Springboro’s lone run came in the bottom of the sixth on a single by Bri Schul.

Hodge picked up the victory in the pitcher’s circle for Northmont. She scattered five hits and struck out two with no earned runs.

Addison Burdick pitched four innings for Springboro, gave up four hits, four runs (none earned) and struck out two. Katie Jonas pitched three innings, gave up four hits, one earned run with one walk and four strikeouts.

Reach Ron Nunnari at [email protected].