By James Costello Sports Writer
BOURBON — The last time the two teams met at Bremen, the Lady Lions took a 2-1 victory over the Lady Trojans. On Monday, Triton came back from a 3-0 deficit with six runs in the third inning and another two in the fourth for a 8-6 home win over visiting Bremen.
The Trojans improve to 9-8 and 6-3 in the Northern State Conference with the  win, while Bremen slides out of an outright first place position in the NSC, falling to 11-4, 8-2 NSC with the loss at Triton.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for their whole program,” said Triton softball head coach Steve McBride of his team’s opponents Monday. “Jenni Andrews has pitched against us for four years. Right now we just want to be the best we can in the conference. Was it vindication? No, but Bremen was number one in the conference, so it was an important game for us, like all our conference games.”
Bremen took a 3-0 lead off three hits in the second inning after going down in order in the opening frame Monday.
Center fielder Amanda LaFree reached on a base on balls and Nicole Seitz — who was 3 of 4 at the plate Monday — moved her up with a single into right. LaFree stole third and Seitz moved to second to put them both in position to score on a two-RBI single by Courtney Bahr, who scored on a fielding error that allowed third baseman Casey Hueni to reach, and Renee Zeltwanger to advance to second after her own single into left. Both Hueni and Zeltwanger were left on as Andrews grounded into Triton pitcher Bethany Kern for the third out of the side.
It was Triton’s turn to go three up and down in the bottom of the second inning, but the heart of Bremen’s order also went down 1-2-3 in the top of the third, setting the stage for the Trojans’ big third inning.
Eight-hole Triton batter and first baseman Beth Holderman got the Trojans started with a single and leadoff hitter Jessica Ganshorn singled on a line to left and a passed ball allowed both to advance before Andrews walked Triton short stop Jessica Calvert to load the bases. Another passed ball allowed Holderman to score and an error at second scored another run on the following at bat, and freshman catcher Katie Claxon drove home another run with an RBI single en route to three RBIs for the day. Claxon scored off a Lacey George double to right, and she was brought home on a single by Triton designated hitter Krystal Lyons.
Before the frame closed out, Triton had pushed across four unearned runs for a total of six off five hits, a walk and three Bremen errors.
“A couple errors got it started,” said Bremen head coach Chris English of the inning. “We just didn’t sustain our focus defensively. This team can play really well, but once we stop concentrating, lose focus, bad things happen.”
“I thought we hit the ball well; we just kind of strung it together,” said McBride. “We had some big hits that inning.”
Bremen answered with two singles by Seitz and Zeltwanger in the following frame, but both were left stranded. Seitz advanced to third, but Zeltwanger was gunned down trying to steal second for the frame’s final out.
“They got a break on that, I thought,” English said of the play. “I thought she was safe, she slid in behind the tag. So it was a bad break for us, but give Triton the credit.”
Triton added two more runs to its cushion in the fourth with three hits as Ganshorn and Megan Dean reached on singles, and Claxon drove them both in with a two-out triple.
“Katie (Claxon) is a freshman catcher for us and she bats clean up,” McBride said. “She came through with some big hits for us this year, and she’s been a big help. She gives us a solid player behind the plate both defensively and offensively.”
Bremen tried to rally back with three runs in the sixth. Andrews singled on a slap to third, beating out the throw, and she was scored on a triple to right by Frain that dribbled past George. Frain scored on an overthrow by Kern to first on a LaFrain connect, and LaFrain scored on an RBI single from Seitz. Rachel Jensen fouled out to Holderman — the Lions’ sixth foul-out of the game — and wound up two runs short.
“Triton just made all the good defensive plays today and got us stopped,” said English. “We didn’t get it done defensively. Give Triton the credit for coming at us.”
“It was a sweet victory,” said Kaufman. “It’s nice to know they won’t beat us twice. We’ve beaten a lot of good teams in the conference this year. It brings our confidence up.”
• TRITON 8,
  BREMEN 6
At Bourbon
B: 0 3 0   0 0 0       3  —  6  10  4
T: 0 0 6   2 0 0       x  —  8   11  2
Jenni Andrews (L) and Jenny Fraine; Bethany Kern (W) and Katie Claxon.
2B: Lacey George (T),  Miranda Kaufman (T).
3B: Fraine (B), Claxon (T).
Records: Bremen 11-4, (8-2 NSC); Triton 9-8, (6-3 NSC).