Disastrous 7th dooms Fairmont in district final
MASON — Palpable disappointment smothered the Fairmont softball players as they walked off the field Thursday, not knowing what to say to each other.
Words couldn’t describe the emotions.
The Firebirds led by nine runs after six innings, but allowed 10 in the top of the seventh and left two runners on base in the bottom half to lose 12-11 to Lakota East in a Division I district final at Mason High School.
The unimaginable 10-run inning cost the Firebirds what would have been their first district title since 2003 and fifth in program history. It deprived them of a record 20 victories. And, understandably, most of them cried.
When coach Amon Williams met with his team in right field after the game his message focused on the program’s best season in 21 years. Not the seventh inning.
“Just how proud I am of the girls and all the hard work they put in,” he said. “They’ve been working hard since October, and just super proud to even be here.”
The Firebirds were on the other side of heartbreak on Monday. They trailed topseeded Lebanon 3-0 in the seventh. But Hannah Perdue hit a 3-2 pitch with two outs for a three-run homer to force extra innings. Then back-to-back doubles and Hannah Raines’ two-run homer in the eighth sealed a 6-3 victory.
The Firebirds (19-9) picked up where they left off against Lebanon. They sent 10 batters to the plate in the first inning to take a 5-0 lead on a bases-loaded hit batter, an RBI single by Kinley Pigg and a three-run double by Emma Wright.
The Firebirds continued to add on. Raines singled in a run in the second. Carlee Netherton doubled home a run in the third an another scored on a dropped fly ball for an 8-1 lead. Madison Franz led off the fourth with her second home run of the season, and Perdue added an RBI single for a 10-1 lead.
Perdue, a sophomore shortstop, turned a double play by herself to get out of a sixth-inning jam. Then she hit a two-out homer, her 12th of the season, in the sixth for an 11-2 lead. The production is what Williams has come to expect from a team that set program records for home runs and runs scored.
“They came out swinging and hitting, and that’s what we’ve been doing all year long,” he said. “From freshman to senior, they’ve all hit the ball.”
Freshman Jaylin Turner kept East’s offense mostly in check through six innings and struck out six. But East (23-8) caught up to Turner in the seventh and began to pile up line-drive singles and doubles and runs and took advantage of two errors. When Yorie Schulte’s double drove in run No. 8, Turner was replaced by Franz.
“She got a little fatigued there at the end,” Williams said. “And we’ve got to make plays. A couple mistakes cost us.”
East kept hitting and working walks. Bases-loaded walks tied the score and put East ahead. Finally, a strikeout between the walks and a groundout after them ended the inning.
“They were just hitting it in the gaps,” Williams said. “They put pressure on the defense, and we have to finish, we have to finish strong all the way to the end. Kudos to Lakota East. They didn’t quit.”
Franz doubled to start the bottom of the seventh and Raines blooped a single to center that Franz wasn’t able to advance on. Then pitcher Kaleigh Crawford, who started, was chased from the mound, then re-entered, got consecutive strikeouts and a groundout to end the game.
Williams, in his fifth season, said his young team began to believe it could have a turning-point season when it began beating teams it wasn’t supposed to, especially a late April win over Centerville in extra innings. The entire infield and others return next season.
“Once we started upsetting teams during the season I knew we were special,” Williams said. “They started believing and it took us all the way through the tournament.”
In other Division I district finals:
Centerville 12 Western Brown 3: Ardyn Hopf doubled, tripled, was 4 for 5 and batted in seven runs to lead the Elks into the Division I regionals a year after falling in the district final.
The Elks (24-4) play in the region semifinals at 5 p.m. Wednesday against Mason at Mason.
The Elks poured it on late with three runs in the fourth and four each in the fifth and sixth innings. Natalie Carr and Chayse Adkins each had three hits for the Elks. Hayley Arnold pitched a complete game, allowed 11 hits and struck out seven.
Mason 5, Beavercreek 2: Mason’s Alisha Fox held Beavercreek to five hits, one earned run and struck out eight in a Division I district final to end the Beavers’ season at 20-5.
Jayden O’Neal and Annessa Stamper knocked in one run apiece for the Beavers.