Lady Pirates demolish Tinora Rams, 29-4, in regional semifinals
The Cardington-Lincoln Lady Pirates went into their Division 3 regional semifinal game against the Defiance Tinora Lady Rams with confidence, and that attitude paid off with a 29-4 destruction of their opponent May 24. C-L had 23 wins going in and was ranked second in the state in Division 3 polls; Tinora went into the game with 19 wins, tied for the most in its history,
Cardington took a 3-0 lead in the first, then put up 11 runs in the second and six in the third to go up 20-0. They capped it off with a nine-run fifth.
Outhitting Tinora 23-7, Cardington-Lincoln was led by Hailee Edgell with five hits in five at-bats, including two home runs, five runs scored and eight runs batted in. Dana Bertke went 4-for-5 with two doubles and three RBIs, and Genevieve Longsdorf was 3-for-3 with a homer and four RBIs. Ari Simpson collected four hits in six at-bats and drove in a pair of runs.
Cardington-Lincoln (24-4) will take on the Van Buren Black Knights (27-1) in the regional final on Saturday at Elida High School.
Late rally costs Lady Bulldogs in 7-5 loss to Lady Raiders
The East Knox Lady Bulldogs scored three runs in the sixth to take a 5-4 lead and were on their way toward advancing to the Division 4 regional final when the Russia Lady Raiders rallied for three runs in their last at-bat to take a 7-5 win May 24.
East Knox went on top 1-0 in the first. Maddy Cotsamire led off with a walk and with two out, Shanda Melick walked and Gracie Sheasby singled to load the bases. Hannah McCoy walked to force in the first run of the game. Russia took a 2-1 lead in the top of the third, and EK came right back with a run to tie on a one-out single by Natalie Smith and a two-out single by Sheasby.
Down 4-2 in the sixth, Sheasby reached base on an error, and with one out, Baylee Comer singled to center and Kayla Finch singled to load the bases. Anjel Montgomery plated a run, reaching on an error to cut the deficit to 4-3. Cotsamire’s hard ground ball resulted in another Lady Raiders error and put EK ahead, 5-4.
Three Russia singles and an EK error tied the game, and a two-out single spelled doom for the ’Dogs.
EK was outhit 10-9 by the Lady Raiders despite three hits by Sheasby and two hits each by Natalie Smith and Kayla Finch. Cotsamire drove in two runs to lead the Lady ’Dogs’ attack. On the mound, Cotsamire was victimized by four Bulldogs errors to account for four unearned runs.
