In a battle of Lady Pirates vs. Lady Pirates, an early homerun by Cardington-Lincoln’s Riley Burchett to take a 2-1 lead was overshadowed by a relentless Wheelersburg offense and defense as C-L fell 5-2, ending their tournament and season.
The Cardington-Lincoln Lady Pirates entered the Divison-3 State Semifinal softball match-up vs. Wheelersburg Lady Pirates on June 3 at Akron’s Firestone Stadium, with a 24-3 record. They were sailing, having destroyed Tinora 29-4 and having sunk Van Buren 14-4 to reach the semi-round. Wheelersburg entered at 26-1 and in the beginning, it looked like C-L was headed for the finals.
After Wheelersburg put up a run in the top of the first on an error, an intentional walk and two additional walks, Cardington-Lincoln came right back and took the lead in the bottom of the first. With two out, Hailee Edgell singled to center and Burchett followed with a homerun to left-center, to put C-L’s Lady Pirates ahead 2-1. But that was all the offense Cardington could muster, as they were held to two hits and a runner on by an error (their only three additional baserunners) the rest of the way by Wheelersburg’s AniJo Howard, who pitched seven innings without issuing a walk while striking out five.
Wheelersburg tied it at 2-2 in the third on an intentional walk, a single and a delayed steal of home on a play in which a runner was caught stealing second, while the lead runner took home.
Wheelersburg took the lead with two runs in the fifth on a single, a double and a C-L error.
Wheelersburg tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh on a single and a two-out double, and Cardington went down swinging in the bottom of the seventh on a pop out, a fly out and a ground out, to end the game.
For the game, after Edgell’s first-inning single and Burchett’s homer, only Mikayla Linkous (single in the fifth, and reached on an error in the third) and Abbi Hardwick (single in the fourth) reached base for C-L.
Genevieve Longsdorf was in the circle for Cardington, and was victimized by three Lady Pirate errors responsible for two unearned runs.
Wheelersburg moved on to the final with a 27-1 record to take on Massillon Tusaw, who made the finals with a 21-7 mark. Wheelersburg won that game by a 5-2 score as well, and advanced to the Super Regionals.
Cardington-Lincoln, the KMAC champions, ended the season with a 24-4 record.
