Edinburgh softball falls in sectional title game

EDINBURGH — For six innings, a third straight sectional softball championship was right there within Edinburgh’s grasp.

It took half an inning for it to slip well out of reach.

A pair of Lancer errors to start the seventh inning opened the door for Indianapolis Lutheran, which turned a scoreless tie into a 7-0 victory and a spot in the Class A regional against Hauser on Tuesday.

“They got fortunate to get two on off a couple of errors,” Edinburgh coach Stephen Clark said. “That put the pressure on us, and we just tightened up and didn’t follow through, and they got the hits after.”

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Consecutive miscues by the Lancers (14-8) put Katie Hopkins and Kaylee Gregory on base to start the final frame. Following a sacrifice bunt, Hailey Black broke the deadlock with a two-run double to left. Rylee Morris then singled and Goose Moore plated two more with a double.

Edinburgh’s third error of the inning allowed Moore to come home, and Lutheran hurler Miranda Dunn added an RBI-double and scored the final run on an infield hit by Hopkins.

The Lancers had a few good chances to push runs across earlier in the game but couldn’t cash in on any of them.

They managed three hits against Lutheran hurler Miranda Dunn in the second inning, but the Saints erased the lead runner on a double play, and Dunn escaped the jam with a strikeout.

Dunn extinguished another threat in the fourth. Base hits by Maddi Clark and Paige Burton gave Edinburgh runners on the corners with one out, but a pair of strikeouts kept the game scoreless.

“We had a few miscues at the plate, a few opportunities that we couldn’t execute on,” Stephen Clark said. “If one of those things hits the ground, it’s a different game, because you’re up instead of even. If we get that base hit, that breaks the floodgates open and puts a lot of pressure on them.”

The Saints (12-15) had a golden opportunity of their own in the top of the fifth when the leadoff batter reached on a three-base error, but Clark fanned the next two hitters, and center fielder Paige Burton hauled in the third out at the fence.

“I just think about how I want to get it done for my teammates,” Maddi Clark said of coming through in that situation. “I want to do it for them, and I know that they’ll have my back.”

The Lancers had one final scoring chance when Maddi Clark opened the bottom of the sixth with a base hit and got all the way to third when the base was uncovered on a sacrifice bunt by Vanessa McManaway. But Dunn again rose to the challenge, retiring the next two hitters.

Dunn finished with 12 strikeouts.

Clark had shut the Saints down prior to the seventh-inning avalanche, striking out six without a walk and allowing just two singles by Morris, who was stranded at second in both cases.

The last inning didn’t go the way the Lancers would have hoped, but Maddi Clark doesn’t seem to have many regrets about a four-year run that included a regional title last season. She’ll continue her playing career at Indiana Wesleyan.

“It’s definitely been a lot of fun,” she said. “The past few years I’ve had a lot of fun with all of my teammates, and I can’t wait to come back next year and watch them whenever I have a chance.”