Eagles walk off 9-8 winners over Rams

By LONNIE McMILLAN

Sports editor

SYCAMORE — With a chance to win the game in the bottom of the eighth inning, Colonel Crawford had just who it wanted available to bat.

Mariah Cotsamire reentered the game and singled to score Alivia Studer for a walk-off 9-8 win against Upper Sandusky in the winner’s bracket semifinals of the Sycamore Fastpitch Spectacular on Tuesday evening at Legion Field.

Cotsamire, a senior, had driven in a pair of runs with a first-inning double but had gone to the bench before returning in the game’s final at-bat.

“She had the hot bat all day, got subbed just to get some other girls in, so when the time arose, it was a no-brainer,” Colonel Crawford coach Sarah Fraser said. “Just get Mariah in there. She’ll get a hit; she’ll come through.”

The No. 4 seed Eagles advance to the winners’ bracket final against No. 2 Carey at 7:15 p.m. Thursday. The No. 1 Rams drop into the losers’ bracket and face No. 6 Buckeye Central at 5 p.m. today.

Playing by international extra-inning rules that put a runner on second base, Upper Sandusky took an 8-7 lead in the top of the eighth, but it could have been more.

Hannah Plymale led off with a hard grounder up the first base line. Samantha Bell made a diving stop in front of the bag, and then touched

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first with her hand. When no out was signaled, she attempted to tag Plymale as she ran by, but the ball popped free. Alyse Swartz scored from second, and Plymale was ruled safe.

Jade Holman singled to put two on with still no outs. Brooke Swavel’s soft liner to shallow left field was dropped, but Zandria Gallant recovered in time to throw out the lead runner at third. After a wild pitch put two in scoring position, a popout and strikeout ended the inning.

“We got a good situation with second and third, and when you have that, you need more than one run there,” Upper Sandusky coach Luke Swavel said. “It’s kind of good for the girls to get out here, though, and get in situations, though, where for a lot of the younger underclassmen, it was a good learning experience because they haven’t been put in that situation before.”

With one out in the bottom of the eighth, Upper Sandusky shortstop Hannah McKinniss could not hold on to a popup behind third base, and Kaylyn Risner followed by singling in the tying run. The Rams issued an intentional walk to load the bases, setting up Cotsamire’s game-winning single to center field.

The Rams took a 3-0 lead in the first inning on a Jenna Kurtz double that cleared the bases. They went up 5-4 in the second on Reagan Ward’s two-run single, and they extended the advantage to 6-4 in the third when McKinniss singled and scored on a wild pitch.

After the Eagles made a pitching change from Studer to Lauren Friechten, the Rams’ offense was slowed.

Gallant doubled and scored on Frietchen’s sacrifice fly in the fifth inning to put Colonel Crawford back on top 7-6. The Rams tied the game in the seventh. Ward walked, McKinniss reached on an error, and Clary’s grounder scored the tying run from third with no outs. Two runners were left in scoring position, though, with a pair of popups and a flyout.

“That just shows how into the game Lauren is, just buckling down and making those pitches that are needed in those situations,” Fraser said.

Colonel Crawford had a four-run bottom of the first, taking advantage of a couple of Upper Sandusky errors. One of its two runs in the third inning also was unearned.

“We looked like at times like we haven’t played in three months and sometimes we looked like we know what we’re doing,” Swavel said. “It was kind of fun to get the international tiebreaker there. You don’t see that in high school. It was kind of neat to play that too.”

Clary was the losing pitcher, giving up three earned runs on nine hits and six walks with five strikeouts in 7 1-3 innings. Kurtz led the Rams at the plate with a pair of hits.

Friechten won in relief for Colonel Crawford. Neither of the two runs she gave up were earned. She allowed three hits and two walks with four strikeouts in five innings.

Score by innings

Upper Sandusky          321      000      11        — 8 7 4

Colonel Crawford        402      010      02        — 9 9 3

WP: Friechten (2-0); LP: Clary (0-1).

2B: Clary (US), Cotsamire (CC), Ratliff (CC), Z. Gallant (CC).