Not quite enough

MUNCIE — The Patriots responded once.

They responded twice.

Playing in a sectional championship game for the first time in 14 years, they hung in there against a state-ranked rival.

They just made a few too many mistakes and couldn’t generate quite enough offense.

Jay County High School’s softball team battled Yorktown in Saturday’s sectional championship game at Delta but was unable to overcome the Class 3A No. 7  Tigers as its season came to an end with a 4-2 defeat.

“I’m just proud of these girls for the way they fought and battled,” said JCHS coach Doug Arbuckle. “They played with a lot of heart.

“That’s a good ball team, good pitcher, and we hung with them.”

The win was the 19th in a row for the Tigers, who opened 2-2 but have not dropped a game since falling 11-2 to Class 4A No. 4 New Palestine on April 16. Their four runs mark their lowest total since a 3-2 victory April 25 over Westfield.

“They played well,” said YHS coach Jeremy Penrod. “Give a lot of credit to them. They really deserved to win this game just as much as we did.”

Yorktown (21-2), which has won three consecutive sectional championships and is also the two-time defending regional champion, was set to host Norwell (17-7) in the regional title game at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The winner advances to the semi-state to play either Boone Grove or No. 2 Western on Saturday at Twin Lakes.

After the Tigers scored one run each in the bottom of the first and second innings Saturday, Jay County (16-7) responded with one of their one in the top of the following frame. It was the two they tallied in the bottom of the third that the Patriots couldn’t match.

Abbey Booher’s one-out single to left field started the key inning from Yorktown and Anna Rinker followed with a deep shot to right field that Morgan Missicano couldn’t quite track down at the fence. An error allowed Booher to score, and then Rinker executed a delay steal of home plate in which she strayed far off of third base, awaited the throw to try to pick her off and then broke for home.

It marked the second time in the game that an attempted pick off at third base resulted in a Tiger run, as Ava McNally had scored on an errant throw in the second inning.

“We can’t make mistakes and give them extra outs,” said Arbuckle. “I know they scored a couple runs on a few mistakes … Little things like that just add up.”

Pitcher Mallory Winner didn’t allow the Tigers to muster any more offense, stranding two runners apiece in the fourth and sixth innings. (She sat them down in order in the fifth.) But Jay County couldn’t find any more offense either.

Junior Jaelynn Lykins smoked the ball in all three of her at bats against McNally — a solo home run off the scoreboard in dead center field in the second inning, a double to left in the fourth and a shot that deflected off of the pitcher in the sixth. But each hit came with the bases empty — she led off both the second and fourth innings — as the rest of the squad struggled to get on base.

“You’ve got to have girls on base, and we’ve had that all year, production all the way through the lineup,” Arbuckle said. “The bottom of the lineup today struggled a little bit. It’s just one of those things. Some days you have it, some days you don’t.”

The only hits other than those from Lykins came consecutively with two outs in the third inning as Missicano slapped an infield hit, stole second base and then scored on a Winner double to left field.

McNally blew through the bottom five hitters in the Patriot order as they went a combined 0-for-14 against her. Three of those came on strikeouts, 10 of the remaining 11 were on pop ups or fly balls.

“We’ve said all year, our outfield is extremely fast,” said Jeremy Penrod. “If we can keep the ball in the field of play, we’re probably going to catch it.”