VIENNA — Clay-Battelle’s dream softball season ended in a flash Thursday.
Following a near four-hour delay, first for lightning and then rain, Wheeling Central opened up what had been a one-run game for a 13-2 six-inning win at Jackson Memorial Park.
“Delays like that are either 100 percent for you or 100 percent against you,” Central coach Buck Davidson said. “I thought they got the raw end of the deal with the delay because it took away the momentum that they had. It actually allowed us to regroup a little bit.”
The win sent the Maroon Knights (15-8) into the Class A championship against Sherman.
Clay-Battelle saw its season end at 25-4, with half of the team’s losses coming to Central.
The contest was halted an hour after its 9 a.m. start time due to visible lightning in the area. At the time, Central led, 2-1, but the Cee-Bees had the bases loaded and one out in the home half of the fourth.
When play resumed just before 2 p.m., Madison Statler stepped into the batter’s box with a good chance to tie it or give her team the lead.
Central elected to replace starting pitcher Kyla Tharp with Maddy LeMasters following the delay, and the move paid off and then some.
LeMasters got Statler to pop up back to the mound, before retiring Caitlyn Kassay on a groundout to shortstop.
“With Maddy coming in to pitch and getting that groundout and pop out, that was a big momentum swing,” Davidson said. “The girls took that momentum and started hitting the ball.”
Central carried over the momentum to the top of the fifth when it scored six runs to put the game out of reach.
After Katlyn Ferns’ one-out single, Jairika Baylor, Tharp and Ally Davidson each connected for consecutive RBI doubles off Kassay to up the Maroon Knights’ lead to 5-1.
Two Cee-Bees’ errors contributed to Central scoring three more times in the inning, including twice on a Peyton Knight single.
“It just got away from us,” Kassay said. “One error turned into two and turned into three. It happens like that. They got the jump on us and credit to them.”
The Maroon Knights added five more runs in the sixth. LeMasters belted a two-run double, Jessica Miller contributed a two-run single and Tharp contributed a run-scoring bunt single.
Central took an early 1-0 lead when Ferns tripled in the game’s first at bat and ultimately scored on an error.
Kassay’s RBI double tied it in the second, though Knight led off with a triple in the second and scored on passed ball to put the Maroon Knights back in front.
The Cee-Bees stranded a pair of runners in both the second and third innings, then left the bases loaded following the delay.
“It was a lack of execution. We had so many so many opportunities and couldn’t come through,” Kassay said. “That came to bite us. We should have capitalized earlier, but we didn’t.”
Central had seven extra-base hits among 13 hits, while Knight led all players with three hits in the win.
Ferns, Baylor and Tharp added two hits apiece, while Kassay had two of her team’s six hits.
Kassay struck out six and scattered 13 hits in six innings.
“Yeah, it didn’t end how we wanted it, but we got here and we were the first to be here,” Kassay said. “Honestly, I think that’s a win.”
