WEST UNITY:  May 16-The  Hilltop Lady Cadets entered Sectional second round action on a hot streak, having completed BBC play with a 9-1 record and a regular season title, but the North Central Lady Eagles came to play.  North Central stunned the hometown Lady Cadets on May 16 7-3 to advance in District play.

It was  a brilliant performance on the mound for the Lady Eagles, with Makayla Hayes picking up the victory. Hayes finished out the day with 7 full innings of work, giving up 9 hits on the game and allowing just 3 earned runs on a stellar team defensive effort

The Lady Eagles sent a message from the start, opening the 1st inning with a 2-0 lead off of a Reese Cogswell 2 run single with Hayes and Sabrina Pickford on base.  For the Lady Cadets in the opening inning facing a 2 run deficit, Hannah Bleikamp stepped to the plate and blasted a solo shot over the left field fence to close the margin to 2-1.  After the action in the opening inning, it appeared the crowd would be in for a high scoring affair, and the action in the 3rd inning pointed in that direction as well.  For the Lady Eagles it was 3 up and 3 down, but the Lady Cadets stormed back to take the lead when Allie Schmitt connected for a single and Senior Hannah Bleikamp once again came to the plate and connected for a 2 run shot over the fence to put Hilltop in the lead 3-2.

The Lady Eagles in the top of the 4th, facing their first deficit of the game, were able to get Abbey Litzenberg  and Tristan Tomblin on base when Kelsie Sutton stepped up and blasted a hard shot down the left field line into the outfield scoring Litzenberg and tying the game at 3-3.  The Lady Eagles added to their lead in the 5th after the good defensive play of Rachael Shipman at second base, who  caught 4 fly balls in a row to keep Hilltop scoreless in the 4th and 5th.  North Central was able to add another 3 runs to close out the game and walk off the field triumphantly with a hard fought 7-3 victory.

For the Hilltop Cadets Bailey Funkhouser went the first 5 2/3’s innings on the mound, giving up 5 hits and allowing 5 earned runs to take the loss.  Hannah Bleikamp also saw action on the mound, going 1 and 1/3 innings and allowing 2 runs.

Offensively for North Central. Sabrina Pickford had a big afternoon going 3 for 4 with an RBI on the day while Reese Cogswell also had a big stick, going 2 for 4 with 2 RBI’s in the game. Hayes and Tomblin also had hits in the victory with an RBI while Kelsie Sutton and  Makayla Wildrick also hit in the game with Sutton driving in an RBI.

At the plate for Hilltop, Hannah Bleikamp had a spectacular outing, driving 2 home-runs on the game and accounting for all 3 of the Lady Cadets RBI’s on the day.  Also for the Lady Cadets, Allie Schmitt went 3 for 4 at the plate, scoring a run while Brittany Mocherman had a 2 for 4 day.  Shayla Coffman rounded out the Lady Cadets output in the loss.

Hilltop concludes the season with a 9-1 mark in the BBC and a 18-7 overall record on the year. The North Central Lady Eagles will advance to District D IV action on May 21 on the Bryan Lady Golden Bears home diamond to face the Ayersville Lady Pilots.  The game will begin at 7:00 p.m. under the lights.

Runs / Hits / Errors

North Central  7 – 9 – 0

Hilltop  3 – 9 – 4