Lady Lions return to the Elite 8; defeat Portsmouth Clay in regional semifinals

The Fairfield Lady Lions have moved on to the Division IV Regional Finals for the second consecutive year, this time defeating the Portsmouth Clay Lady Panthers, 7-2 Wednesday at Pickerington Central High School.

Fairfield (20-1) won their Division IV Regional Semifinal with a strong first inning where they took a four-run advantage and never looked back. This postseason, the Lady Lions have outscored their opponents, 44-11 in four games.

Next for FHS will be a Division IV Regional Final game with a trip to the State Final Four on the line. The Lady Lions return to the regional finals for a second consecutive year, this time facing Danville (27-1) on Saturday, May 27 at noon at Pickerington High School. Danville defeated Strasburg-Franklin, 3-0 in the regional semifinals. Last season, the Lady Lions defeated Danville, 8-4 in the regional semifinals.

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Danville is 5-0 this postseason with wins over Harvest Prep (21-1), Gahanna Christian Academy (24-0), Newark Catholic (6-0), Granville Christian Academy (4-1) and the aforementioned win over Strasburg-Franklin. In all, Danville has outscored their postseason opponents, 42-2.

As for the No. 8 state-ranked Lady Lions, they’ve also defeated Western Latham (15-0), Southern (12-8), Peebles (10-1) and the aforementioned 7-2 win over Clay.

In the circle against Clay on Wednesday, Kaiti White held the Lady Panthers to two runs, a team that entered the game outscoring their opponents 26-1 this postseason. White didn’t flinch against the No. 4 state-ranked Lady Panthers, finishing with a complete game. She allowed two runs (both earned) on eight hits and no walks. The sophomore ace struck out 11 batters and faced a total of 29 batters in seven innings.

The win by White moves her record to 20-1 overall. The win also makes White the first Fairfield pitcher to post back-to-back 20-win seasons. 

Getting to the regional semifinal game for a second straight year began with a strong offensive effort during the first two innings, including the aforementioned first inning where Fairfield took the four-run advantage over the Southern Ohio Conference champions.

In the top of the first inning, the Lady Lions began the inning with Sherry Heckathorn being hit by a pitch in the first at-bat of the regional semifinal game. Carli Reiber (2-for-4) followed with an infield single hit to third base. Next, White continued the quick start by the Lady Lions by drawing a walk to load the bases with no outs.

Kourtnie Smith went to home plate with bases loaded with no outs and plated two runs with an RBI single to centerfield, scoring both Heckathorn and Reiber. Keeping the pace, Emily Williams drew a walk, but on ball four the ball got away, though the Lady Lions were out at home on a play at the plate where the Lady Panthers threw out Thackston for the first out of the inning.

The sixth batter of the inning for the Lady Lions was Lauren Arnold, who singled in Smith for the third run of the inning with still just one out on the scoreboard. Following the second out of the inning, the Lady Lions still managed to gain a positive as a throw to third base went into the outfield, resulting in Williams for a four-run advantage, which was the final run of the inning.

Fairfield continued the momentum in the top of the second with Megan Gragg (3-for-4) beginning the inning with a base hit to left field, followed by a walk by Heckathorn. Both runners moved over a base, eventually with the runners standing on second and third. They both scored off a double to the left field fence by Reiber, extending the Lady Lions’ lead to 6-0. White followed with a base hit to centerfield, but FHS recorded three straight outs but still led by six runs. White finished 3-for-3 with one walk.

After a few quiet innings on the scoreboard, the Lady Lions added another run in the top of the fifth inning. This time, the run came with Lyndee Spargur scoring on a two-out single hit to centerfield by Gragg for a 7-0 advantage. Spargur initially reached the bases with a one-out double. The inning continued with Heckathorn reaching first base safely on an infield error, but FHS left two runners stranded, though she gained a seven-run advantage.

As the game continued, the pitching of White got stronger. Through the first four innings, White totaled three strikeouts, but in the fifth inning she really took over the inning by striking out all three batters she faced. As soon as she was finished pitching in the inning, White was the leadoff batter of the top of the sixth, and she doubled to centerfield, earning her second two-base hit of the game, but the runner was left on the bases.

In the bottom of the sixth, White earned her sixth consecutive strikeout by striking out the first two batters of the inning. Following a base hit by the Lady Panthers, they scored their lone two runs off a home run by Cassidy Wells with two outs, leaving the Lady Lions ahead by five runs going into the final inning.

The Lady Lions had one hit in the top of the seventh with Gragg reaching the bases on a single. As for the Lady Panthers, in the bottom of the seventh, they led off with a base hit of their own. That hit was followed with White striking out the ensuing batter. Next, White added another strikeout to her totals, along with it being the second out of the inning. Following the ball landing in the infield on a pop up in front of the shortstop to give the Lady Panthers two base runners with two outs, White battled with the next Clay batter with a six-pitch at-bat resulting in a called third strike out to seal the win, her 11th strikeout of the game.

In all, the Lady Lions totaled 12 hits in the win. With one hit each were Smith, Heckathorn, Arnold and Spargur.

(Editor’s Note: The Highland County Press would like to thank C103.FM for stats and game info. Follow C103.FM on Twitter https://twitter.com/C103Country or online at http://c103.fm/.)