Lady Lions return to district finals; run-rule rival Peebles in 5 innings

CHILLICOTHE — There are occurrences many can count on when the spring season begins in Ohio each year, and that’s rapid weather changes, trees blooming and the Fairfield Lady Lions flipping the switch and taking their level of play up a couple levels.

That’s what has happened this postseason, as the Lady Lions won their 2026 Division VI SE District Semifinal game over conference rival, the Peebles Lady Indians 12-1 Tuesday at Unioto High School in five innings. 

Fairfield this postseason has outscored their two opponents, Belpre (district quarterfinals) and Peebles 23-1, as they avenged a May 7 loss against Div. II Southern Hills Athletic Conference champion Peebles with this win. 

The Lady Lions and Lady Indians split their two meetings during the regular season with Fairfield winning 3-0 on April 2, then Peebles winning on May 7 by a 7-4 score, a game where the Lady Lions struck out 16 times in a game played at Peebles. 

That wasn’t the case by any means on Tuesday evening in the district semifinals, as Fairfield jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, then added four runs in the second for a 7-1 advantage. 

“We had a little bit of motivation coming out of our regular season, and I think that worked to our advantage,” Fairfield head coach Ellen Binegar said. “We wanted to come out and make a strong statement in the first inning, pedal to the metal, and that's exactly what we did. 

“We prepared this week by having some alumni come back and help us based on what we knew about their pitcher. We knew we could hit her. We only had two strikeouts against her in the early season and a lot of strikeouts during the second game. We were pretty beat up, and yes, we were not ourselves that game. 

“We were all out of position, but we weren't going to use that as an excuse, we were going to use it for motivation, so we prepared off of a lefty pitcher this week, a college pitcher who came back to help us out, and these girls had fire in their veins because they wanted some revenge.”

From that point, the game continued to be a dominant effort for the Lady Lions as they avenged the late-season loss to Peebles with five more runs in the top of the third for what ended up being the final score of 12-1. 

Fairfield opened the game with a double hit by Rilee Quickle, followed by Quickle advancing to third base, then scoring on a groundout hit by Ally Maynard for the one-run lead. The senior Quickle was 2-for-3 with three runs and one RBI. Maynard ended the game at 1-for-4 with two runs and two RBI. 

After the second out was recorded, Kelsie Crowder singled, then went to third on a double hit by Alyssa Bales. Crowder ended the game at 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI. Teammate Bales was 1-for-3 with one run and a walk. 

Both Crowder and Bales scored first-inning runs when Ava White hit a two-out, two-RBIt single on a 1-1 count for a 3-0 lead. White’s totals were 3-for-3 with four RBI.

Peebles scored their only run in the bottom of the first when Josie McGhee drew a lead-off walk and eventually landed on third. Following a bloop single to shallow left field, McGhee raced home on a passed ball for the 3-1 score. 

“I like being the visiting team for that reason,” Binegar said of the big start. “It's the first chance to score. The dugout might be hot and sunny, but we wanted to come out strong, and that's what we did.”

After the run scored, Fairfield pitcher Quickle struck out the side with three consecutive strikeouts to end the inning on 17 pitches in that span of strikeouts.

The Lady Lions began the top of the second with a single to right field off the bat of Jorja May (1-for-2, two runs, one walk) on the second pitch of the at-bat, then it was a bunt single from Whitlee Morrow as she was 1-for-3 with one run in the win. Fairfield added two runs in the third at-bat of the inning when in the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Quickle hit the ball to centerfield for an RBI double, scoring May. 

Then it was a single from Maynard that plated Whitlee Morrow and Quickle for a 6-1 lead. After two outs were recorded, Bales walked on six pitches and White hit an infield single, scoring Maynard for the six-run lead at 7-1. 

The top of the third inning saw five more runs cross the plate for the Lady Lions, as May led off with a six-pitch walk and followed with an out. Quickle was hit by a pitch, and next was Maynard reaching first on an error. 

Jorgia Smith (one run, two RBI) followed with a base hit that plated May, then it was a three-RBI double hit to right field by Crowder that led to an 11-1 lead, scoring Quickle, Maynard and Smith. Crowder scored the 12th Fairfield run of the game when White knocked in her fourth runner of the game, hitting a double to right-centerfield for the 12-1 advantage. 

“Our game plan expectation was to split the difference between game one of the regular season and game two of the season (against Peebles), split the difference on the strikeouts and clean up our errors,” Binegar said. “However, we got production from everybody in the lineup.

“The girls showed up every day for practice, even on the days that they weren't feeling good. As soon as they were physically able, they were back in the cage and back on the diamond, prepping on their own, doing their research from Tom [Purtell, assistant coach]'s scouting reports. They wanted to come back and show that they deserved this win.”

Longtime Fairfield assistant coach Tom Purtell said the Lions are 14-2 this season when committing two or less errors in a game. On Tuesday, Fairfield played an errorless game. 

Then there is the matter of Quickle’s pitching performance in the circle. The senior pitched all five innings where she allowed no earned runs on four hits and one walk with 10 strikeouts. Quickle (15-7) faced 20 batters in the game. 

In her five innings in the circle, Quickle struck out the side in the first and fifth innings, and in between those two innings she had two strikeouts in both the second and fourth innings. In the third, she faced three batters, resulting in a fly ball to centerfield and two groundouts to third base in what was a five-pitch inning. 

“There's always a bump in the road somewhere along the way. We had one or two and overcame those, even though we kind of had a mediocre end to the season,” Binegar said. “Like I said, I think it gave us more fuel to start fresh, because we knew that we could ride this for a little while and use our preparation to our advantage, and our research. 

“We did a lot of work with movement in the infield and the outfield. We had people ready to switch positions if they needed to, but we didn't need to, because they were all where they needed to be, and Rilee was phenomenal.”

Next for Fairfield is a Division VI SE District final game on Friday, May 22 at Unioto High School, as they will be facing Lucasville Valley at 4 p.m.  

“We've been there a couple times in the last couple years, and I feel like this time could be our season to get that win. We've had some close ones. Last year was a one-run loss in the district against West, so I know that these girls want it,” Binegar said. “They've come this close several times, and it looks like it's going to be a really good matchup between us and Lucasville Valley. I think we're very comparable teams, and we've got a plan against them too.”

BOX SCORE
FHS    345 00x x — 12 12 0 
PHS    100 00x x — 1 4 3