When Luers’ Kaitlynn Fowerbaugh homered in the bottom of the first inning at Thursday’s 2A sectional championship game against South Adams, it could have allowed doubt to creep into the minds of coach Jessie O’Dell’s players.
Instead, it ignited a fire that led to the Starfires winning their sixth sectional title in the last seven state tournaments.
Now, after the 14-6 win in the title game, the Starfires will move on to face the only other team to top a sectional bracket that included South Adams since 2016: the Eastside Blazers.
The two teams will play in Butler Tuesday for a regional title after the defending state champions won their own sectional at the same time as South Adams.
The Starfires actually led after the first half inning, with Bekah Patterson and Peyton Pries teaming up for what would eventually be a recurring theme in the game: get on base by any means possible, swipe a few bases and come home to score on a sacrifice fly. Patterson walked, stole second, stole third and then came home on the RBI by Pries.
Coach O’Dell went with Gracy Bixler to start the game and although she did give up the home run in the bottom of the first, she held the Knights at bay for the rest of her outing. She was lifted in the sixth for Pries after striking out six in five innings of work, allowing five earned runs.
Cora Baker cut the lead to 3-2 with an RBI double in the second and the Starfires recaptured the lead for good in the third. Sofia Schwartz drove in Patterson with a sac fly and Tessa Bernard singled in Peyton Pries.
The Starfires put the game away in the top of the fifth. Peyton Pries singled and then took an extra base on a heads-up play on the base paths. After Sofia Schwartz’s heroics on Wednesday, Luers made the easy decision to walk her intentionally, but they ended up walking Kenzie Neuenschwander as well to load the bases with no outs.
Another sac fly by Bernard put the Stars up 5-3 and courtesy runner Samantha Weigel also took a base, setting South Adams up for a classic double steal, with Lindsey Lefever (in as a courtesy runner for Neuenschwander) baiting a throw to second to allow Weigel to score.
The Starfires added three more runs in that inning thanks to a costly error by the Luers infield and a 9-3 lead with nine outs left was all South Adams needed.
Luers did score twice with a pair of two-out RBI singles at the end of the fifth, but Bixler got her final out with a big swing and a miss.
Another walk by Schwartz and a double by Neuenschwander put two runners on in the sixth and Tessa Bernard hit one over the center field fence to ensure the victory.
Bernard ended the night 3 for 3 with five RBIs and Macy Pries was 2 for 4 from the leadoff spot. Six other Starfire batters collected one hit in a true team effort.
Peyton Pries allowed just two hits in the final two innings from the circle.
