After a few days of cold weather, Bellmont took to the diamond to take on one of the top softball teams in the NE8 at Leo Wednesday night and it was the home Lions who emerged with a 6-0 shutout victory.
Ellie Sauder, a Saint Francis signee, allowed just two hits by the Braves in her seven innings of work, striking out nine without walking or hitting a batter.
Sauder was, in fact, just two outs away from a perfect game before Bellmont finally mounted a rally in the top of the seventh. Trailing by six runs, Sami Christen broke up the perfect game with a single up the middle.
The Lions had a chance to end the game on a ground ball hit to short by Mary Kate Scheumann, but the Leo infield committed an error, keeping Sauder from a chance to face the minimum 21 batters in the game.
Piper Baker followed that up with another base hit, but trailing by six, head coach Mindy Buuck chose not to send Christen home in fear of killing the rally.
Instead, all three runners were stranded as Sauder bounced back and got the last two batters out with strikeouts.
Leo tagged Baker for five runs in the first four innings, but only two were earned after the defense committed two costly errors.
Haylee Schott homered off Scheumann in the bottom of the fifth after she came in to relieve Baker.
Scheumann did not allow a run after that in two innings of work.