The Woodlan Warriors captured the ACAC title Tuesday night with an exciting, high-stakes victory at Heritage, 8-4.
“I’m very proud of my girls,” said coach Amanda Minchski of her Patriots, “and the way they competed, even down to the last inning, every kid in the dugout believed we could pull it out.”
Austin Gaff homered and drove in four for the visitors as they touched the Patriots for two big rallies in the first and fourth innings.
Danica Fuller went head to head with Abby Horn for all seven innings. The Heritage hurler struck out six, but allowed 11 hits, including the dinger by Fuller in the fourth and another by Lexi Metzger to lead off the fifth.
Heritage had nine hits against Horn, who struck out six, but it was a lack of timely hits that eventually kept the Patriots from winning conference titles in both baseball and softball in 2023.
“Woodlan is a very good team,” said coach Minchski, “and their offense is much improved. Unfortunately, the nature of competition meant one of us had to lose tonight.”
One of the bright spots for the home team was another home run by Avi Washington, a solo shot in the bottom of the sixth.
Heritage will regroup and focus on next week’s sectional at Angola.
“We have to regroup and focus on the task at hand first, though,” she said. “We have senior night still, so we want to have a good showing for that and then finish off our regular season against Eastside.”
Fuller was 3 for 4 at the plate with three singles, while Claire Bickel had three RBI and a double.