PICKERINGTON River View fans gave their softball team a well-deserved standing ovation when the game was over.
Even though the scoreboard showed the Black Bears on the losing end of Wednesday’s Division II regional semifinal, overall it was an amazing season.
The Black Bears, who finished the season 28-4, fell short to Granville, 7-3, at Pickerington Central High School.
“It was so fun to watch these girls,” River View head coach Bonnie Infante said about her team. “You can see they played together. They never gave up. You could see that every day, even today.”
With just two hits through the first five innings and trailing 7-0, River View still fought to the bitter end with everyone on the bench cheering their teammates on for something good to happen.
The Black Bears finished the last two innings with three runs, on four hits, including home runs from lead-off hitter Claire Warschauer and Bella Heddleson. But it was too late.
River View didn’t get its first hit until the bottom of the third inning with two outs as Warschauer found a hole in the Aces’ defense. It wasn’t that the Black Bears were swinging and missing -- in fact, only one batter was called out on strikes.
“I think we hit the ball well. We just hit right at them. We didn’t go up there striking out,” said Infante.
In the first inning, River View starting pitcher Peyton Werntz fought through some early pitches out of the strike zone and eventually walked lead-off hitter Rose Sawyers. After a sacrifice bunt by Kara Gunter, Halle Garman got Granville on the board with an RBI single that scored Sawyers. The Aces added one more run in the first on a double steal. When catcher Lauren Krystek tried to throw out the runner at second, the runner on third came in to score to make it 2-0.
Granville (24-7) committed two errors in the game, both coming in the bottom of the second with overthrows by both the shortstop and third baseman, but the only double play of the game ended any threat for the Black Bears, who came out the inning with nothing to show.
In the top of the third, Gunter led off the inning with a double and Garman drove in her second run of the game to make it 3-0. The one through four hitters for the Aces accounted for eight of their 10 hits.
The Aces tacked on three more runs in the fifth to make it 6-0, putting themselves in a comfortable position to get to Saturday’s regional final. Granville will play at noon for the chance to get to the state title game.
For the ninth-ranked Black Bears this is experience for the young players, who look to get back here next year.
“We need to start playing tougher during the season, as far as competition. Because that’s what happens when you don’t play anybody. We’ve already switched our schedule for next season,” said Infante.