Mitchem leads Blair Oaks past Fatima in softball sectionals

Brooke Boessen watchs a pitch go by during Wednesday night's Class 2 sectional game against Fatima at the Falcon Athletic Complex in Wardsville.
Brooke Boessen watchs a pitch go by during Wednesday night's Class 2 sectional game against Fatima at the Falcon Athletic Complex in Wardsville.

WARDSVILLE - The regular season and postseason meetings have gone different ways for the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons and the Fatima Lady Comets.

During the past three seasons, Blair Oaks has won all three regular-season meetings, only to watch Fatima advance in the Class 2 state playoffs with a pair of one-run wins in their rematches in 2014 and 2015.

On Wednesday night, the Lady Falcons devised a foolproof plan to halt the postseason pattern of one-run losses. They didn't allow a run.

Megan Mitchem tossed a complete-game five-hitter, leading Blair Oaks to a 4-0 victory against Fatima in the Class 2 sectional round at the Falcon Athletic Complex.

"That was a good strategy, but I don't know if that's what we thought was going to happen," Blair Oaks coach Sharon Buschjost said. "The more I saw Megan Mitchem pitching tonight, the more I felt like that was possible."

Blair Oaks (20-8) will play in the quarterfinals Saturday at either Cuba or Pleasant Hope. Those two teams, which had their sectional game rained out Wednesday, will play at 5:30 p.m. today.

Mitchem kept Fatima hitters in check all night, inducing 14 ground-ball outs. The senior left-hander retired 11 batters in a row between the first and fourth innings.

Although Mitchem didn't pitch last month in Blair Oaks' 9-2 win against Fatima, she said just observing the batters gave her an idea of where to pitch to them in Wednesday's rematch.

"That really helped me. I was able to just hit my spots and come out with a win," Mitchem said.

Mitchem got out of a couple of jams, starting with the top of the first inning. Blair Oaks right fielder Emilee Jones made a shoestring catch on a line drive hit by Makayla Buscher to save two runs and end the threat.

"I think if we scored two runs in the first inning, we'd have put the pressure on them," Fatima coach Dana Scheppers said.

Instead, Blair Oaks turned around and put the pressure on Fatima. Sydney Wilde drove a full-count delivery from Macy Berhorst beyond the right-center field fence for a solo home run in the bottom half of the first inning. Wilde's sixth homer of the season - and third in as many games - gave Blair Oaks a 1-0 lead.

"Right now, she's a player that has given this team tremendous confidence," Lady Falcons coach Sharon Buschjost said of Wilde. "Every time she steps into the box, I think our whole team and coaches feel like something really good is about to happen."

That lone run would have been enough for Mitchem, but Blair Oaks added a pair of runs in the third inning to pad its lead. Carli Buschjost scored from third base on an errant throw and Brooke Boessen hit an RBI single to right field, scoring Hannah Schroeder to make the score 3-0.

The Lady Falcons added another run in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Macyn Wilbers, scoring Schroeder.

"Scoring first felt good, but then there's just no score that you feel good with," Buschjost said. "Even at 4-0, you think about maybe some runs you left out there.

"But Megan Mitchem and the rest of the team gave me reason to feel good about that top of the seventh."

Fatima stranded two runners in the fifth after getting back-to-back singles to start the inning, then left the bases loaded in the sixth after Mitchem induced a pair of groundouts to escape another jam.

"She pitched a heck of a game," Buschjost said. "She was in the zone."

Mitchem threw just 78 pitches to earn the win. She allowed one walk and struck out two batters, and fittingly, she ended the game with a ground ball back to her in the circle and threw to first for the final out.

"It was great to just be able to close the door, jump on top of them early and stay ahead," Mitchem said. "It felt great to not have to come from behind and have it all the way."

Boessen went 2-for-2 with two singles and one RBI to lead Blair Oaks. Schroeder added two singles, Wilde went 1-for-4 with a homer, Buschjost finished with a double and Jones had a bunt single in the fourth.

Berhorst took the loss for Fatima, allowing four runs on seven hits with three walks and five strikeouts. She also led the Lady Comets at the plate with a pair of singles.

Ally Bonnot, Raegan Huhn and Gina Stegeman each had one single for Fatima (14-13), which began the season losing 10 of its first 14 games.

"I told the girls tonight that no one thought that they would be in this game a month ago with the way we started our season," Scheppers said. "We came on strong at the end and just couldn't get it done tonight."

Blair Oaks won its 11th straight district championship Saturday. After Wednesday's win, the Lady Falcons have a 6-5 record in sectional games during that span and have reached the quarterfinals for the first time since 2013.

Getting to win No. 20 was also a nice perk for the Lady Falcons.

"There's just something about that, that just makes you feel like that's a pretty darn good season if you get to 20 wins," Buschjost said. "But that's just one part of feeling like you've had a good season.

"The other part of that is those wins taking you to the next step, and that's where we're at with it."