They needed 10 innings to do it, but the Helias Lady Crusaders topped Father Tolton 2-1 Wednesday at the American Legion Post 5 Sports Complex.
Helias had chances in the eighth and ninth innings against Lady Trailblazers' Paige Bedsworth, but couldn't break through despite having a runner on third with one out in the eighth and leadoff double in the ninth. Instead, the rally came with two outs and nobody on in the 10th. Abbi Pringer walked, and Taylor Woehr and Rylee Kolb hit back-to-back singles through the left side of the infield for the walk-off win.
Helias is 16-4 with two games left in the regular season. Tolton is now 17-4.
The game was a true pitchers' duel, and very evenly matched. Lauren Howell started for the Lady Crusaders and threw nine innings, giving up an unearned run on one hit, two walks and a hit batter while striking out 14, including the side in both the third and eighth innings. Bedsworth threw a complete game with six hits allowed in the loss, with two walks and 13 strikeouts on 156 pitches.
"We were chasing way too many rise-balls and she was getting ahead of us in the count," Helias coach Dan Campbell said. "She's too good of a pitcher for us to take first-pitch strikes, we should have been hammering some of those first-pitch strikes, and we were at the mercy of her rise-ball there way too many times. But good pitching silences good hitting, usually, and she's a very good pitcher. We needed that, we needed to see a good pitcher at this stage of the game, heading into districts."
Bedsworth's elevated pitch count was one reason Helias had so much success against her late, as five Lady Crusader hits came in extra innings. Campbell made the decision to switch to Tabitha Imhoff for the 10th inning, noting the team wanted to win without taxing Howell's arm. The sophomore ace threw nearly 120 pitches.
Imhoff quickly surrendered a leadoff double just inside the bag at third to Mae Cross, but a heads-up play from Sophia Carr during the next at-bat was a big one, and redeemed a mistake she made earlier in the game.
The third-baseman fielded a grounder and, while running toward first, faked the throw there, which drew Mae off second to try and take third, which was uncovered. Carr chased Cross back to second and made a diving tag to get the lead runner, and Imhoff struck out two to end the inning and put herself in a position to get the win.
The Lady Trailblazers opened scoring in the fourth inning. Bedsworth reached on an infield hit and moved to second on a fielders choice, then stole third and came home on a missed throwdown between Riley Heckencamp and Carr.
The Lady Crusaders didn't stay down for long. Woehr lead off the bottom of the inning and hit her first true home run of the season, a blast to straight-away center to keep the game level. She finished the game 2-for-4, and was the only player in the game with multiple hits.
"I wasn't very happy with the first one they got," Campbell said. "We kind of gave them one there, and I felt like we should have ended it in the bottom of the eighth, when we had a runner on third with one out and we didn't get the job done. But other than that, the girls kept battling and that's all you can do when you're not getting things.
"When you're not executing you just gotta go out and keep battling, and that's what they did. Finally got the big hit, Rylee Kolb came through like she's been doing all year for us."
Helias plays today at Eldon and finishes the regular season at home Monday against St. Dominic.