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When the St. Bede and Putnam County softball teams met in the regular season, the Bruins used one big inning to beat the Panthers by 11.
When the teams met again Monday in the Class 1A St. Bede Regional championship, the game played out much differently as the Bruins pulled out a 5-3 victory to claim the regional plaque.
“This is the type of game that will make us stronger and help us down the road,” St. Bede coach Shawn Sons said. “They came out and jumped out early and we had to battle back. One thing about this team is they don’t get too high or too low and the stay on task.”
The Bruins (19-3) advance to the Williamsfield Sectional, where they will play AlWood (25-5) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The Spartans beat Williamsfield, 4-0, in the AlWood Regional final Friday.
“We now have to get ready to go again tomorrow with the rainout changing the schedule,” Sons said. “I would have liked to have had a day to try to clean things up a bit, but that’s not an option and we’ll be fine.”
Monday’s game began with PC leadoff hitter Gabby Doyle taking a pitch off her knee to reach before Maggie Richetta reached on an error, setting the table for Reise Zellmer, who blasted a two-run single to put the Panthers up 2-0.
St. Bede pitcher Ella Hermes battled her way out by registering a pair of strikeouts to limit the damage.
In the home half of the frame, Addie Bontz led off with a single, stole second base and came home on a single off the bat of Madelyn Torrance to cut the Putnam County lead in half at 2-1.
PC pitch Kara Staley got the next three Bruins in order to keep score where it was.
In the second inning, Hermes found her stride and struck out the side in order before Staley returned the favor with a perfect inning of her own.
In the top of the third, the Panthers got their first three batters on with Richetta and Zellmer racking up consecutive singles to produce a run and chase Hermes from the circle.
The Bruins brought in Reagan Stoudt to take over and she was able to wriggle out of the jam, allowing only a base hit to Zofie Uzella and no more runs.
That made the score 3-1 Panthers heading to the Bruin half of the third.
Grace Maschmann got the Bruins going by banging a leadoff double to the base of the left field fence and came home on a Ryann Stoudt line drive single.
With two out and two on, Hermes came up with a two-run single to give the Bruins their first lead of the game at 4-3 heading to the fourth.
The Bruin defense kept the Panthers off the board in the fourth before adding an insurance run in the home half.
Reagan Stoudt led off with single and she scored on a Kaitlyn Kobilsek double.
The Bruins loaded the bases with no one out, but a strong throw from center fielder Tori Balma cut down Kobilsek at the plate trying to tag up and score.
That allowed the Panthers to keep the game close at 5-3 after four innings.
The Panthers got the first two on in the fifth, including Zellmer on her third hit of the game, but were unable to push across a run.
The teams then turned up the defense and St. Bede held on to a hard earned 5-3 victory and claim their third regional title in the last four seasons.
“Last time we played them we had one bad inning and lost by 11, so our goal was to eliminate that and take our chances,” Putnam County coach Angie Heiser said. “We were able to do that and it really could have gone either way as both teams had chances and they cashed in on a couple more than we did. Playing here against a good program is tough and we are young so I am excited for our future and proud of what we did here today.”