PENDLETON — The first time Greenfield-Central and Pendleton Heights met on a softball field this season, it was a close game.
The Arabians prevailed 7-6 on May 8.
In the sectional opener for both teams Monday, it was more of the same. The pitchers ruled the first few innings, but Pendleton Heights broke the pitchers’ duel and scored first, four innings into the game.
In their first meeting, the Cougars also fell behind three runs but rallied to tie the game. The Arabians responded with the winning run in the fifth inning of that contest.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryMonday night, the Cougars fell behind three runs again. Pendleton Heights made sure there would be no rally this time. The Arabians held on to their early lead, besting the Cougars again, this time by a 4-0 score, and advancing to today’s semifinal against Mt. Vernon.
Pitchers dominated the first half of the game. Greenfield-Central’s Madge Weidner allowed just one hit in the first three innings, and Pendleton Heights starter Jordan Benefiel kept the Cougars off the scoreboard, although she did allow five hits in the Cougars’ first four frames.
“We outhit them, we just couldn’t get that big hit when we needed it,” Greenfield-Central coach Jason Stewart said. “Unfortunately we’re missing our three and five hitters and those spots came up a lot.
“You can’t make excuses. We went out there and we still had chances. We left a lot of people on base.”
When the Arabians needed outs, Benefiel made sure they got them. Whether from a strikeout — she had nine — or a flyout, Benefiel kept the Cougars from plating any runs.
“Their pitcher is probably the best in our conference,” Stewart said. “We had her on the ropes. We just couldn’t get that big hit tonight when we needed it.”
The Cougars had put the Arabians in a tough spot in the third inning, loading the bases with one out. A leadoff strikeout was followed by singles from the top three in Greenfield-Central’s order, Kensie Bradley, Jessica Rankin and Maria Kihega. A grounder to first ended up in Bradley being thrown out at the plate, and a flyout in foul territory in left field ended the scoring threat and stranded all three runners.
Greenfield-Central had the first five hits of the game, but stranded five runners through the first three innings. They wound up stranding seven total in the game and outhit the Arabians six to five.
The Arabians got in the hit column with two outs in the third, a single from third baseman Lauren Landes. One inning later, the Arabians got on the board.
Held to just the one hit to that point, a walk to lead off the inning was followed up by a groundout. Chloe Closser doubled in a run, and a single and steal from Jayden Brown put runners on second and third with one out.
After an out, a popup to shortstop looked to limit the damage and get the Cougars out of the inning down just 1-0. But an error on the attempted catch led to two more Arabians scoring, giving them a 3-0 lead after four.
The Cougars looked to be in position to strike back in the sixth inning, with a walk and single putting two on with no outs.
With a three-run deficit instead of one, that changed the way the Cougars approached a comeback attempt.
“What hurt was the error that made it from 1-0 to 3-0,” Stewart said. “That takes away the element of trying to play some small ball, bunting. The sixth inning, we should be down 1-0, we get the first two on … if that’s a 1-0 game I’m bunting twice in a row. And now we can’t do that.”
A strikeout and two flyouts ended the inning.
The Arabians lead would move to 4-0 with a leadoff home run from Closser in the sixth inning, her second hit and second RBI of the game.
The Cougars struck out twice more in the seventh and also had an infield ground out, ending the game and their season.
Despite taking the loss on the mound, Weidner, a junior, was strong, allowing just five hits and two earned runs in the sectional defeat. That gives the Cougars something to look forward to heading into next season.
“Madge threw great tonight,” Stewart said. “It shows us promise for next year of what she’s able to do.”