Coming into Tuesday Division III regional semifinal softball contest with Defiance Tinora at Elida High School, Cardington coach Tod Brininger was expecting a hard-fought battle.
His players had other ideas.
The Pirates followed up a three-run first inning with 11 in the second and would continue to score throughout the game in winning by a near-unbelievable 29-4 margin.
“To be honest, I told Al (assistant coach Adams) we need four or five runs to win the game and thought it would be a one-run game,” said Brininger. “I never expected us to hit that kid that well.”
Simply put — the Pirate offense was near-unstoppable against the Rams. They got things started in the first inning. After Mikayla Linkous and Dana Bertke both reached base to open the game, Hailee Edgell brought in the game’s first run with a single. A passed ball would bring in another score and a sacrifice bunt by Riley Burchett gave the locals a quick 3-0 lead.
Genevieve Longsdorf worked around a one-out single in the bottom of the inning and then Cardington put the game out of reach with a huge second frame — most of which came with two outs.
With one out, Bertke doubled and Edgell followed with an RBI triple. A sacrifice fly by Burchett then made it 5-0 with two gone. However, the Pirates made sure it would take a long time for that third out to be recorded.
Longsdorf singled and Abby Hardwick drew a walk to put two on for Ari Simpson, who drove in one with a single. An errant pitch made it 7-0. The eighth run would be scored when Kayleigh Ufferman, Emalee Artz and Linkous drew back-to-back-to-back walks.
With the bases loaded, Bertke cracked a two-run double and Edgell followed with a two-run single. Two batters later and Longsdorf added a two-run double to stake the Pirates to a 14-0 lead.
Brininger noted he was not expecting that sort of offensive outburst.
“They were relaxed and did their normal warm-up,” he said. “When they came in, a couple girls had fire in their eyes. I hope I can bottle this for Friday.”
While Tinora would get a pair of two-run home runs in the game, they wouldn’t even be able to cut into the Cardington lead, as the Pirates added six in the third and nine in the fifth of the five-inning contest.
In the third inning, Bertke had an RBI single, while Edgell added a three-run home run and Longsdorf took one out of the park for two more to make it a 20-0 game.
Leading 20-2 going into the top of the fifth, the Pirates got a solo homer from Edgell and a two-run double by Simpson to lead by 21. With a number of back-ups getting into the game for at-bats, the team was able to muster six more runs to cap their lopsided victory.
Regardless of how large their margin of victory was in the regional semis, Brininger isn’t worried about the win going to his players’ heads. Last year, the Pirates made it to the regional finals at Elida, only to get run-ruled by Sherwood Fairview — an outing that is still fresh on their minds.
“With this group of eight seniors, we have good leadership,” he said. “I said they can remember this until midnight and then remember 11-1 from last year.”
