Eastwood tops Edison in 11 innings

CLYDE — This one is going to sting for a while. Top-seeded Edison went toe-to-toe with third-seeded and Division V No. 8-ranked Eastwood for over two hours. The Chargers made a couple tough blunders in the 11th inning and that allowed Eastwood to capitalize in a 5-2 district semifinal win at Clyde High School on Wednesday. Edison finishes the season with a record of 17-6. "The last game always hurts the most," Chargers coach Jason Caponi said. "I'm super proud of every one of them. They gave effort. I didn't have no big pregame speech or nothing today. That was all them coming ready to play. They talked to themselves and they gave me all the effort." Karly Wasserman walked to lead off the top of the 11th for the Eagles (23-5) before Addy Loomis reached on an error. A sacrifice bunt moved both runners up. Maddie Hartman then followed with a two-run single into left. The ball wasn't fielded cleanly, allowing Hartman to reach third. Jenna Lubash then hit a ball on the infield, but Edison got Hartman in a rundown. She was able to score when the throw home wasn't caught. The Chargers had a massive chance to win the game earlier in extra innings. In the bottom of the ninth, Peyton Taylor singled and Peyton Bissell reached on an error. After the second out, Adison Wechtner singled into left. With the bases loaded and a rare full count against Eastwood pitcher Mackenzie Hady, Delaney Fields ripped a liner. But, it was caught at short, sending the game to the 10th inning. "I guess if you look at it that way, it just wasn't meant to be for whatever reason," Caponi said. "God had a different plan. He wanted to humble us. It just didn't work out." Eastwood scored a run in the third on a Wasserman run-scoring double before extending the lead to 2-0 in the fifth inning. Edison, which was stunted for a lot of the day by Hady, finally broke through in the sixth innning. Natalie Desautels singled, reaching second on a throwing error. It didn't matter though, as Stella Brown tripled to the fence to cut the deficit in half. Taylor followed with a sacrifice fly as Edison tied the game at 2. Brown also doubled to lead off the fourth inning, but the Chargers couldn't cash in. "I expect that from Stella," Caponi said. "I knew they weren't expecting it. Stella hits fast pitching better than anybody I know. I knew I had a really good chance with her. I thought the first one was gone when she first hit it." Cloud settled in against a tough Eastwood offense, putting up zeroes for five straight innings. She allowed three earned runs while striking out eight and walking two. She battled through 144 pitches. "She was hitting her spots," Caponi said. "We moved the ball around a lot again today. She threw her riseball some. Her changeup was working. She battled. Once again, we had no conversations before the game besides what was working and what wasn't." Hady finished with 16 strikeouts, laboring through 157 pitches. The loss brings an end to the career of four Edison seniors: Brown, Taylor, Wectner and Fields. "I started four years ago and I started with them," Caponi said. "They've done everything I've asked them to do. In the offseason, they're playing basketball but still coming in to hit at 5:30 in the morning. They put the work in. Great group of girls. "It hurts my heart knowing they're leaving, but I know they're going to go off and be awesome adults." Eastwood 001 010 000 03 — 5 7 2Edison 000 002 000 00 — 2 8 2WP: M. Hady; LP: Cloud2B: (Ed) Brown. 3B: (Ed) Brown