MOONEY WALKS OFF CLASSIC PITCHER’S DUEL

BOARDMAN OH- Seven innings wasn’t enough on Wednesday night between Mooney and Mineral Ridge as the Cardinals waited until the 9th inning to walk it off with an Alaina Francis RBI to win a classic pitcher’s duel 3-2.

Mineral Ridge struck first in the game. After getting themselves out of a jam in the half inning prior, the Rams led off the 4th with a Courtney Boyer single. With an additional base hit to put two on with one out, Maddy Ylonen got a RBI single to score Boyer and give the Rams the lead.

The Cardinals would respond quickly as Alaina Scavina led off the bottom of the frame with a solo shot to left center to tie the game. Then Paige Pavlock drove in Francis to give Mooney a 2-1 lead after four innings.

Hannah Baird came big for the Rams in the next inning. With 2 outs the nine hitter ripped a double to get on base for the top of the lineup. An error in the next at bat let Boyer reach and Baird score to tie the game back up at 2-2.

From that point on the pitchers and defense took over. Scavina kept the Rams in check for the Cardinals, and Haleigh Taylor got out of a couple jams for Mineral Ridge with big strikeouts. It came down to the bottom of the 9th inning. With two outs and a runner on third the Rams decided to intentionally walk Scavina to put Francis up to the plate. On the second pitch Francis hit the ball hard on the ground towards the 5-6 hole. Maddy Ylonen  the Rams third baseman made a great diving play to stop the ball but couldn’t get the throw over to first in time to get Francis. The winning run scored and Mooney ended the marathon on a infield single.

Scavina got the win in the circle gir Mooney. Her final line was 9.0 IP 5 H 1 ER 11 K 1 BB.

Taylor was the tough luck loser in the circle for Ridge. Her final line looked like this 8.2 IP 11 H 3 ER 8 K 6 BB.