BUCYRUS — Going against the top-ranked team in Ohio in a regional semifinal is nerve-racking enough, but to have to do it while missing a couple of important components makes the task all the more daunting.
Keystone jumped on a whole lot of shaky fielding by shorthanded Canal Winchester, scoring six unearned runs in a 7-0 victory over the Indians in a Division II semifinal Wednesday. The Wildcats got four unearned runs in the third inning and added two more in the fifth.
Their only earned run came in the sixth inning when Kara Dill singled, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Clare Sullivan’s two-out hit.
“It was important to put pressure on their defense, and for us to capitalize on it,” Keytone coach Jim Piazza said. “Sometimes one mistakes leads to another.”
Keystone (26-4) made a few mistakes, too. The Wildcats’ three miscues, however, didn’t snowball on them.
“When we made errors we managed to stay focused,” Piazza said. “Our players didn’t let it affect them.”
The most focused of all was probably Lauren Wagner, the Wildcats’ sophomore pitcher. Wagner allowed only two hits and walked none. Three of the five baserunners for Canal Winchester (19-11) were erased via two failed stolen-base attempts and a double play.
“Lauren did a great job of keeping the hitters off balance and getting the ground balls we needed for the outs,” Piazza said. “I hope we can correct the bad throws to first and go on from here.”
Keystone meets the winner of today’s game between Clyde and Eastwood on Saturday at noon.
The Indians were missing two starters. Pitcher-first baseman Emily Hall sustained a partially fractured tibia in the district championship game with Columbus St. Francis DeSales and center fielder Tabatha Beck suffered a knee injury in a powder-puff football game May 16.
“It’s so tough coming in here when you do not have your best out there,” Canal Winchester coach Randy Hinton said. “We just couldn’t get things going our way. Some of it might have been because of bad coaching decisions. I’ll take responsibility for that.”
Ginger Slone got things moving for the Wildcats by reaching base via a throwing error. Aubrey Ridinger’s bunt was mishandled at shortstop and Keystone had runners on first and third. Dill hit a hard shot to pitcher Kris Landenburg that struck Landenburg’s glove and bounced off her head to score Slone with the only run the ’Cats would need.
Landenburg finished the inning, but was removed for the fourth because Hinton sensed the hit to the head had affected her pitching.
Dill stole second to put runners on second and third with no one outs. Kim Kokoski and Sullivan followed with successive run-scoring fly balls to left field to put the score at 3-0. Kate Yeo drew a walk, Taylor Bell singled and the inning’s third error permitted pinch-runner Alexa Delorm to get home for a 4-0 lead.
Two errors to begin the fifth inning put Sullivan and Yeo on base. A force out at second left the Wildcats with runners at the corners for Taylor Kessinger, who doubled to left to score Sullivan. A wild pitch brought Bell home.
The Indians had only one runner get as far as second base. Carmen Hughes was out at third after a failed hit-and-run attempt in the third inning.
 

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