[jwplatform s4oAEF9Q-0sfMkJ85]
SHG watched a 5-1 lead in Friday’s 3A state semifinal dwindle and eventually disappear with a walk off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 7th inning to Washington in a 6-5 loss. It’s the second straight season that the Cyclones were denied a trip to the state championship game by the Panthers. Last year Washington won a 5-3, 10 inning affair in this same game, on the same field.
Katie McLean set the tone with a lead off home run for the Cyclones who scored twice in the first inning. They added a run in the third inning and a Rene Abernathy homerun to lead off the fifth ran the lead to 4-1. SHG would load the bases with no outs later in the fifth inning, but that resulted in just one run and made it a 5-1 Cyclone lead.
Washington pitcher Madi McCoy, who entered the game with a 29-1 record and a 1.12 era, led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo home run to close the gap to 5-2. Washington scored twice more in the inning to reduce the Cyclone lead to one run.
In the bottom of the seventh with SHG leading 5-4, Whitney David induced a pop fly to first base for the first out but that was followed up with a walk and a single from Washington. An RBI single to right field from Hayley Earl tied the game at 5-5 and moved the game winning run to third base. The next batter shot a sacrifice fly to left field that was deep enough to score the game winning run.
