NEW PALESTINE — At the end of four years, they hardly recognized themselves at all.
This wasn’t the same Edgewood softball team that had plowed through the regular season and sectional.
The senior-laden Mustangs not only had one of their most uncharacteristic outings of the year, but if it could go wrong, it did Tuesday, June 2. And host No. 5 New Palestine took advantage with a 7-1 win in their Class 3A regional battle.
“What I told them is keep your head up,” Edgewood coach Mick Hammett said. “We won 27 games, a sectional against two teams that had a pitcher going to Tennessee and another (Cascade) that had been a state champ and had a lot of veteran players.
“They’ve had a great season. Three sectional championships in four years and a conference championship in there, too. They can’t be upset; they have to be proud and keep their heads up.”
The Dragons (22-7) had just five hits, but a cluster of walks and errors and unusual plays piled up the runs. Edgewood had just four hits, but had runners on in the third, fourth, sixth and seventh innings and couldn’t move them along.
An inconsistent strike zone leading to six of their eight strikeouts looking and four errors were among the things that frustrated the Mustangs (27-5).
“They gotta know when it’s close, you’ve got to foul tip it or something,” Hammett said. ”You can’t leave it to (the umpire’s) decision. You’ve gotta make the decision and be proactive there and get after it, and we just didn’t.”
It was a frustrating way for a class with 92 wins and three sectional titles to walk out on.
“This was definitely far from our best,” senior Madi Bland said. “Probably one of our worst games all year. Knowing we had just one hit less than them and it was that big of a difference (in the score), that just sucks. We don’t want to blame it on the umpires for a different strike zone, but also that kind of got in our heads.”
All the same, it’s been quite the ride.
“It’s been amazing,” Bland said. “All four years, we’ve come out and we’ve put up 20-plus win seasons and we’ve played for each other. It’s just been so much fun and a great high school career all around for us.”
Tough start for Edgewood
It looked good in the top of the first as Ally Bland singled, was sacrificed to second by Addison Yearby and scored on Madi’s base hit.
But the wheels started coming off in the bottom half.
Ally Bland walked the first two batters, got two outs, but then walked another to set the stage. A wild pitch tied it before a ringing double scored two more. Another hit made it 4-1.
Bland blanked New Pal the next two innings before the Dragons scored again without a hit in the fourth.
Kenna Tweedy reached on an error, moved up on a walk to Lyndsay Goodin and a fly to deep right. Goodin took off to steal second and the pick-off throw was supposed to go to Ally Bland. But the ball ticked off her glove and Tweedy sped home to make it 5-1.
“We got off to a quick start, scoring that run in the top of the first,” Hammett said. “Then we couldn’t find the strike zone there at first and let them get runners on base and put us in a bad spot and they got the key hits to bring them home.
“Then we couldn’t really mount anything up really well after that. So, give them credit, but we didn’t have our best game out there today. And at this point, you need to. I hope they win out the rest of the way.”
In the fifth, Saydie Miller had a leadoff double and scored when the next batter hit a dribbler catcher Jayden Stephens fired to first. The ball and the runner both collided with Ella Sproul at the same time and the ball popped loose.
Safe was the call as Miller spun around the bases to score.
Meanwhile, Ally Bland was stranded at third in the third and when Sproul reached on an error to start the fourth, the next two were caught looking.
It was just one of those nights, but they stuck together to the end.
“This is the closest I’ve been, or any of us have been, all four years,” Madi Bland said. “The last couple weeks, we have just been all together bought into this.
“And just being able to have 10 other sisters just makes it all that much better. It makes the memories and these losses hurt more.”
NEW PALESTINE 7, EDGEWOOD 1
Edgewood (27-5) 100 | 000 | 0 – 1 | 4 | 4
New Palestine (22-7) 400 | 110 | x – 7 | 5 | 2
Ally Bland and Jayden Stephens. Sadey Hughbanks and Lyndsay Goodin. W: Hughbanks (18-5). L: Bland (24-4).
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Edgewood softball sees season end in IHSAA 3A regional championship