Fairbanks senior Hailey Dee slides into second base with a double Saturday afternoon. The Lady Panthers fell, 9-5, to Liberty Union during the Division III district championship game at Pickerington Central High School.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Aleksei Pavloff)
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“We gave away too many freebies.”
That’s how Fairbanks High School softball coach Amy Sines described Saturday’s 9-5 loss to Liberty Union during the Division III district championship game at Pickerington Central High School.
The top-seeded Lady Panthers were in decent shape with a 4-0 lead after the fifth inning.
The bottom, however, fell out in the visitors’ portion of the sixth when the No. 3 Lions plated six runs.
Panther pitcher Macy Kise, who took a 12-2 record into the game, struggled to find her control. She issued six walks, hit a trio of batters and threw six wild pitches throughout the contest.
Zeros went up on the scoreboard during the first 4 1/2 innings.
Liberty Union got runners on base in each of those frames, but six of them were left stranded when Kise was able to bear down and get final outs.
Fairbanks tallied its first two runs of the post-season contest off Liberty Union pitcher Susie Schwartz in the home half of the fourth.
Anna Dulle led off with a walk and Jenna Dee singled.
Dee went to second on the throw from the outfield to put two runners in scoring position.
Kise helped herself with a sacrifice fly that brought Dulle home for a 1-0 lead.
Dee advanced to third on the fly ball out. She then raced home when Maddi Sines beat out a squeeze bunt for a base hit.
Miah Cheney went in as a pinch-runner for Sines.
Claire Meihls singled between a popup and groundball out that helped Schwartz escape further trouble.
The Dee sisters accounted for the runs that gave FHS (which finished the season with a 19-3-1 record) a 4-0 advantage in the fifth.
With one down, Hailey Dee doubled and held the base on a ground ball out.
Jenna Dee then smacked a two-run round-tripper for the Lady Panthers’ four-run spread.
Kise followed with a two-out walk, but Schwartz put one of her six strikeouts in the book to end the inning.
A combination of a wild pitch, hit batter and six base hits led to Liberty Union’s six-run explosion in the top of the sixth.
Brook Brockman drove in a pair of runs with a double that tied the score at 4-4.
The second out of the inning then came when catcher Jenna Dee saved a run from being scored on a tag at the plate.
Schwartz, however, doubled in the go-ahead runs before Kise ended the carnage with a strikeout.
Fairbanks threatened to tally additional runs in the bottom of the sixth.
With one down, Meihls was issued a walk and Tiffini Harper blooped a single to the edge of the outfield grass.
Hailey Dee was issued an intentional walk to load the sacks with two down.
A ground ball out, however, ended the inning and left the bases juiced.
Kise fell victim to a trio of wild pitches in the top of the seventh. All three moved runners and accounted for one of Liberty Union’s scores.
Other runs, all charged to Kise’s ledger, scored after base hits off the Panther starter or relief pitcher Maddi Sines.
Sines was able to put a strikeout in the book and coaxed a popup and fly ball to prevent further damage.
Facing a 9-4 deficit in the bottom of the seventh, the Lady Panthers plated a consolation run.
Jenna Dee walked and advanced to second on a ground ball out.
Schwartz’s next K put Fairbanks one out away from seeing its season come to an end.
Elizabeth Gregory singled in Dee for the final run of FHS’ 2024 campaign.
A ground ball out brought the contest to a conclusion.
“Liberty Union started to time up and hit Maci (late in the game),” said coach Sines.
The Lady Panther hurler yielded nine hits on the day.
“Defensively, we played a clean game, but Liberty Union’s pitcher just kept us off-balance,” she said.
“However, I’m proud of how the girls played all season.”
LU 000 006 3-9 9 0
FHS 000 220 1-5 7 0
WP: Schwartz
LP: Kise