The Hillsdale Softball Team fell to the Mechanicsburg Indians 7-3 at the Division IV State Softball Semifinals in Akron. The teams were fired up as the lights turned on at Firestone Stadium on Friday night.

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The first run would belong to the Indians in the top of the second after Hillsdale dropped two fly balls.

Indians coach Abbey DeLong said “That’s our goal every game. I think we’ve done that in probably 95 percent of our games,” she said. “I think we play better when we’re visitors and can go out and score first.”

 

Keeping momentum in the fourth the Indians would gain another 3 runs with two hits, 1 walk and another error by the Falcons making the score 4-0.
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Hillsdale would finally see a run in the bottom of the fourth with a sacrifice fly by sophomore Emma Fowler, but the Indians were on fire scoring another run in the top of the fifth making it a 5-1 game.

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“These girls didn’t stop fighting all day. We started out the game down 1-0 and they fought hard the entire game,” Falcons coach Hanna Fulk said.

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Hillsdale stood strong and reached home plate twice in the bottom of the fifth with a walk by Hattie Stamen, a bunt by Jessie Rowland and Sophia Goon brought home a run with a ground out and Crossen collected an RBI with a sacrifice fly to center.

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The score now 5-3 leading into the seventh, the Falcons were on the comeback trail when Mechanicsburg sophomore Hannah DeLong took the plate and struck a 3-2 pitch over the left field wall for a two-run homer and Mechanicsburg would win 7-3.

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The Indians will play Sunday at 10 a.m. for a state title against Antwerp, a 1-0 winner over Peebles in the other state semifinal game.

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The Archers are also making their first state tournament appearance.