Over, and out

GREENFIELD — There were just six hits in the regional softball game between Greenfield and Nokomis Wednesday, but only one of them factored into the final score.

Nokomis’ Allison Schweizer led off the top of the fifth inning with a solo home run that put the Lady Redskins ahead, and Nokomis went on to take a 1-0 semifinal win at the Greenfield Regional.

Greenfield (17-6) got a solid outing from starting pitcher Ellissa Sexton, but one mistake spoiled seven innings of otherwise stellar work.

“I just left it up, I guess,” Sexton said of the pitch Schweizer hit over the right-center field fence. “It was supposed to be inside, I think, and I left it up.”

Sexton (13-6) had a no-hitter going through four innings before Schweizer’s leadoff homer in the fifth. The Greenfield senior surrendered just two hits Wednesday, both in the fifth inning. She walked three but struck out 13.

“She pitched a really good game,” Greenfield coach Caleb Williams said. “She came out a little bit shaky — I’m sure she was a little pumped up because it’s regional time — but she pitched a good game.”

Sexton, who will play softball at Monmouth College next year, said Greenfield’s losses this season have followed a similar pattern.

“It always seems like this year we’ve had like one bad inning that’s kind of ruined us for all of them, or one bad pitch,” she said. “It happens, I guess.”

Greenfield had two good chances to score runs in the fifth and seventh innings.

Paige Vinyard and Emily Pembrook hit back-to-back bloop singles to right field to start the fifth, and Jessica Bowman bunted the pair into scoring position. But a strikeout from Lindsay Gruen and an infield fly from Hattie Plogger ended the inning.

In the seventh, Vinyard and Pembrook hit back-to-back singles again, this time with one out, but couldn’t score. Bowman followed with a ground ball that Nokomis pitcher Quinn Huber threw to third base for a force out, and Gruen hit a grounder to third for the final out.

“We had a couple chances to score,” Greenfield’s Williams said. “I might have tried the squeeze play when we’ve got a girl there on third. But I don’t have my best speed on the bases, so I’ve got confidence in my hitters to get a little stroke to right or something.

“We had our chances. We just didn’t get it done,” the coach continued. “If I make a different decision, we might be playing extra innings right now or we might be walking out of here a winner.”

Huber (9-7) got the win for Nokomis. She pitched a four-hit shutout with one walk and five strikeouts.

Nokomis (11-13) will play the regional’s top seed, Raymond Lincolnwood, in the regional championship game at 11 a.m. Saturday in Greenfield.

It’s a game the Lady Tigers were hoping to be playing in themselves.

“It’s very disappointing,” Williams said. “We’re sitting here hosting the regional and I had high hopes for this team. We went 17-6 now with this loss, and it very easily could have been a 20-win season had we not had so many rainouts.

“It’s disappointing."

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