MORROW — The Edgewood High School softball team’s season came to an end Wednesday night with a 4-3 loss to Little Miami in the OHSAA Division II district semifinals.
With the loss Edgewood will end its season 13-14, and the Panthers move to 19-9 and move on to the district finals to face the 10th seeded Ursuline Academy.
Edgewood struck first with a run in the top of the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead on an Evie Short double that scored Madison Ferrell, before Little Miami answered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning.
The Cougars remained within striking distance throughout the game before the Panthers added
two more runs in the fourth inning, capitalizing on a pair of Edgewood throwing errors to extend the lead to 4-1.
Edgewood answered in the fifth inning after Baylee Strunk led off the inning with a single and later stole second base. Madison Ferrell followed an RBI single to score Strunk and cut the deficit to 4-2. Ferrell later attempted to advance to third base but was thrown out to end the inning.
“We started very rough throughout the season, but I feel like every single game we kept pushing forward,” Ferrell said. “To end this way is honestly amazing.”
Edgewood mounted one final rally in the seventh inning, starting with a leadoff homerun by Jaycie Broshear. With runners on first and second and two outs, the Cougars brought the potential tying and go-ahead runs on base before the comeback attempt ended just short when Short struck out.
First-year head coach Valarie Hudepohl said the team developed significantly from the beginning of the season to the final game.
“From the beginning of the season until now, there’s just been a lot of growth individually but also together,” she said. “It started kind of being a very cohesive group, we were playing a good game of softball, good, clean, fun game of softball.”
Despite the loss, the Cougars walked away proud after battling the Panthers to the final out.
“I’m just really proud of how we came out and actually played,” Ferrell said. “There’s no way many people thought we were going to get seven innings.”
Edgewood will graduate three seniors — Madison Ferrell, Leigha Combs and Rylee Kalick. Ferrell signed her letter of intent to play softball at West Liberty University in West Virginia.
