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Washington Evening Journal
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Fairfield softball comes up short to West Burlington in 3A Region 8
Trojans tripped up in regional quarterfinal
WEST BURLINGTON — Fairfield and West Burlington softball battled to the brink on Thursday night in the two’s Class 3A Region 8 quarterfinal.
A game that needed extra innings to decide a winner concluded with West Burlington (22-11) edging Fairfield (13-15) 2-1.
From the get go, it was a pitchers duel between Fairfield ace Coty Engle and West Burlington’s Lauren Summers.
Both would finish the contest with double digit strikeouts, Engle finishing with 10 while allowing just seven hits.
After a tight knit battle through eight innings of action, the Trojans and Falcons headed into the ninth at a standstill, 1-1.
Fairfield had a golden opportunity to put the pressure on the Falcons heading into the bottom half of the frame, but couldn’t get the runs home.
After a pair of outs to begin the ninth, Coty Engle hit a single up the middle, followed by a Savannah Hollander walk. Olivia Hollander then stepped up to the plate and notched a single herself to load the bases.
Lilly Bergren got a shot at breaking the tie, but her hard hit grounder was corralled and thrown home for the force out.
That proved to be the Trojans final trip to the plate.
Fairfield started the bottom of the frame out right with a strikeout from Engle, but a pair of errors ended up being the difference maker.
West Burlington hit a pair of ground balls in the next two at-bats, but both were misfielded and instead of heading into the 10th the Falcons had runners at first and second.
After a past ball during the at-bat of West Burlington’s Lauren Krieger, runners moved to second and third.
Krieger then lifted a fly ball to shallow left field, but Emmelia Miller’s throw home wasn’t in time as Bella Blaufuss crossed the plate for the walk-off victory.
West Burlington opened the scoring in the first inning and Fairfield answered in the fourth with an RBI single from Leah Helmick to score Laney Norris.
The Trojans finish out the season at 13-15.
