It took extra innings to decide the outcome of Wednesday’s game between the Lady Lions of Washington High School and the Lady Tigers of McClain.

Finally, Washington won the game with a run in the bottom of the 10th, 5-4.

Jordan Kearns was the winning pitcher for Washington. She allowed six hits and four runs (two earned) with a career-high 16 strikeouts. She walked three batters.

Bolender started for McClain and pitched seven innings, giving up six hits and four runs (three earned) with four strikeouts and two walks.

Burchett came on in relief and sustained the loss for the Lady Tigers. She pitched 2.2 innings with two hits and one earned run. She walked one and struck out two.

Washington scored one run in the second and McClain took a 2-1 lead in the top of the third.

The Lady Lions scored to tie the game in the third and took a 4-2 lead with two runs in the fourth.

McClain tied the game with two runs in the fifth and then the two teams settled in for a bit of a siege over the next five innings.

Finally, in the bottom of the 10th, with one out, Brooklyn Devenport was hit by a pitch. She stole second and Maddy Jenkins was intentionally walked.

After the second out was recorded, Lilly Cowman came through with her third hit of the game, scoring Devenport with the winning run.

Jenkins had two hits for Washington and B. Smith and Easter each had two hits for McClain.

“Jordan started getting tired there in the seventh,” Washington head coach Randy Elzey said. “But she got out of the seventh pretty good. I looked in her eyes and asked her if she still had it and she said, ‘absolutely, coach.’ So we decided to leave her in.

“This is just a good team win overall,” Elzey said. “I thought I saw a lot of fire in all the girls tonight. Jordan led us on the mound, but we had some great defensive plays behind her. We’re a young team and we’re going to keep battling and keep getting better as the season goes along.”

“The way the girls competed, I can’t question that at all,” McClain head coach Ed Bolender said. “We look at the early innings where we kind of gave a couple of runs away. The scored two runs (in the fourth) and didn’t hit a ball out of the infield.

“It’s a learning process with a young team,” Bolender said. “After we got through the third and fourth inning, we really competed. You have to tip your hat to Court House, too. They did the same thing. We just have to find ways to make sure we make plays early to where it doesn’t cost us late.

“Cierra started for us and went seven,” Bolender said. “Kind of a hard luck starter, really. She probably pitched a little better than the results. And Kyla has just been a bulldog for us all season, beating Trace and Chillicothe in her last two outings.

McClain is now 2-2 in the FAC, 3-5 overall with a game Friday as they host Hillsboro.

Washington is now 2-2 in the FAC with a non-league game at Clark Southeastern today and a league game at home against Miami Trace Friday at 5 p.m.

Softball

As the temperature rose a bit and the sun shone brightly, the Washington Blue Lions hosted the McClain Tigers in a varsity baseball game in the Frontier Athletic Conference Wednesday evening.

The Blue Lions won this game, 10-8.

Washington scored one run in the first and one in the second.

The Tigers tied the game with two runs in the third.

The Blue Lions scored two in the third to take a 4-2 lead.

Washington added two runs in the fifth, only to see McClain score six times in the top of the sixth to take an 8-6 lead.

The Blue Lions accepted that challenge and rallied for four runs in the bottom of the sixth, scoring all four after two were out.

Grant Patterson pitched two innings in relief for the win for Washington. He allowed three hits and two runs (one earned) with three strikeouts and no walks.

Nick Barrett started for the Blue Lions and pitched five innings. He allowed six runs (three earned) on six hits. He struck out five and walked two.

“Nick pitched well tonight,” Washington head coach Mark Schwartz said. “He deserved to get the win. We had some costly errors, which have been a problem for us all year.

“Nick had a big two-out double that tied it,” Schwartz said. “I put Christian Grove in to pinch run for him. Kenny Arboleda scored the ninth run on a passed ball and Christian scored from second on that.”

Austin Booth started for the Tigers and suffered the loss. He pitched 5.2 innings with eight hits and nine runs (seven earned). He struck out two and walked six.

Saylers pitched one-third of an inning for McClain, with one hit and one run (unearned), one walk and one strikeout.

The Blue Lions had eight hits, with Tyler Rood, Barrett and Ryan Schwartz each having two.

McClain collected nine hits with Anderson, Pollock and Hutchinson each having two hits.

For the Blue Lions, Barrett, Schwartz, Eli Ruth and Jarred Hall each hit doubles.

Kenny Arboleda had two rbi and Barrett drove in three runs.

Saylers and Faulconer both had two rbi for McClain and Pollock drove in three.

“It was a good team effort,” McClain head coach Richie Bunner said. “There were a lot of unearned runs today. We probably gave them at least four or five unearned runs. That’s our strength, our defense.

“Like I told the kids, I’m not disappointed in how we played and how we fought and how we came back,” Bunner said. “We hit (the ball well). What I’m disappointed in is that we gave them some extra outs. That can’t happen at this level.

“On the bright side of things, we played well as a team and we fought back,” Bunner said. “Everything came into place, but we just came up on the short end.”

McClain (3-5 overall, 1-3 in the FAC) is at Hillsboro Friday.

Chris Hoppes is the Sports Editor for the Record-Herald in Washington Court House.