Back to Akron: Hillsdale softball holds on to beat Hopewell-Loudon, advance to state

BEREA — Hillsdale’s softball team will soon be back in a familiar place.

The Falcons held a 6-1 lead against Hopewell-Loudon in the bottom of the seventh inning, but the Chieftains rallied for four runs before ultimately coming up a run short, as Hillsdale held on for a 6-5 win to claim the Division IV Strongsville Regional championship Thursday at Baldwin-Wallace University and punch its ticket to the state tournament for the third time in five years.

Hillsdale (23-3) advanced to play in a state semifinal at 12:30 p.m. June 3 at Firestone Stadium in Akron against either Hilltop or Lincolnview, who play for a regional title Friday.

“It feels like forever,” Hillsdale coach Hannah Moore said about the Falcons making it back to the state for the first time since 2019. “(Hopewell-Loudon is) a good team. It was a battle from inning one to inning seven, and neither team gave up, and that was kind of cool to see.

“I think both teams had under five strikeouts each, so it was a battle of defense and offense. It was a good game.”

Hillsdale opened the scoring in the first inning after Mollie Goon spanked a double to right-center with two outs. Belle Dalton legged out an infield single, and a throwing error to first enabled Goon to score.

The Falcons added two runs in the second. Laci Huber doubled to left, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Willow Funk and scored on Jacey Sermulis’ groundout to short. Keira Filius, who reached base on a fielder’s choice, then scored on Kylie Ohl’s RBI single to right.

The Chieftains (25-3) cut the Falcons' lead to 3-1 with a solo run in the second inning when Isabelle Beidelschies doubled and scored on a single by Brynn Sendelbach.

Hillsdale scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings to build a 6-1 lead.

Junior Taylor Morgan handcuffed Hopewell-Loudon through six innings, yielding five hits. The Chieftains, though, matched that count in the seventh, tagging her for four runs on five hits. But, with the potential tying run on base, Morgan recorded the final out by inducing a grounder off her glove that Goon fielded from her shortstop position and fired a strike to Dalton at first to send the Falcons fans into a frenzy.

“My warmup wasn’t as good as it has been, so it was kind of in my head a little bit, and I just tried to stay positive, and it helps,” said Morgan, who came up with a key hit for the second consecutive game when she plated Goon, who walked, in the fifth with a single to center. “My fundamentals are a little wacky, but I’ll take it.”

Morgan also credited the many fans wearing t-shirts with “For Each Other” written on the back, a motto the team has embraced this season.

“It’s just to remind us not to be a selfish team,” she said. “It’s not an individual sport. It’s a team sport, so if you get out one inning, make sure you don’t get down on yourself, backing each other up and picking each other up, too.”

Goon was the lone player in the game to score twice, reaching base three times with a double, walk and a single.

The sophomore said she can now tell her sisters Sophie and Hallie, who played on Hillsdale’s state title team in 2018, she is also heading to Akron.

“It means everything to me,” she said. “Both of my sisters went to state, and it is the best feeling in the world. It makes me so happy because I’ve always wanted to be just like them.”

The Falcons pull for each other, according to Goon.

“We honestly fuel each other so much,” she said. “We give each other energy, and we just support each other.”

Dalton, who had two hits, echoed Goon’s sentiments.

“We would not be here if it wasn’t for our crazy teamwork we’ve put in all season,” she said. “I just think we know what we need to do. We know we need to get the hits in and just score runs. Today, we finally jumped on them early instead of in the sixth inning.”

Senior Lacey Fickes had a key sacrifice bunt in the seventh that moved Ohl, who singled, to second. A throwing error while trying to pick Ohl off at second went into the outfield, enabling Ohl to score what proved to be the winning run.

“Coach Hannah always preaches you have to get your bunts down, and we constantly practice that, and as a two-hole batter that’s my job to get my bunt down, and I’m glad I did,” Fickes said. “We have really been practicing hard as a team. Even if we do make errors — obviously we did have a couple today — but we just come together as a team, stay focused and rally together.”

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Hillsdale softball beats Hopewell-Loudon to advance to state