Indian Hill — The Arcanum Lady Trojans mixed power hitting, small ball, and outstanding defense to earn a hard-fought regional semifinal victory over the Piketon Redstreaks and punch their ticket to the regional championship game.
Arcanum entered the contest with a 16-5 record while Piketon arrived with an impressive 27-3 mark. Despite the difference in records, both teams proved why they had advanced this far, battling through a tightly contested game from start to finish.
The Redstreaks struck first in the top of the third inning. Aubrey Heath opened the frame with a double before Jaylin Forbes followed with a triple to drive in the game’s first run. Briar Penwell then executed a sacrifice bunt to bring Forbes home and give Piketon a 2-0 lead.
The Trojans answered immediately in the bottom half of the inning.
Mattingly Noe led off with a line drive single to center field. Claire Hein moved her into scoring
position with a sacrifice bunt before Jordyn Garbig stepped to the plate. After getting ahead 1-0
in the count, Garbig launched a two-run home run over the fence in right-center field, tying the
game at 2-2 and swinging the momentum back toward Arcanum.
Neither team could break through again until the fifth inning.
Hein worked a leadoff walk to get things started for the Trojans. Jordyn Garbig then laid down a sacrifice bunt, but beat the throw to first to put runners at first and second. Grace Fry followed with another perfectly executed sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position.
That set the stage for Cameron Garbig, who delivered the biggest hit of the game. The senior lined a ground ball into center field, scoring both runners and giving Arcanum a 4-2 advantage.
“That is what we do,” said Arcanum coach Abbey Morris. “Just because you hit a home run doesn’t mean you are too good to bunt. We will bunt all day long if they will give it to us.”
Piketon refused to go quietly. In the top of the sixth inning, Penwell blasted a solo home run over the center field fence to cut the deficit to 4-3.
That would be the final run the Redstreaks would score.
“Our goal is to play and win every inning,” Morris said. “We won them all but one inning, the sixth inning.”
Arcanum’s defense made sure the lead held up in the seventh.
Emily Fox made a tremendous catch in left field to rob Peyton Day of a hit for the first out. Moments later, Rees Hoffman raced down what appeared to be an extra-base hit off the bat of Adriauna Spradlin and made a key grab in right field for the second out.
With the game on the line, Cameron Garbig took care of the rest, striking out Heath on three pitches to end the game and send the Trojans to the regional championship.
“We stuck with it,” Morris said. “We’ve been preaching to play seven whole innings, and that’s exactly what we did. We left a lot of runners on base. Bases loaded with one out and didn’t get a run, but they came back and got two, and we came back and got two with them.”
Garbig earned the complete-game victory, allowing just five hits while striking out three and walking only one. She trusted her defense throughout the afternoon, and the Trojans rewarded that confidence by playing a flawless game in the field without committing an error.
“We did everything right that we were supposed to do,” Morris said. “They are a heck of a team, a great defensive team.”
With the victory, Arcanum advances to Friday’s regional championship game at Indian Hill, where the Trojans will be one win away from earning a trip to state.
