Lady Oracles lose sectional heartbreaker
By John Dunn Contributing sportswriter

For the second year in a row, Coach Randy German's Delphi girls' softball team left the field feeling as if they were the better team after a closely-played season ending loss in the semi-final round of the Class 2A Sectional played last Tuesday at North Montgomery.

Playing a team it had defeated twice during conference play in the regular season, the Lady Oracles dropped an extra-inning marathon heartbreaker to Sheridan, 3-2 in 10 innings.

Despite the overall stats page seeming to tell a much different story, the final score would not agree.

Considering that Delphi outhit its opponent eight to four, had 17 runners reach base safely to Sheridan's six, was retired in order in an inning just three times to the Blackhawks' six, committed only one error to its opponent's three, and had only three batters strike out to Sheridan's 11, one might feel pretty good about the Lady Oracles' chances of winning.

But Delphi was left studying the stats page looking for explanations and thinking what could have been after coming up short in its bid for a second consecutive sectional championship after the Blackhawks' scored the game-winning run in the bottomhalf of the 10th inning, Delphi had its lone miscue of the game occur on an infield groundball with one-out and a runner on second base.

"We have nothing to hang our head's about", German said. "We had a great year and have a lot to be proud of."

"Sure, we would have preferred a different result," he said. "But I hope we can use this experience to come back even more determined to win it next year."

"My only regret is that our lone senior did not get to experience a sectional championship."

The Lady Oracles received a brilliant performance on the mound from sophomore pitcher Brittney Atwood, who finishes the season with a 10-7 record. She was again at her best, limiting Sheridan (13-14) to four hits over 9 innings, striking out 11 and walking only one in the hardluck loss.

During another crucial stretch of the game starting with no outs in the 6th inning through the bottom of the 10th, Atwood retired 12 consecutive batters before a Blackhawk finally reached base on a single to left, setting the stage for what proved to be the game-winning run.

A perfectly-executed sacrifice bunt moving her to second base and an infield groundball later, and the game was over - just that quick.

Delphi again jumped in front in the top of the 4th inning, scoring two runs on a two-out, basesloaded Erika Hawn single to left scoring Amanda Schultz and Brianne Stauffer with what would be the lone Oracle runs.

The Blackhawks tied it with two runs in the bottom of the 6th on the only walk allowed to leadoff the inning, followed by a double to right-center and a pair of groundouts to short.

Hawn led the way offensively, going 3-of-4 with two RBIs, while Kristina Barnard, Kayla Yates, Leslie Kayser, Schultz and Stauffer each added singles.

Barnard finished the year with a team-high batting average of .459, while also leading in hits (45), doubles (13) and on-base percentage (.514). She also tied with Schultz and Hawn for the team lead in RBIs (14) and with Schultz for fewest strikeouts (9).

Schultz led with 22 runs scored and finished second in batting average (.367), on-base percentage (.505) and doubles (5). Brittany Tyner and Atwood tied for team lead in triples (3), and Aspen Wallace stole a teamleading nine bases.

On the mound, Atwood led in wins (10), earned run average (2.27), strikeouts (89), opposing team batting average (.216) and innings pitched (120 ). Schultz added seven wins, 67 strikeouts, a save and a respectable 3.35 ERA.

The Lady Oracles, who lose only Stauffer to graduation, finish the season with a 17-13 overall record.