With Bellwood-Antis pitcher Lainey Stinson sitting on 16 strikeouts with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning of the District 6 Class 2A title game on Thursday, she got another strikeout, but a dropped third strike allowed the game to continue. After that, an uncharacteristic error from the Lady Blue Devils kept the game going with the tying run on base.

The wait for that final out was very well worth it.

Unlike many freshmen that are put in her position, Stinson buckled down and got strikeout No. 18 for the day, securing a 2-0 victory over top-seeded West Shamokin for the district title.

“You never know what’s going to go wrong,” Bellwood-Antis coach Heather Quick said. “The wheels fell off the bus a little in the last inning. I think they started to get anxious out there.”

The Bellwood-Antis softball team celebrates moments after their championship win on Thursday. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

“I’m just so happy right now, and just so happy for my team,” Stinson said.

West Shamokin came into the game undefeated at 21-0. The Lady Wolves scored double-digit runs in a dozen of their games this season, but were kept off the scoreboard Thursday.

“It’s a tough one,” West Shamokin coach Gary Stewart said. We just came out a little tight today. We didn’t really play our game.”

Everyone around Bellwood-Antis knew that there was plenty of talent coming up in the freshmen class. The second-seeded Lady Blue Devils had four of them in the starting lineup on Thursday. It became clear for Quick rather quickly that a district title wasn’t out of the question from the start for a young core that mixed well with the upperclassmen that had experience.

Bellwood-Antis just got over the .500 mark last year at 10-9, but hadn’t seen any success in years prior to last season.

“I thought with the kids that we had coming up that we had a chance,” Quick said. “We had a good pitcher coming up. The other freshmen that are playing brought good bats with them. But you never know how the season is going to go.”

Stinson and West Shamokin pitcher Leah Mondi both threw up zeroes for the first five innings. Each team had just three baserunners in those first five frames.

With one out in the top of the sixth, Parker Martin drew a walk before London McKee doubled to put runners at second and third.

Abby Clabaugh then blooped a double into right field that scored Martin for the first run of the game.

“I was hitting it well (my first two at-bats), but getting out,” Clabaugh said. “I was just trying to put the ball in play.”

Mondi also allowed an unearned run in the top of the seventh as Izzy Sweet reached on an error, and later came around to score on an RBI single from Karlie Sweigert to get an insurance run.

The Lady Wolves put together their biggest threat in the bottom of the second when Cam Vandevort flared an opposite-field single and Madi Keirn dropped down a bunt single. Both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch with no outs, but Stinson fired three strikeouts in a row to keep the game scoreless.

“We’ve seen a couple good (pitchers) this year,” Stewart said. “(Stinson) is up there (with the best), for sure.”

Stinson followed up the second inning with almost getting an immaculate inning in the third. She had eight straight strikes, but threw a ball in an 0-2 count to the third batter.

“She’s a talented kid. She puts in hours that people have no idea that she does on her own time,” Quick said. “She earns everything that she gets.”

Stinson allowed just three hits for the game, two to Vandevort and Keirn’s bunt single.

“We have been going every game like everybody is 0-0 and we want to leave 1-0 and they leave 0-1,” Quick said. “That’s how we do it in the playoffs. We didn’t know too much about (West Shamokin), and their record is intimidating. It kept us on our heels a little knowing they were undefeated.”

Bellwood-Antis will play Chartiers-Houston, the fourth place team out of District 7 on Monday at a District 6 site. Time and location are to be determined with brackets released over the weekend.

BELLWOOD-ANTIS (2): Sweigert 2b 401, Martin ss 310, McKee 1b 302, Clabaugh dp 301, Gregg cf 300, Stinson p 300, Sweet rf 311, Conlon lf 100, Taylor c 300, Johnsonbaugh (flex) 3b 000. Totals — 26-2-5.

WEST SHAMOKIN (0): A. Elkin ss 300, Kimmel 3b 200, Mondi p 300, Vandevort c 302, Keirn rf 301, Grantz 2b 300, Bennett dp 300, K. Elkin cf 300, Gourley lf 300, McClafferty (flex) 1b 000. Totals — 26-2-5.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Bellwood-Antis 000 001 1–2 5 1

West Shamokin 000 000 0–0 3 2

2B–McKee, Clabaugh. RBI–Sweigert, Clabaugh. WP–Stinson. LP–Mondi. SO–Stinson 18; Mondi 5. BB–Stinson 1; Mondi 1.

Records: Bellwood-Antis (18-4); West Shamokin (21-1).