T-L Photo/SETH STASKEY HARRISON CENTRAL right fielder Abby Jozwiak makes a running catch during the second inning of Tuesday’s OVAC Class 4A semifinal at the I-470 Complex in Wheeling. The Huskies lost, 12-2.

WHEELING — Harrison Central head coach Darrin Young arrived at the Chambers I-470 Complex Tuesday evening expecting his Huskies to be in a nip-and-tuck game against Edison in the semifinals of the OVAC Tom Bechtel Softball Championships.

Some things don’t always go as scripted.

Edison struck early and often en route to a 12-2 victory to claim a spot in Saturday afternoon’s conference title game against Oak Glen, which easily dispatched Union Local in the lidlifter on Ben’s Field.

“My hat’s off to Edison because I never would have guessed this would have been a mercy-rule type game,” a disappointed Young said. “I expected this to be a lot better ball game than it was. They did a really nice job of preparing for us and we’ll try again.”

The Wildcats (13-5) set the tone immediately. They pushed a single run across in the first and second innings before breaking out their heavy lumber in their final two at bats.

“I thought we hit the ball really well (Tuesday),” Edison head coach Spencer Bendle said. “Our lead-off hitter in the game made an out, but it was a line shot. Then our number two hitter followed with a hard-hit ball, and I think that brought us to life. In softball, (scoring first) is huge.”

The two runs were plenty for sophomore pitcher Katie Fluharty, who went the distance and limited the hard-hitting Huskies to just three hits.

“I told the kids when you play in (big games) and the opponent is hitting your pitcher, you’d better be ready to score some runs and we didn’t do a very good job at the plate,” Young lamented. “I don’t know if it was being overly anxious. The number one through six spots (in the order) have to hit for us to score runs. At times, they’ve done that, but (Tuesday) was one of the games where they didn’t do that.”

Nursing a 2-1 lead, the Wildcats flexed their muscle in the fourth when sophomore Aubrey Scott took a Harrison pitch over the straight-away centerfield fence for a three-run home run.

In the fifth, the Wildcats officially blew it open, scoring six times. Junior Alayna Meadows hit a solo home run. Savanna Anrkom and senior Hannah Christoff each had a RBI single in that big inning.

Harrison was able to push one run across, but left a runner stranded at first that would have extended the game for at least another inning.

“Katie is pitching well, but I think she may have been a bit overly excited in that fifth inning to finish the job,” Bendle said. “She has a lot of velocity and she’s starting to locate her pitches a little bit better with each outing.”