Photo by Andrew Grimm Barnesville players greet Maddy Tyson at home plate after her two-run homer against Edison on Wednesday in their Division V East District tournament contest inside the Edison Unified Sports Complex.

RICHMOND — Wednesday’s sectional final between Barnesville and Edison had more twists and turns than any country road John Denver sang about, and more ups and downs than any roller coaster at Kennywood.

After the nearly 2-hour-and-45-minutes, 10 inning battle in which both teams seemed poised to win at multiple points, it was the Shamrocks who finally got the last celebration with an 18-15 sectional victory in an all-time classic.

Barnesville, which trailed 9-1 in the second inning, and had a three-run lead get away with two outs in the seventh, advances to the Division V East District tournament after the roller coaster of emotions to get there.

“I’m still in shock, I’ve lost my voice,” Barnesville head coach Kelly Hanlon said. “We got down, we had a really bad inning with errors and walks and it cost us, but the girls just kept playing, they kept fighting and chipping away and we went ahead. We hit very well today, I’m very proud of how they’re hitting.

“This time of year is all about keeping fighting and we sure did. That was a long game. Edison is a good team, we were tied for the fourth seed originally and they won the tie breaker, so we should have expected a close match up and we sure got it, we were just fortunate enough to end up ahead at the end.”

In fact, even the final lead change was a bit of a wild ride, as it appeared as though Peyton Loudin had hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the top of the 10th, but after the celebration at home plate wound down the umpires conferenced and ruled the hit a ground-rule double.

Lilly Welch’s RBI single later in the inning, though, did break the tie, Mariah Schaffer and Maddy Tyson driving in runs on back-to-back at bats following it for a three-run cushion.

After two quick outs to start the bottom half, a walk and a single with two outs allowed Edison (12-15) to bring the tying run to the plate, but a well-hit shot to right was snagged by Barnesville’s Kylee Powell for out No. 3, ending what had been a wild contest without any more dramatics.

“I’m really proud of my girls, they played hard the whole game and never gave up, the cards just weren’t in our hands today,” Edison head coach McKenzie Morrison said. “They battled the whole season, they bounced back from losses and played hard and fought hard all the way to the last swing.

“Barnesville did a really good job, they have really good hitters. Good luck to them in the rest of the tournament.”

In the seventh, both teams looked as though they were poised for victory. Barnesville (20-6) erased a 12-11 hole and took 14-12 lead with a two-run homer from Tyson, her second of the game, and a solo shot from Abigail Johnson in back-to-back at-bats, another run scoring later on a two-out error to make it a 15-12 Rocks lead.

A one-out RBI double from Abby Boka got the Cats within two, then a two-out, two-run double from Leighanne Anderson knotted the score up and forced extra innings.

Edison had recovered and taken a 12-11 lead on a two-run double from Anderson in the sixth, which came after Barnesville had gone ahead on a Loudin RBI double in the top half of the inning.

Each team had a big inning to lead to a 10-10 tie in the fifth.

First, Edison plated nine runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a commanding 9-1 lead.

In the big inning, Chloe Peckens drove in the first and last runs as she had two RBI triples, Bristol Leanza had an RBI triple, Boka hit a two-run triple, Anderson had an RBI single and two more runs scored on errors, the last four of the runs in the onslaught coming with two outs.

Barnesville did not go away, though, as Dudzik smacked a two-run homer in the third and the Rocks climbed to within 9-4 going to the fifth, when Loudin knocked a two-run single, Welch hit a sac fly, Schaffer brought a run in on a sac bunt and then Tyson blasted a game-tying two-run homer to make it a 10-10 ball game, setting up the wild finish.

SENIOR FAREWELL

Wednesday was the end for two Edison seniors, Ali Shrieve and Mariah Hunter

“My seniors always played hard and never gave up,” Morrison said. “Ali poured her heart and soul into the program and Mariah was the ultimate teammate, she always had a positive attitude. We’re really going to miss both of them and are proud of them.

“We’ll have a lot of returners coming back next year, and we’re excited about that, but right now we’re saying thank you to our two seniors.”

UP NEXT

Barnesville: Will take on No. 1 seed Tusky Valley in the district semifinals on Monday in Zoarville.

Edison: Season concludes.