BARNESVILLE — One inning can make all the difference, and in Monday’s OHSAA Division V East 1 Sectional between No. 8 Barnesville and No. 10 Coshocton, it was the very first inning that loomed over the remainder of an 8-4 postseason victory for Coshocton.

As Coshocton stepped up to the plate to begin the game in the top of the first, it didn’t take long for things to go sideways for the Shamrocks. Two walks followed by a double from Savannah Gambill gave the visitors a 2-0 lead before Barnesville could record an out, and two walks and two errors later, four more had come ’round as the Shamrocks suffered through a six-run opening frame from Coshocton.

“The first inning, of course, was our downfall,” Barnesville head coach Kelley Hanlon said of her team’s quick 6-0 deficit. “The pitchers weren’t quite getting the calls we wanted there for a little bit. We just didn’t come through. It ended up being four walks and two hits before we changed pitchers. We just struggled to get the bat on the ball and take the lead down a little notch before it came to the end of the game. We could have just like whittled away at it a little bit each inning, but we just couldn’t make it happen.”

Barnesville was poised to do damage on multiple occasions, but couldn’t break through with the final big hit. The Shamrocks had bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the third inning, but were wiped out by two-straight groundouts, and again had bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the fourth inning, but were sat down by back-to-back strikeouts.

“We left bases loaded twice and had two on base once after that,” Hanlon said. “You can’t leave people on base, and we just didn’t have the hits, we didn’t string them together to make it work. But I thought they played really hard on defense after that first inning.”

Peyton Loudin got Barneville on the board in the bottom of the fifth, punching a liner that got by the right fielder and gave the Shamrock pitcher an RBI triple.

Coshocton’s Jazlene Brown ripped a two-run single up the middle in the top of the sixth to extend the visitor’s lead, 8-1.

Barnesville tried to put together a last-gasp comeback in the seventh. With one out, Roselyne Anderson cracked an RBI single to center field to bring the deficit back down to six, and Sophie Carpenter hammered a hit to right field which scored two more, but the ‘Rocks were sat down by strikeouts to end the game.

On the day, Loudin finished with two hits and Becklee Oliver had three hits. Abygail Ady hit a double as Barnesville finished with eight hits as a team– one more than Coshocton, though the Shamrocks were charged with four errors.

Loudin also tossed the final 6.2 innings of the game, striking out seven as Barnesville tried to battle back.

The Shamrocks’ season ends with a 13-13 record. Coshocton moves on to face Tusky Valley in the sectional final on Wednesday.