If you were looking for any resident of Edinburgh or Hope on Tuesday evening, the Steve Hollenbeck Athletic Complex was a pretty safe bet.
The Class A softball regional between longtime rivals Hauser and Edinburgh drew in seemingly everyone from the area, as fans sitting in lawn chairs or standing behind them encircled the field and dozens of others watched from atop their cars or from the football bleachers across the parking lot.
And the action didn’t disappoint, with a wild back-and-forth affair featuring big momentum swings both ways. Unfortunately for Lancer fans, the last of those big swings was a three-run homer from Hauser’s Hannah Taylor in the sixth inning that powered the visiting Jets to a 10-7 triumph.
Hauser (25-4) advances to the North Daviess Semistate on Saturday, where it will face Clay City in a 1 p.m. semifinal.
“It was a great offensive show for everybody,” Edinburgh coach Ben Taylor said. “We had our home runs … and it’s just kind of convenient that that’s what puts us down, too. We lived and died by it all year.”
With the game deadlocked through five innings, the Jets got consecutive singles from Morgan Bottoms and Kyra Meister to open the sixth before Taylor — who drove in a total of six runs on the night — delivered the decisive blow with a bomb to center field.
Hauser pitcher Paige McDaniel, who had given up 11 Edinburgh hits over the first five innings, set down the final six hitters in order after Taylor’s blast, killing any hopes of another Lancer rally.
The Jets struck for three runs in the top of the first, getting an RBI single from Taylor and a two-run double from Danielle Steward, but the Lancers (16-11) punched right back in the bottom of the frame. Kyah Streeval led off with a base hit, advanced to third on an error and came home when Gracie Crawhorn tucked a base hit just inside the right-field line. MacKenzie Bieker promptly followed by launching a three-run homer to right center, giving Edinburgh a 4-3 advantage after one.
Hauser reclaimed the lead in the second on an RBI single from Kyra Meister and a two-run double by Taylor, but the Jets squandered an opportunity for more when Taylor was called out for tagging early on a pop out to deep short, ending what could have been a bigger inning.
Edinburgh then got the lead back with one big swing in the bottom of the third. After Crawhorn and Bieker led off with back-to-back singles, Catey Streeval sent a 3-2 pitch over the wall in left for her fifth homer of the season, sending the home crowd into a frenzy and giving the reporters in their midst at least temporary hearing damage.
“It was just right down the middle,” Streeval said with a smile. “My favorite pitch.”
An error in the top of the fourth gave the Jets a runner at third with one out, but Bieker registered back-to-back strikeouts to escape unharmed. The freshman nearly escaped an even dicier situation — a runner on third with nobody out — in the fifth, but Hauser’s Kylie Mack came through with a two-out, two-strike RBI single to tie the game at 7-7.
Catey Streeval got a leadoff single in the bottom of the fifth and moved into scoring position on a wild pitch, but Edinburgh couldn’t regain the lead and the Jets took it back for good moments later.
Despite the setback, the mood on the Edinburgh side of the field after the game was largely upbeat. For starters, the Lancers will have several key pieces back in place next season and should be able to complement them with some others who missed most of this spring due to injury.
They’ll also still have that ongoing rivalry with a Hauser team that returns the bulk of its lineup as well.
“We’ll see Hauser plenty of times next year, too,” Taylor said. “And the plan is that we’re just going to try to grow together with them. We do have a great battery in MacKenzie and Kyah … Gracie Crawhorn will be back to go to third. Hopefully at that point, we’ll have Carly (Cowan) back in the outfield, we’ll have Alix Streeval back wherever she has to go, hopefully we’ll get a healthy Shelby Graham back with us. … We’ll work with what we’ve got.”
In addition, the six graduating Edinburgh seniors got a chance to go out with some hardware, winning the program’s first sectional title since 2017.
“It feels pretty good,” Catey Streeval said of reclaiming the sectional trophy in her final season. “I’m glad I got to play with all of these girls, and I wish them the best of luck next season.”
