SOFTBALL: Cobden sends Lady Falcons home, 5-1

One bad inning took Elverado out of Thursday afternoon's Class A Softball Regional semifinal game with Cobden, as the Appleknockers scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth with the help of two errors, a walk and a hit batter to defeat the Lady Falcons 5-1.

Cobden moves on to Saturday's championship at Trico High School where they will face the top-seeded Lady Pioneers. Elverado finishes their season with an even 11-11 record.

"They only had two more hits than us, and they had two more errors than we did," said EHS head softball coach Donette Wheatley. "Unfortunately, we didn't capitalize on their mistakes and they strung half of their hits together with a walk and a hit-by-pitch, and it plated four runs for them."

"We had that one bad inning, other than that we played a good game defensively. We never hit the ball solidly today outside of the four hits that we got."

Three of the Lady Falcons' four hits came in the top of the third inning when they grabbed a 1-0 lead on Baylie McClanahan's RBI single that brought in Elizabeth Schafer. Elverado did have more base runners - five of them - but all five were stranded.

The Appleknockers tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the third when Carly Washer reached on an error, scoring Brooke Bailey, who led off the inning with a base hit.

Cobden did the rest of their damage an inning later, and all of it with two outs. MaKynzie Peterman, Kaitlin McWhorter and Bailey all singled with two down, then Washer walked, Josi Braden was hit by a pitch, and both Keileigh Britt and Molly Ellis reached on Falcon errors, resulting in a four-run fourth for the Appleknockers.

The bottom of Cobden's order frustrated the Lady Falcons all day, as the 7-through-9 spots combined to go 6-for-9 at the dish.

Britani Prescott took the loss for EHS. She allowed three earned runs on six hits and a walk while striking out six.

McClanahan (1-4, RBI), Cheyenne Abbadusky (1-4), Maycee Bowlin (1-3) and Sierra Albright (1-3) had hits for the Lady Falcons, who played without starting first basemen Tori Ehlers. Ehlers had surgery on Wednesday to remove her tonsils.