But Weaver hit a double to score courtesy runner Kiana Kushiyama from second, then Thalia Rojas legged out a bunt single and Weaver scored from second base without the ball being thrown home to give the No. 23 seeded Skyhawks a 3-2 win against No. 10 seed West Salem.
It’s the kind of loss that sticks with a team.
“It’s one of those things in the last inning when you’re in playoff softball you can’t give good teams extra outs,” West Salem coach Patrick Dutcher said.
“We had an opportunity to capitalize and end the game. It isn’t an error in the book, but it’s an error on the field where we had an opportunity go get an out and we didn’t get it.”
West Salem (19-8) was in the state playoffs for the fifth season in a row.
The Titans saw a weakness early in the game and took advantage.
Southridge’s infield was positioned in a way that gave the Titans a perfect opportunity to bunt, and that’s what they did.
In the bottom of the first Taylor Gunesch drew a leadoff walk and Maddy Melton followed with a bunt single. Gunesch broke for third on the play and was awarded the base after interference was called on the shortstop, and Melton safely made it to second.
Kirsten Bugni laid down a bunt to score Gunesch from third and Maddie Hopper laid down a bunt that Southridge third baseman Erin Bonzer overthrew trying to get it to first, allowing Melton to score from third for an early 2-0 Titan lead.
“They’re playing bag level with that first baseman over there so we’ll just bunt it over there,” Dutcher said. “They did that a couple more times throughout the game where the first baseman stayed back and the pitcher really made some plays on it to where it took that bunt away.
“At the same time, it’s not that the girls really let up. I felt that we hit the ball hard a lot of times, just right at people.”
The 2-0 lead held up to the fifth inning when Bonzer golfed a one-out double to the fence in left center and was driven in on a single by Weaver.
Outside of the first inning West Salem didn’t have a base runner until the fifth inning.
Trailing 3-2 in the seventh, pitcher Paige Whipple drew a one-out walk and was replaced by courtesy runner Noelle Dalke. Dalke moved to second on a bunt by Caitlin Murphy, but would get no further.
The Skyhawks (15-13) apparently had a good read on West Salem this season as they beat the Titans 7-4 in the preseason and followed it with the win in the postseason.
“It’s one of those things, Southridge was a team that had (13) losses on the year, but nine of them came by one run,” Dutcher said. “They’re a great softball team, they just came out on the wrong side of a lot of games this year, and they have two pitchers who are great and hitters.
“They played us earlier in the year and they got us then and they got us again today.”
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