PENDLETON — When Pendleton Heights High School softball coach Rob Davis saw his team was playing Cathedral of Indianapolis in an IHSAA Class 4A regional championship game last week, he knew the game was a toss-up.
“When you look at it on paper, it was a coin flip as to who was going to win that game,” Davis said.
The Arabians came up on the wrong side of the coin in a 1-0 loss — victims of a no-hitter thrown by Irish ace Lia Burnell.
Jordan Benefiel, sophomore Arabian pitcher, had a strong outing as well, giving up just two hits and one run. Benefiel went seven full innings and struck out 10 Irish batters. But it wasn’t enough as the Arabian bats were stymied and couldn’t help her.
“We couldn’t get (anything) rolling offensively,” Davis said. “We dominated the pitching, but they got the timely hit when they needed it.”
The Irish picked up the lone run of the game in the top of the fourth inning and held on to the lead the rest of the game.
A one-run lead was all Burnell needed to pick up the win. Burnell walked four Arabian batters, one intentionally, struck out two Arabian batters and got key outs when she needed them to secure the win.
The loss ended an exciting season for Pendleton Heights, a team that won the sectional and just missed out on advancing to semistate play.
“I’m proud of the year we had, and I’m proud of our seniors,” Davis said. “I just hated to see them go out the way they did.”
He said he feels the seniors set the tone with the younger players, showing them what type of hard work is needed to be winners on the field, doing extra work in the weight room and more, he said.
The loss left Davis feeling a little bitter, he said, because he felt so good about his team’s chances of beating Cathedral, knowing he had the talent on the team to get to semistate, and possibly all the way to the state championship game.
“The loss was disappointing to me,” Davis said. “I thought we were good enough to get there — I really did.”
PENDLETON HEIGHTS HONORS
Three members of the Pendleton Heights softball team have been selected to the all-Hoosier Heritage Conference team by the HHC coaches:
Lauren Landes — Third base
Jordan Benefiel — Pitcher
Kelsey Sturgeon — First base
