Magical late-season run continues for Clovers in win against Speedway

Cloverdale sophomore Jess Winders applies a tag at third base in the sectional semifinal game against Speedway on Wednesday. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

CLAYTON -- The Cloverdale softball team is not ready for the season to end quite yet.

After beating South Putnam on Tuesday, the Clovers won again on Wednesday to advanced to the sectional championship game.

CHS (8-10, 1-9 WCC) beat down Speedway 11-3 and will play Cascade in Thursday's championship game at Cascade High School.

"The fairy tale goes on," Cloverdale coach Brian Knapp said. "We're going to see how this book ends."

Clovers' senior Katt Raisor continued to pinch brilliantly, as she has for the past two weeks. The Clovers have gone 5-1 during that span, with the only loss coming at Greencastle on an emotional senior night.

Raisor threw another complete game, allowing two earned runs on 10 hits.

Senior Bradanne Toney, a hero at the plate during the recent stretch, was 1-for-3 with a double, a walk and three runs scored.

The Clovers managed just five hits -- all of them coming in the 12-batter third inning -- but were able to capitalize on mistakes by the Sparkplugs throughout.

Cloverdale, serving as the home team at Cascade, jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first with the benefit of a hit batter, two walks and three errors.

CHS blew the game open in the third.

Still up by three, Toney led off the inning with a walk. Lauren Patterson came to the plate next and laid down an attempted sacrifice bunt, but the Sparkplugs couldn't handle the play and she made it safely to first.

Adri Patterson followed, with the same result. Maddy Smith singled, Beka Jordan reached base on another misplayed bunt and just like that the Clovers had scored two runs and loaded the bases with nobody out.

Raisor hit a base hit to score one more, Jess and Kim Winders both got hits, then Toney and Lauren Patterson hit back-to-back doubles to score three more runs.

Speedway got one run across in the top of the fourth and put together a brief rally in the fifth and seventh, but Cloverdale held on for the win.

The Clovers will now turn their attention to Thursday's game against West Central Conference-rival Cascade, one of the top-ranked teams in the state.

At this point, though, Cloverdale is used to being the underdog.

The Cadets won both meetings this season, including the most recent game on May 10, the night before the Putnam County Tournament.

The final score that night, 11-0, was misleading. The Clovers trailed just 4-0 entering the seventh inning before a weather delay.

Cascade won the two previous games by a combined score of 28-0.

"I'm really looking forward to playing them," Knapp said, "because I want to see what (the Clovers) have learned in the past two weeks."

The sectional championship game begins at 6 p.m.

IHSAA Sectional semifinal
At Cascade
Speedway....................000 120 0 -- 3 10 5
Cloverdale...................308 000 0 -- 11 5 2