MECHANICSBURG — Mechanicsburg scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning Thursday evening to skirt past Greencastle-Antrim and end the Blue Devils’ softball season.

Makayla Jerin

In a wild District 3 Class 5A quarterfinal game played at Mechanicsburg, the Wildcats landed the final punch to end a back-and-forth battle, 12-11.

“”I told my neighbor (who is a basketball coach) that it was like a game when you wanted to have the ball last,” G-A coach Mark DeCarli said. “It was a great game for the fans, but as a coach I think I might have had three strokes out there.

“The big thing was, they were the home team and they got to bat last, and we couldn’t stop them.”

Greencastle broke a 10-10 tie in the top of the ninth on a Becky Leckron single.

But the Blue Devils could not hold the lead for long. In the bottom of the inning, on the first pitch from reliever Paiton Gordon, Bella DeMaio belted a tying home run. After Jada Lacey was hit by a pitch, Rilyn MaGee sent a line drive to centerfield that was nearly caught by Kylie Kerns for a hit that enabled Lacey to sprint home.

Bailey Leckron

Greencastle, which finished 16-6, got to Wildcat ace pitcher Sam Rybacki for 13 hits and nine runs (7 earned).

Kerns was 3-for-4 with 2 doubles and 3 RBIs; Makayla Jerin was 3-for-5 with a double and 2 runs batted in, and Caroline Logsdon, Kaidyn Zimmerman, Bailey Leckron and Alexis Jones each had 2 hits.

G-A got the scoring started in the second inning, when Leckron cracked a two-out, two-run home run. In the second, Meadow Gambacurta and Jerin hit RBI singles. In the fifth, Jerin and Kerns hit back-to-back RBI doubles.

A four-run sixth inning gave the Blue Devils a 10-7 lead. A run-scoring triple by Jones and RBI singles by Logsdon, Jerin and Kern gave Greencastle its biggest lead of the game.

DeCarli said, “We made some miscues and I don’t think we got their leadoff hitter out in any inning (that’s a fact).”

Trailing by a run in the bottom of the seventh, Mechanicsburg got two singles, then Lacey put down a suicide squeeze bunt to tie the game.

“They surprised us with that squeeze,” DeCarlil said. “We lost to them last year on that field (3-1), we got beat by Cumberland Valley 10-4 there (in the Mid Penn playoffs) and we lost again tonight.

“We had a great year and the girls reached their goals,” DeCarli said. “We showed a lot of heart today. We have a good nucleus coming back and I think we’ll be OK.”