Just when the James Buchanan Lady Rockets thought they were going to extend their postseason Bishop McDevitt quickly dashed those hopes away.

The Lady Crusaders trumped JB’s one spot in the top of the 10th inning with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the 10th to pull out a 2-1 victory Thursday afternoon in a District 3 Class AAAA quarterfinal softball playoff game.

After 9 scoreless innings JB (13-6) finally broke through in the third extra inning. Because of the International tie-breaking rule each team started the 10th inning with a runner at second base. For the Rockets, Krystin Nichols started at second, and after 2 outs, Grace Amsley smacked an RBI single to right field.

All JB had to do was do what it had done the previous 9 innings, keep McDevitt (16-4) out of the scoring column, but that wasn’t to be.

The Lady Crusaders tied the game with an RBI single and the winning came around on a throwing error trying to double off a runner at second base.

It was a tough-luck loss for the Rockets’ Jenna Mongold, who scattered 7 hits and struck out 10.

“Jenna pitched a very good game,” JB coach Troy Pittman said. “She had the 10 strikeouts and mixed her pitches well.”

JB  could have put this game away in the top of the sixth inning when it loaded the bases with no outs, but came away with zero runs.

Maddie Bailey led off with a single, Mongold walked and Alyssa Blair loaded the bases with a bunt single. But the next 3 at-bats were all outs -a pop up to the second baseman, a dribbler back to the pitcher, who got a force out at home and the third out was a slow ground out to the first baseman.

“We had out chances,” Pittman said. “We had another inning with a runner at third and nobody out and we didn’t score. We struggled with bunts, squaring the ball up and base running.”

JB’s season is over, but Pittman was still happy with the overall results.

“We had a good season, but were short on our goals,” Pittman said. “I’m proud of the girls, but I hope the sting of the loss gives them the drive to improve. We had the pitching and defense this year, but if we could’ve hit better we would still be playing.”