Staff photo / Preston Byers. South Range’s Solena deJesus, left, and Addison Wardle celebrate after Wednesday’s Division V regional semifinal win vs. Cardinal Mooney at Alliance High School.

ALLIANCE — South Range, as a perennial Northeast 8 Conference and regional title contender, has played in many big games, and Wednesday’s Division V, Region 17 semifinal vs. Cardinal Mooney was no exception.

Still, the Raiders found themselves in dangerous territory at Alliance High School when the far younger and less experienced Cardinals scored two runs to tie the game in the sixth inning and, when down to their last out, hit a game-tying home run in the seventh.

But then the experience kicked in: Seniors Gabby Spooner and Keira Brogan singled, and fellow senior Anna Aey was intentionally walked, setting the stage for senior leader Addison Wardle, who stepped in the box and was fortuitously hit by a misfired pitch from Mooney freshman star Alexis McKinstry.

Wardle excitedly screamed and jumped her way to first base, while Brogan happily trotted home to score the game-winning run.

“I didn’t know if it was gonna hit me or not, but I was looking for that opportunity,” Wardle said. “I know it’s a ball or it’ll hit me. I was just ready to hit the ball no matter what or take one for the team to win it for us. It was just amazing.”

For the first half of Wednesday’s game, the teams’ respective freshman hurlers dominated. McKinstry retired the first six batters she faced before surrendering her first baserunner, while South Range’s Cam Crepage similarly did not allow a hit until the third inning.

Each of the young pitchers soon found trouble as batters got second and third looks, which was only exacerbated for McKinstry when a Mooney infielder dropped a routine pop fly in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Aey, the Raiders’ premier power hitter, did not waste the first opening of the game, as she connected on a pitch and sent it to left field for an RBI double that scored Brogan. Soon thereafter, Wardle singled through the right side of the infield to bring home Aey and give South Range a 2-0 lead.

The Raiders kept the pressure on McKinstry in the fifth when Heidi Bartels drew a leadoff walk. Sophia Brogan then singled to left field and Keira Brogan successfully laid down a bunt to load the bases with Aey coming to the plate. Aey, however, could not repeat her earlier success, striking out to leave the trio of runners stranded.

Seizing the moment, Grace Rinaldi gave the Cardinals their second hit of the game with a single down the first-base line before McKinstry drove a ball into deep left field for a standup RBI double. Mooney tied the game immediately afterward when Audrina Jablonski, McKinstry’s battery partner, doubled to right field.

“I know my girls have my back,” Crepage said. “So it’s like, ‘Oh, OK. Yeah, that was a great hit.’ But my girls got me, so I don’t have to worry. I can reset, and I know they’ll have my back.”

They proved that with a forceful response.

Solena DeJesus tripled to right field, igniting the Raiders’ dugout, only for Wardle to also send a ball to right for a triple of her own, giving South Range a 3-2 lead going to the seventh inning.

Crepage, despite a tough sixth, appeared to have things well in control with back-to-back weakly hit groundouts whittling the Cardinals down to their final out. But Giada DeSantis, who had earned the first hit of the game off Crepage, sent the first pitch she saw over the outfield fence to tie the game 3-3.

Unfortunately for DeSantis and Mooney, the Raiders, senior-laden and battle-tested, proved remarkably capable of a response, which, combined with a costly mistake by the inexperienced Cardinals, ended a magical season.

“I loaded up the bases with [Aey] — I thought we would get the next batter. She was hugging the plate, and that’s what happens,” Mooney head coach Rich Stickel said.

“It was a tough, hard-fought game,” he added. “South Range, they’ve been here before. We’re inexperienced. But we battled all the way to the end. So proud of the girls. … Yeah, this game hurts. It’ll hurt for a while. But we’re going to come back strong.”

Stickel, whose team finished the season 17-7 and clobbered Champion 10-1 to win the program’s first district championship since 2017, will bring back all of his starters next season and the season after that, as his lineup was entirely made up of freshmen and sophomores.

“I told them, I said, ‘Get it out of your system. I know you’re down right now. We’ll come back stronger next year, more experienced next year.’ And hopefully, we meet them again next year,” Stickel said.

With Wednesday’s victory, South Range (22-7) has won seven straight and 16 of its last 17 games. The only defeat in that span was a 10-inning, 7-6 loss to Lakeview in a de facto league championship game on May 6. Mooney became the only team since then to score more than one run on the Raiders.

South Range will meet Norwayne, which beat Tuslaw 10-8 in the other semifinal, on Friday in the regional final at Alliance High School. The winner of that game will advance to next weekend’s state semifinals at Firestone Stadium in Akron.

“We never got back on our heels, and we never gave up. And that’s the sign of a very good team,” Raiders head coach Jeff DeRose said. “We’re the opposite of Mooney — we’re old. We’ve got eight seniors that start, and they’re very young. I told them going into yesterday, I said, ‘What you have over Mooney is experience at this stage.’

“They’ve all been there. Some of the upperclassmen have been to states. And I really want that for our seniors again because ever since they were freshmen, this has been one of the most special groups I’ve ever had. Even if we win the state, it’s going to be sad to see everybody go.”