Edison's postseason run ends in regional semifinal

ELIDA — By this time of year, deep into the postseason, both the winners and losers of softball games hug their teammates after the final out. For two weeks, Edison was on the winning side of those joyous embraces. But on Wednesday night, the Chargers' hugs meant finality. "I love this team. I love all the girls," Edison senior Kayla Mancuso said. "I wish we could've made it all the way through, but you know, having this experience after losing last year, it was amazing to play every single second with them. "I wish it could last forever, but it has to end at some point." Edison lost in a Division III regional semifinal to Cardington-Lincoln, 4-0. The Chargers gave up two runs in the first and couldn't get their bats going against Pirates (21-1) freshman Genevieve Longsdorf. The Chargers finish the season 18-7, second-place finishers in the SBC Bay Division and Northwest District champions in Division III. The high school careers of five Edison seniors ended in Elida — Mancuso, Mallory Perkins, Aliyah Caporini and Deana and Danielle Blatnik. "The Blatniks, I knew them when they came down to my hitting facility, they were just 10 years old," Edison coach Troy Keegan said. "The juniors will get another chance. It doesn't matter how far you go, it still hurts if you don't win that last game." Cardington-Lincoln led off the game with a Dana Bertke triple to right, followed by a blooper into left to score the first run. A wild pitch allowed a second run to score in the top of the first for the Pirates. From that point on, Kira Appeman put up four consecutive scoreless innings by keeping Cardington-Lincoln off balance. "We held them down for a long time," Keegan said. Edison never mounted a rally against Longsdorf, though. She attacked right-handed hitters with riseballs in on the hands, and when the Chargers made contact, it was often of the jammed variety. Longsdorf attacked that same side of the plate to left-handers, working with her curveball away to get Edison's lefty bats out in front and reaching. "I give all credit to her," Mancuso said. "She's an amazing pitcher." Cardington-Lincoln scored its final two runs in the top of the sixth, the first on a Riley Burchett home run and the second on an RBI single from Ashlee Tharp. Edison couldn't come back. The Chargers managed one runner in the sixth on a hard hit ball by Appeman down the first-base line, then one more in the seventh on an Olivia Vitaz walk. Edison only had a runner reach second base twice all game. "Had a couple base runners, just didn't get the hit that we needed," Keegan said. "Hats off to them. They're a good team, that's for sure." The day before Edison's season ended, Mancuso's mother, Jennifer Roe King, spoke with the Register. She summed up the potential final game succinctly: "Chapters end. Chapters begin." In the moment, it can feel like the page number is most important to a chapter's ending — why wasn't there another page to turn, another game to play? But as time passes, the length of the chapter diminishes in importance relative to the contents. Edison began the season, like many others, with the majority of its roster untested at the varsity level. Along the way, Perkins turned into one of the SBC's best hitters and catchers. Reagan King snagged web gems at shortstop. Vitaz picked a district-title stage for the first two home runs of her life. The Chargers wore cowboy hats to inspire rallies. They sang along to "Another One Bites The Dust" and "Seven Nation Army" on bus rides to and from games. They took part in pregame "flips," a volleyball-like game with a softball and their fielding gloves. Very few teams get to end their season with a win, and the Chargers couldn't escape the most likely fate of riding the bus home one last time, after a loss. But it won't be that bus ride that sticks with them. They'll remember the songs and the selfies and the successes, the home runs and stolen bases and strikeouts. They'll laugh at the memory of Keegan showing up to practice in big, goofy sunglasses two days before their final game. They'll smile thinking about the Senior Day walk-off win and the district championship celebrations. Someone reading a book doesn't get to choose when a chapter ends. All they can do is savor everything that happened. Cardington 200 002 0 — 4 9 1Edison 000 000 0 — 0 3 2 WP: Genevieve Longsdorf. LP: Kira Appeman 2B: (C) Makayla Linkous, Chelsey Miller. 3B: (C) Dana Bertke. HR: (C) Riley Burchett