By Don Ketchum

Coach Bob Vance has five seniors on his Tucson Pusch Ridge Christian Academy softball team and says they have provided good leadership this season to the underclassmen, to whom he refers as “baby ducks.’’

The team got key performances from both age groups on Saturday night (May 12) in a 3-2, eight-inning  victory over St. Johns for the Division IV championship at the Rose Mofford Sports Complex in Phoenix.

Pusch Ridge (19-1) was seeded No. 1, while St. Johns (20-11) was No. 6.

Senior pitcher Corrie Ward scattered five hits and struck out 11 to earn the victory.

And two underclassmen came through with the game on the line in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Sophomore pinch-runner McKayla Rossi scored the winning run with two outs on an opposite-field single to right by sophomore Kristi Overman, setting off a celebration near the pitching circle.

Rossi came around to score when the St. Johns right fielder attempted to get Overman at first base with a shorter throw than to the plate.

When Vance put Rossi in the game after senior Paige Shepperd singled and advanced to second on a groundout, he told her that if the Overman hit the ball into the outfield, he would wave her toward home.

“She was not going to slow down,’’ Vance said.

It was a pressure-packed game, he said, “not really the kind we’ve been used to when the games were decided early. You wonder how the kids will respond in a game like this, but they came through.’’

Overman, the ninth-place hitter, was happy to be able to help the team win.

“It was kind of crazy,’’ she said afterward. “It’s starting to become more real now.’’

She had singled to center and scored in a two-run third inning, struck out looking in the fifth and lined out to shortstop in the sixth.

“The other times I hit, the ball was coming down the middle, but this time, she (St. Johns pitcher Sydney Ashton) was trying to pitch me outside, so I just went with it,’’ Overman said.

Ashton had a solid game, scattering nine hits and striking out nine.

Sarah Majors, the No. 2 hitter in the Pusch Ridge order, had four hits, three in the infield and a double to center. Mackenzie Udall had two hits for St. Johns.