Andrew Grimm KICK THE DUST UP — Harrison Central’s Maddy Butler slides safely into home plate in front of Big Red pitcher Jules Kings on a throwing error after hitting a triple during Monday’s game.

STEUBENVILLE — When his team dropped six-straight and narrowly missed the cut for last week’s OVAC tournament, Big Red skipper Gus DiMarzio knew his team was at a crossroads.

The path it’s chosen since then was not to be disappointed and get down on itself, but rather to work harder and turn its focus on being at its best in the upcoming sectional tournament.

It took yet another step on that path Monday night when it battled back from a pair of one-run deficits to top visiting OVAC-qualifier Harrison Central, 5-2, at the Franciscan University of Steubenville softball field for its fourth-straight win.

“This team could have quit when it lost six in a row, it really could have, but its seniors picked it up and dusted it off,” DiMarzio said. “They told the rest of them, ‘hey, let’s go’ and they have all bought into it. I’m proud of our kids and I am especially proud of our seniors because they have taken the role of leading us the way it’s got to be done.

“We wanted to be in the (OVAC) tournament, but if we miss it and then get ready to be the best out of 240 teams, I’ll take that. I wanna be that guy. It’s disappointing for the kids to miss (the OVAC cut), they wanted to get in and it’s our own fault we didn’t, but now we’re working for the next goal.”

Battling a team like the Huskies (14-5) with the tournament looming in a close game is exactly what DiMarzio wanted to see late in the season.

“Darrin (Young) does a great job, his kids are well-coached and fundamental,” he said. “They play the game well. I wish them a lot of luck going forward, I tip my hat to him. I consider him a good friend in coaching and a great, all-around guy. He does a good job with the program.

“So, anytime that we play them we are always thinking in the back of our minds that we can’t make key mistakes and it’s going to be a good game.

“It’s great to play a team like that going into tournament time because, in the tournament, you’re going to play games like this. You don’t want to be playing 18-2, 20-0 games, you want to be facing adversity and pressure.”

With Harrison Central up 1-0 on a first-inning RBI by Lizzie Clelland, Adrianna Brown stepped to the plate with a runner on third in the fourth and put a hard-hit line drive deep into the outfield where it was caught, but was plenty deep enough to tie the score.

The Huskies’ Maddy Butler gave the visitors back the lead in the top of the fifth with a little league homer, driving a triple to the fence and then scoring when the throw sailed away to make it 2-1 Harrison Central.

“It’s always good to play a team of that caliber and a pitcher of that caliber going into the last week of the season right before sectionals,” Young, the Huskies coach, said. “I thought defensively we played a really-good game, we held them to one run up to the fifth.

“We gave them a couple runs with two outs in the fifth, but it was a (heck) of a ballgame all the way around on both sides.”

As Young alluded to, things unraveled a bit for the Huskies with two out in the bottom half of the inning.

With a couple runners on and two away, Big Red’s Paige Matteson evened up the score once again with a two-out RBI single, then Sena Smith cleared the bases with a two-out, two-run triple to make it 4-2 for the hosts.

She then used her speed on a wild pitch to race home and make it 5-2 before the Huskies could get out of the inning.

“Sena can run,” DiMarzio said. “We got a couple timely hits and I’ll take that every day of the week.”

The three-run cushion was plenty for Jules King, who fanned 13 in the circle for Big Red.

“Jules did a great job,” DiMarzio said. “I’m very proud of her. She is a battler and she is not going to back down. She is like a daughter.”