Photo by Kim North Buckeye Local’s Danika Bauknecht receives congratulations from head coach Joe Soos as she rounds third base after hitting a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh inning Friday in a 3-1 loss at visiting Barnesville in Connorville.

CONNORVILLE – One inning was all it took for Barnesville to break up a pitcher’s duel supreme with Buckeye Local Friday afternoon.

The visiting Shamrocks (10-8) bunched four of their seven hits in the top of the fourth, scoring three times which was more than enough for Peyton Loudin in a 3-1 victory on the sun-baked diamond at Buckeye Local High School.

Loudin struck out a career-high 13 Panthers and carried a one-hit shutout into the bottom of the seventh before Danika Bauknecht launched a leadoff home run to deep left. Lexi Neilly followed with a single, but Loudin struck out the next three batters to finish the 1-hour, 14-minute contest.

“She had a great outing today,” Barnesville head coach Kelley Hanlon said of her senior ace. “She had a great game.”

Loudin needed just 98 pitches, with 73 being strikes. She walked two and threw a first-pitch strike to 19 of the 25 Panthers she faced. Buckeye Local didn’t get a runner past second until Bauknecht’s round-tripper.

“We hit two good bAlls to center and that girl made catches on both of them, and then we hit a couple of other shots right at them,” Buckeye Local head coach Joe Soos said.

Buckeye Local’s Karlie Lander retired 11 of the first 13 Shamrocks she faced, but Mariah Schaffer’s two-out double to left sparked Barnesville’s big inning. Roselynn Anderson’s bloop single to right easily scored Schaffer for a 1-0 lead. Sophia Carpenter singled through the left side and courtesy runner Addison Blevins initially stopped at third, but sprinted home when the throw from the outfield got away, allowing Carpenter to reach third. She would score on Becklee Oliver’s single for a 3-0 reading.

“Mariah Schaffer really had a good game, as well,” Hanlon said. “She doubled to get that rally started and she made a couple of incredible catches in center field.

Lander struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter. In fact, she didn’t go to three-balls on a single batter and threw 71 strikes among her 89 offerings.

“We made that one mistake there by throwing the ball away, but in all fairness, the girls are young,” Soos said. “She wanted to throw it home, but she missed the cut and they took advantage of it. They’re a good team.”

With the cut-off date to make the OVAC Tom Bechtel Softball Championships on Saturday, April 25, the victory was huge for Barnesville’s chances at making the four-team Class 3A field.

“Hopefully this win pushes us up there,” Hanlon said.

Oliver was the lone Shamrock with multiple hits.

Barnesville visits Weir on Monday. Buckeye Local heads to Toronto the same night.