Photo by Kim North Bellaire’s Lily Zeller (22) watches the ball off her bat during the fifth inning of Tuesday’s Ohio Division VI Eastern District semifinal softball tournament game on the Bellaire Middle School diamond in St. Joe. The hit was one of her four singles in the game and knocked in a run, but the Big Reds fell, 8-3.

ST. JOE – Crooksville completed its two-game tour of Belmont County by advancing to the Ohio Division VI Eastern District finals.

The seventh-seeded Ceramics (12-14) defeated mistake-prone Bellaire, the No. 5 seed, 8-3 Tuesday in a semifinal contest on the sun-soaked Bellaire Middle School diamond. The visitors had blanked No. 3 Shadyside, 10-0, in six innings in a quarterfinal game after disposing of No. 4 Fort Frye, 11-0, in five innings in the first round.

As well as the Big Reds (12-15) played in their stunning win over No. 2 Monroe Central last week, they played that poorly on Tuesday. They had won 5 of their last six outings, but some bad baserunning in the bottom of the first inning kind of set the tone for what was to come.

Crooksville’s Dalena Rollison hit the fifth pitch of the game for a home run to give the Perry Countians a 1-0 lead they would never relinquish.

Bellaire seemed primed to at least draw even in its first at-bat, but things blew up in a hurry. With runners on first and third and no outs, Lily Zeller broke for second. The Ceramics’ throw was cut off by the second baseman who rifled a strike to third to catch the Big Reds runner too far off the base. The next batter hit a tapper to third that was thrown across the diamond for the second out, and when the runner broke for third, the first baseman pegged a rope to third to nail that runner to end the inning.

“In the first inning we had runners on and then bad baserunning took us out of possibly a big inning,” Bellaire head coach Dave Menendez lamented. “That’s all it was. If we could have gotten at least one of those runs, maybe two, things might have been different.”

The score remained 1-0 as Bellaire’s Marissa Pacifico settled down and Crooksville’s Elyse Baker hadn’t let a ball out of the infield through four frames.

However, that all changed in the fifth when Crooksville plated four runs on three hits to take a 5-0 lead and chase Pacifico from inside the circle. Alainnah Lantz had an RBI single and pinch-hitter Addison Driggs delivered a key, two-out, two-run double to left-center. She was thrown out trying for third on a fine relay to end the inning.

Bellaire would tally three times on three singles, an error, a fielder’s choice and a hit batsmen to make it 5-3 in the bottom of the fifth. Zeller singled up the middle to score Ava Ault and Jazzy Green raced home on a single to right by Jaela Phillips. With two outs and the bases still full of Big Reds, Elisa Gillespie was hit with an 0-2 pitch to force in the third run. A comebacker to Baker stifled the rally.

Baker helped herself with a two-out double to right-center in the sixth as the margin grew to 6-3.

Crooksville capped the scoring with a pair of runs in the sixth.

Baker struck out eight and walked just one. She allowed eight singles, but half of them were of the infield variety. Zeller had four safeties.

“Give their pitcher credit. As well as we hit the ball the other day, we didn’t hit today … we didn’t get it done on the field either,” Menendez said. “Give credit to their pitcher. She made it hard on us. That’s the first time in our last eight games that we haven’t hit the ball hard, so she must have been doing something right.”

Pacifico recorded six strikeouts, but also walked half-a-dozen. Menendez fanned three and walked one. They combined on a seven-hitter.

“I just told the girls that they played great the last eight games,” Menendez added. “Don’t leave here hanging your heads, keep your heads up.”

Crooksville will now face No. 1 Garaway on Thursday at Cambridge City Park. The Pirates routed Buckeye Trail, 16-0, in five innings on Tuesday.