BUCYRUS — Pudge Hargis had a decision to make.

The Bucyrus softball coach pitched his number one starter, Caleigh Rister, in a big Northern 10 Athletic Conference win over Carey on Monday, but his Lady Redmen had a Division III sectional tournament game against Fostoria on Tuesday, and a battle for the N10 title against Upper Sandusky on Wednesday.

Hargis decided to skip Rister against Fostoria and use her against Upper Sandusky. Instead, Hargis tapped freshman right-hander Ashley Davis to go in the circle.

“(Rister) pitched last night and we have Upper Sandusky in the league tomorrow,” Hargis said. “We were trying to save her a little bit and we brought her in in the last couple of innings. She pretty well shut them down.”

Davis went out and fired three shutout innings as the Redmen built a 7-0 lead. Fostoria did make a run late in the game, but Bucyrus came away with an 11-8 win in the semifinal round of the Division III sectional tournament.

With the win, Bucyrus (16-5) advanced to the sectional final and will face top-seeded Ashland Crestview at Crestview on Friday at 5 p.m.

Davis faced just 11 batters in the first three frames as the Redmen built a seven-run lead. Fostoria scored three in the fourth and four more in the fifth, but Hargis was pleased with the way Davis pitched.

“She’s a freshman,” Hargis said of Davis. “I don’t know what people expect from a freshman. But she did an outstanding job for us. We have four or five pitchers on this team and we’re good.”

Fostoria coach Clayton Moore said he was pleased with the way his team fought back after falling behind seven runs.

“We never quit, and these girls could have folded when it was 7-0,” Moore said. “We got off to a slow start, a lot of errors.

“Give Bucyrus credit,” he added. “They take advantage of what the other team gives them. And that’s what they did today. But our team didn’t quit. This could easily have been a five-inning game. But they fought back.”

Bucyrus got to Fostoria starter Kaybriauna Kleinmark for two runs in the first inning on hits from Rister and Alexis Dye, and added five more in the second inning.

Bucyrus got six hits in the frame, all up the middle, from Lauren Kohler, Rister, Jade Torres, Faith Schifer, Davis and Taisha Spears.

From that point, a Bucyrus error opened the door for Fostoria to score three in the fourth. Raelyn Hoffman drove in a run in the frame.

Bucyrus increased the lead to 10-3 in the bottom of the fourth on four hits from Torres, Faith Schifer, Spears and Kohler.

Kleinmark added a two-run double in the top of the fifth as Fostoria cut the deficit to 10-7.

Alexis Dye replaced Davis in the circle for Bucyrus and finished the fifth, but Rister worked the final two frames.

Fostoria scored in the top of the sixth, an unearned run against Rister, but the Redmen scored in the bottom of the inning on a Torres double and a Faith Schifer single.

Kohler said that the cold weather was a factor.

“It’s definitely harder to play in the cold,” Kohler said. “Everything hurts your fingers. It’s hard for Caleigh to spin the ball in the cold and it hurts for me to catch the ball in the cold.

“But we just play through it. We did alright playing in this weather. We hit the ball pretty well.”

She felt that the team came out with good intensity.

“I thought we came out intense at the beginning of the game,” Kohler said. “We kinda lost it toward the end of the game. It was a very long game. But we can’t do that if we want to win our games for the rest of the week.”

“They did a nice job,” Hargis said. “Strange things happened in the ball game, but (Fostoria) was in it until the end. We’re right where we should be, the kids are working. I’m not unhappy, well, I’m a little unhappy with the way we played but I’m not unhappy with the season and the way things have gone.”

Fostoria   000 341 0      8    7     1

Bucyrus    250 310 X    11   19    3

WP: Ashley Davis (2 SO, 2 W)

LP: Kaybriauna Kleinmark (3 SO, 2 W)

HR: None.

Triples: None.

Doubles: (F) Kaybriauna Kleinmark; (B) Jade Torres.

Multiple hits: (F) Meredith Grine; (B) Jade Torres 4, Faith Schifer 4, Lauren Kohler 3, Caleigh Rister 3, Ashley Davis.

Records: Bucyrus 16-5.

Next: Upper Sandusky at Bucyrus, Wednesday.