'Get Bo to the plate.' Down to its last out, Pendleton Heights gets walk-off grand slam.

PENDLETON – Wow.

Among the handful of words verbalized after the inconceivable finale witnessed during the Class 4A Regional 5 title game at Pendleton Heights’ Legends Field on Tuesday night, “wow” was most uttered, accompanied by “unbelievable,” “awesome,” “crazy.”

One swing of the bat by Pendleton Heights senior Bo Shelton in the bottom of the seventh inning is what inspired each expression, and turned the state-ranked Arabians’ season-long aspiration into a reality.

Down 6-3 against a star-studded Lawrence North team, the Arabians needed everything to fall into place in their final at-bats.

IHSAA softball: Semistate pairings, schedule

With two outs and the deficit cut to 6-4, it finally did, as Shelton stepped up the plate with the bases loaded and an 0-1 count.

“Everyone, their energy was completely drained because obviously we didn’t think we were going to come back from that, especially when we got two outs,” Shelton said, describing the mood before the Arabians began rallying.

“I was just trying to be as relaxed as possible. I was just trying to put the ball in play. I wasn’t trying to hit a home run.”

With Lawrence North ace Katherine Dowden, a Northwestern commit, struggling with her control, and the Arabians’ return to the semistate on the line, Shelton locked in and crushed a walk-off grand slam to punctuate a wild and unforgettable five-run bottom of the seventh comeback, 8-6.

All Shelton and the Arabians (24-5-1) needed was a chance.

“Give me a shot. Get Bo to the plate,” PH coach Rob Davis said. “After we got runners on, and Kiah (Hubble) got on and Lilly (Coffel), I said get Bo to the plate. Then they called a high strike on her, and I was like, ‘Ugh, that wasn’t good.’ But then, Bo does what Bo does. She hits it over the center-field fence. It wasn’t even close.”

A regional champion for the first time in nine years last season, the Arabians made it back-to-back, something the program has never achieved.

“I think this has been the goal since we lost at semistate last year,” PH junior pitcher Shelby Messer said. “That’s not something that we took lightly. We really wanted that. It’s definitely been the goal throughout the entire season, even winter workouts. We’ve been thinking about semistate.”

Semistate was on everyone’s mind as Shelton swung and connected and the stadium erupted awaiting her arrival at home plate.

“I really wanted to capitalize. I really wanted to help my team out and do what I could to help them out,” Shelton said. “It ended up working out for us.”

The scenario was improbable, but it began to unfold once senior Gloria Richardson was hit by a pitch. Frosh Avry Miller (1-for-2) sparked the rally with an RBI double for her first hit of the game out of the nine hole.

A walk to Hubble (2-for-4), and an eight-pitch walk by Coffel (1-for-4) loaded the bases for the Arabians, marking the fifth time in the game.

“We all knew the pitcher was struggling from mid-game on, so I knew I got her to throw balls, she’d walk me eventually. And I know Bo hits the ball hard any chance she gets,” Coffel said. “I was really looking forward to getting the bat to her, so she could walk it off for us.”

Dowden threw 6.2 innings with nine hits allowed, seven walks and five strikeouts, and the lefty kept the Arabians off the scoreboard through the first two frames, but in the third, she began showing signs of arm trouble.

Shaking her throwing arm in between pitches from the third inning on, the Arabians began getting runners on base versus Dowden, but two bases-loaded situations in the bottom of the third only netted one run as senior Kylie Fisher was struck by a pitch.

Shelton (2-for-3) plated the Arabians’ first run with a one-out double in the third with Pendleton Heights already down 5-0 following a solo home run by Dowden in the first inning and a grand slam by Kentucky recruit Anna Mauck in the third.

“I made one coaching mistake. I wanted to walk Mauck with the bases loaded to make it a 2-0 ball game, and my coaches wouldn’t let me do it,” Davis said. “I’m glad they were right today. I won’t make that mistake again.”

The deficit seemed insurmountable at 6-3 after Lawrence North hit its third home run in the top of the fifth off the bat of Kaci Kirkpatrick to lead off the inning.

Hubble’s one-out RBI single to score Richardson (2-for-3), who reached with a lead-off double in the bottom of the fourth, tightened the margin 6-3.

From that point on, Messer retired the next eight batters she faced to keep the Arabians within striking distance.

Messer gave up six runs on three home runs with six hits allowed, but she didn’t walk a single batter and struck out a single-game, career-high 15 batters.

“This was probably my toughest game to stay in a certain mindset because I just had a grand slam hit off of me, another home run, and another one and our season is over,” Messer said. “I just had to have faith in my team. I know they can hit.

“I had faith that they would come back.”

Prior to the bottom of the seventh, the Arabians left 10 runners stranded, but they cleared them all in the clutch, while Messer made sure the Wildcats’ big bats wouldn’t beat them late.

Messer stuck out the side in the top of the seventh, sitting down the Wildcats’ seven, eight and nine hitters before the Arabians walked it off.

“I think we knew coming in before that we were the better team, and I don’t think leading up to that seventh inning we played to our full potential, so we really wanted to show them what we had in the last inning,” Coffel said.

A dropped foul ball down the left-field line during Coffel’s at-bat in the bottom of the seventh foreshadowed that luck was on the Arabians’ side.

“I told myself going into the game that Mauck and Dowden, they ain’t going to beat me. Well, guess what? They were beating the crap outta me, but it worked out and we’re going to move on,” Davis said. “They have players going to Kentucky. They have a player going to U of L. They got a player going to Northwestern. I don’t have any D-I players, but I’ve got heart, and the girls showed it today.”

Their grit prevented Lawrence North from snapping its regional drought, which stretches back to 1998 when the Wildcats won their title as a 3A program.

“I’ve been in innings where I’ve been ahead and got beat, but for me to be behind in the seventh with two outs, and come back from that many before, that’s a good question. I would say probably not,” said Davis, who has coached at Pendleton Heights for 13 seasons.

“It was awesome. For these seniors, there are eight of them. They’ve worked hard, and eight is a lot. No matter where we go, nobody has that many seniors, and they all got to be a part of it today, too.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA softball: Bo Shelton grand slam wins it for Pendleton Heights