On Monday, somehow, some way, the rematch lived up to the hype — and then some. In the end, this time it was the Fredonia Lady ‘Billies left standing to celebrate a thrilling one-run victory, 4-3 in 8 innings, at Fredonia High School after a controversial play at the plate.

“I know people are going to talk about the call at the end of the game,” said Fredonia head coach Jesse Beers. “The bottom line is she was safe, we got the win, and we’re 2-0 in league. … What a great early season game. Holy smokes. A great early season game to really set the tone going forward.”

Fredonia (2-0, 2-0) grabbed the game’s first lead in the bottom of the third inning. After seven of the first eight batters of Fredonia’s order were set down by Chautauqua Lake’s All-State pitcher Olivia Anderson, her counterpart, Fredonia’s Maddy Marsh, reached base on a one-out double to right field. Kazlin Beers followed with a ground ball to the shortstop, Katelyn Fardink, whose throw to first base sailed out of play. The error allowed Marsh to score the game’s first run. Fredonia followed up with two more runs in the inning, as Caelin Holt and Grace Mroczka each followed in order with singles to stretch the Fredonia lead to 3-0, still with only one out in the inning.

Chautauqua Lake’s Anderson settled down to retire the next two batters to put an end to the game’s first long inning. Anderson then led off the next half inning with a line-drive double down the third base line. Cianna Braymiller followed with a single, but Anderson was caught between third base and home plate and was tagged out. Fardink followed with a walk, then Kendra Keyser finally got Chautauqua Lake on the board with an RBI single to score Braymiller. The reigning State Champion Lady Thunderbirds left the tying runs on base, however, sending the game to the bottom of the fourth frame.

OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Chautauqua Lake pitcher Olivia Anderson winds up to deliver a pitch during Monday’s game.

Fredonia was set down in order in the next half inning, then Chautauqua Lake led off the top of the fifth inning with back-to-back hits to put two runners in scoring position. After a fielder’s choice saw the second Lady Thunderbird in as many innings thrown out trying to score, Anderson came to the plate with a chance to help her cause. She drove in a run on a sacrifice fly, followed by a Braymiller walk, but once again the Lady Thunderbirds left a pair of runners on base to end the inning.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Fredonia went down in order once again, making it eight straight batters set down by Anderson. In the top of the sixth inning, Marsh did the same to the Lady Thunderbirds, with a pair of strikeouts to start off the frame. In the bottom of the sixth, Fredonia’s Sydney Bigelow reached base on a walk, but that was the extent of the damage allowed in the inning.

Then, the game entered the seventh inning, in an eerily similar circumstance as the last meeting between the two teams, almost a year ago. Chautauqua Lake (3-1, 1-1) needed a run to tie the game, while Fredonia was three outs away from celebration.

The top of the seventh inning began with an infield single to third base by Mackenzie Zemcik. Then, Chadelynn Johnson reached on a fielder’s choice that was dropped by the first baseman to put runners on the corners with no one out. A sacrifice bunt moved the runner at first base into scoring position, to bring Anderson to the plate. She hit a ground ball on the infield that resulted in the third Chautauqua Lake runner of the game thrown out trying to score, leaving just one out to go for a Fredonia victory. Braymiller, however, had other plans. She reached on an infield single to third after beating the throw to first base to tie the score at three runs apiece. Fardink followed with a ground ball on the infield but was retired on a bang-bang play at first base to send the game to the bottom of the seventh inning still tied, 3-3.

Fredonia hoped to walk off in the bottom of the seventh inning, but a pair of solid throws by Braymiller on back-to-back ground balls to third base retired the first two batters of the frame, then a softly-hit ground ball back to Anderson ended the seventh inning and sent the game into extra innings.

OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Fredonia’s Sydney Bigelow awaits a pitch during her final at-bat that led to the game-winning hit in the eighth inning to win the game for Fredonia, 4-3.

Chautauqua Lake appeared ready to tack on the go-ahead run after a leadoff double by Keyser to right-center field, but the next three batters were unable to bring her in to score and Fredonia had the chance once again to walk off against the defending State Champions.

“There’s things we could have done better. Kudos to Jesse (Beers) and his team — they’re not just going to give up,” said Chautauqua Lake head coach Sue Teets.

It didn’t appear likely that the Lady ‘Billies would end the game in the eighth inning after the first two batters of the frame were set down by Anderson. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Anderson had retired 16 out of 17 batters she faced since the Lady ‘Billies scored their third run of the third inning.

“Liv (Anderson) came on strong. Liv was really throwing the ball well. She was hitting her spots, she was mixing her pitches well,” said Coach Teets. “She shut them down. Liv was dominant.”

But with such a small margin of error, it didn’t take much to give the Lady ‘Billies life. Fredonia’s leading hitter from a year ago, Mroczka, provided that spark that the Lady ‘Billies needed. Mroczka worked the count full against Anderson, then eventually earned a two-out walk.

OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Kazlin Beers, far left, hugs Sydney Bigelow after her game-winning hit scored Laural Erick, far right, during Monday’s CCAA Division 1 West high school softball game. Fredonia won, 4-3, in eight innings.

“We showed a lot of resilience,” said Coach Beers. “You could feel the momentum turning in their direction, but we didn’t lay down, we kept fighting.”

Coach Beers called upon Fredonia softball newcomer Laural Erick as a courtesy runner for Mroczka, the Fredonia catcher. Erick — known for her stellar soccer career at Fredonia — had never played softball in her time at Fredonia, but wanted one last team to be a part of at Fredonia before beginning her NCAA Division 2 soccer career at Jefferson University in Philadelphia in the fall.

As it turns out, Erick’s talents and her flair for the dramatic carries over to the softball field, as well.

After a single to right field off the bat of Bigelow, Erick sprinted around second base and headed towards third base, to echoing shouts of “Get here!” by Fredonia’s Coach Beers. Erick made it to third base safely, while the throw to third missed the cut-off and sailed to the fence against the Chautauqua Lake dugout. Erick took off for the plate and slid in, while the throw to the catcher, Johnson, appeared to beat Erick to the plate. The umpire called Erick safe at home and sent the Lady ‘Billies into an elated celebration after knocking off the defending State Champions, handing Chautauqua Lake its first loss since May 1 of 2018, to Fredonia.

“It feels amazing,” said Erick. “My team needed me and I came in and did my job. … Honestly, all I thought was get my foot to the bag. I just needed to go for it and I needed my foot to get there. … Everything else stopped for a second. It was just foot to the bag, then I heard everyone screaming.”

Chautauqua Lake’s side was clearly and loudly in opposition of the decision. Coach Teets attempted to appeal the call to the other umpire, without a doubt in her mind that Erick was out at the plate.

“What I saw from my point was, first of all, Chay (Johnson) definitely had the tag on her. Even if she did hook around and touch the plate, there’s no question that the tag was on her,” said Coach Teets.

Fredonia’s side believes she was safe, and the umpire at home plate agreed.

“She can run like the wind. We’ve been working with her on baserunning,” said Coach Beers. “(Erick) hesitated a little going around third, and I’m screaming like the dickens for her to go, but God bless her. She’s never even really played softball before, but she knew enough to hook around. … She at least made it a close play at the plate and fortunately for us, we got the right call.”

Chautauqua Lake, who preaches mental toughness to its team going back to last season’s State title run, now is tasked with moving on from the crushing defeat and staying focused on the rest of the league, as the Lady Thunderbirds play three more league games over the next four days.

“It’s over. It’s done with. We have to prepare for Silver Creek (today), Dunkirk on Thursday and Southwestern on Friday. There’s no break,” said Coach Teets. “We can’t dwell on this. We need to focus on that we were down, we didn’t really play well, and we fought back. … It’s a tough loss, I’m not going to lie. … When you look at the game, there’s a lot of positives. We could dwell on the negatives, but that’s not going to get us anywhere.”

Anderson earned the tough-luck loss, despite throwing 7 2/3 innings, only allowing four hits, two walks and striking out five. Marsh earned the win for Fredonia, pitching all eight innings and allowing only three runs on eight hits.

Fredonia can take the day to celebrate, but then has to turn its attention toward Southwestern on Wednesday on the road.

“Moving forward, as exciting as this is, it’s one win,” said Coach Beers. “We’ve got a long way to go. … It’s nice to get this one, but we can’t get too far in front of ourselves.”

Twitter: @bradencarmen