Unfortunately they did and it ultimately spelled the end of their season.

No. 2 Portville scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning aided by three errors, a wild pitch and a hit batter, and the Panthers never looked back en route to a 10-1 Section VI Class C semifinal victory.

“It just seemed to be not our night,” Chautauqua Lake head coach Sue Teets said.

The win sends Portville into Thursday’s sectional final at No. 1 Falconer, which beat No. 4 Westfield in dramatic fashion Tuesday in the other semifinal.

OBSERVER Photo by Matt Spielman Chautauqua Lake shortstop Cayzlee Johnson throws across the diamond to first base during Tuesday’s Section VI Class C semifinal in Portville.

“This is a nice group of girls. We’ll be sad because we’ll lose six seniors, but they’ve been up for big games,” Portville head coach Bill Torrey said. “Today they were up for it. Hopefully, we’ll bring it (Thursday) no matter what.”

Brooke DeYoe threw a four-hitter for the Panthers, but surprisingly did not strike out a batter. Instead, the Panthers defense made all of the plays it needed to to hold down the third-seeded Thunderbirds, who finish their season with a 12-2 record.

“Since the Frewsburg game, our timing has been off. Something went south very quickly,” Teets said of a 2-1 win over the Bears last Thursday. “Even (Monday) night we only had three hits.”

DeYoe faced just five batters over the minimum, inducing 14 groundballs and seven flyballs. Just three of the outs came from outfielders.

“You have to give credit to Chautauqua Lake because they can hit the ball. Before the game I said ‘hopefully our pitching is adequate and they hit it where we are,'” Torrey said. “They did a little bit of that and we did a good job of hitting locations.”

Teagan Kosinski led off the game with a single to center field and quickly stole second. Faith Capito then laid down a sacrifice bunt, but no Chautauqua Lake player covered first base and the throw went all the way to the Thunderbirds right fielder allowing Kosinski to score.

“Before the game I said we had to take the pressure off of (starting pitcher Olivia Herrington) because she pitched a heck of a game (Monday) night,” Teets said. “Then we went out and did that in the first inning.”

Another error allowed Mia Hlasnick to reach and a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third before both runners scored on another error on a bunt.

“We imploded in the first inning,” Teets said.

Felecia Capito drove in the fourth run on a single to left field.

“I was really happy that the girls came out aggressive. It was solid baserunning, putting the bat on the ball and making them make decisions,” Torrey said. “When you can get ahead early it takes a little pressure off.”

Portville made it 7-0 in the fourth inning and again it started with Kosinski. The sophomore singled to left field and stole second before reaching third and scoring on a pair of wild pitches. Faith Capito then walked and after a flyout, stole second and third. A walk to DeYoe spelled the end of the afternoon for Herrington.

“(Monday) we had some baserunners on and we were unable to capitalize hitting-wise. We didn’t really force them to make plays by being aggressive,” Torrey said of a 3-1 victory over No. 7 Holland. “I said we were going to do a little bit more of that today, and it worked out in our favor.”

Felecia Capito greeted reliever Cayzlee Johnson with an RBI groundout and Mia Welty hit a hard grounder up the middle that turned into an RBI double when it glanced off Johnson’s foot and into shallow left field.

Chautauqua Lake got on the scoreboard in the fifth as Elise Riedesel walked with one out, went to second on a Sienna Collins sacrifice bunt and scored on a Jenna Waters single to center field. Waters got to third on a pair of wild pitches, but was stranded on a flyout to right field to end the inning.

“I’m kind of handcuffed,” Teets said of trailing for most of the game. “You have to change your whole strategy.”

The Panthers tacked on three insurance runs in the sixth on two hits and three more Thunderbirds errors before DeYoe closed out her gem with three groundouts in the seventh.

“I have to give all the respect and kudos to them. They are a good team. Probably half of that team is the team we faced in 2019,” Teets said of an 8-2 loss to the Panthers two years ago. “They have matured. They are playing well.”

Portville will need the same performance from its senior right-hander Thursday against a powerful Falconer lineup that is averaging more than 10 runs per game.

“In high school sports, momentum is huge,” Torrey said. “Anything you can do to have the girls in the right mindset, in their routine … there is definitely an advantage to that.”