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BATH - Resuming its Division III softball district semifinal in the third inning on Thursday, Parkway pulled off a stirring comeback for a walkoff win.
An hour later, Coldwater followed that example.
The Panthers erased an 8-2 deficit for a 9-8 win over Van Buren in the opener, while the Cavaliers trailed 6-0 before Claire Steinke's sixth-inning grand slam gave them a 10-6 victory over Fort Recovery.
Parkway and Coldwater will meet back at Bath High School at 5 p.m. today in the Cavaliers' first district final appearance since 2017. The Panthers walked off their Midwest Athletic Conference matchup 5-4 on April 18.
Parkway's Madelyn Stover (10) and Emmery Temple (6), who scored on Abbi Taylor's walkoff single against Van Buren, celebrate as the Panthers' bench players rush onto the field in the Division III district semifinals at Bath on Thursday.
It only took Parkway (21-3) 10 minutes after the two-day delay ended to halve a six-run deficit and bring the tying run to the plate.
From there, the Panthers needed all four turns at-bat to finish the comeback.
"It was a tough thing to sit on, in the third inning down 2 to 8," Parkway coach Trey Stover said. "We just sat and thought about it, a long two days. But I was so proud of these girls. They fought back so many times this year, and I never had a doubt."
Centerfielder Madison Louth got the last out of the third with a diving catch, and two errors, an Adria Miller sacrifice fly and Emmery Temple's RBI single got it to 8-5 in the bottom half. But after back-to-back singles, Megan Stall induced a fly-out to get Van Buren (14-10) out of the inning.
Miller led off the fifth with a solo home run, and after Abbi Taylor singled, Avery White drove her in to make it 8-7.
"I think we hit the ball well against (Stall) the first couple innings on Tuesday, but we were swinging at a lot of first pitches," Coach Stover said. "We talked about being a lot more selective, hitting that first pitch only if it's our pitch. We were definitely more selective and made the pitcher work a little bit more tonight, and we got some good pitches to hit."
Miller came through again in the seventh with a leadoff double, with pinch runner Madelyn Stover taking her place. Temple laid down a bunt single, then took second on indifference.
Taylor smoked a grounder to second baseman Jordan Patton, who stabbed at it but missed as both runners scored.
Parkway relied on Bruns to keep Van Buren from adding on. She scattered a hit and three walks Thursday.
"She's got a heart of steel," Coach Stover said. "I think the big difference, though, was that our defense settled down. We talked about that too the last couple days, that we needed to get back to playing the way we know how to play defense."
The Panthers were struggling on Tuesday before heavy rain stopped play with two outs in the third. Meg Henkle and Schoenleben gave up runs, and Parkway had four errors.
Twice, a runner was safe on a ruling that a Panthers' fielder pulled her foot off the bag.
"A lot of people have said that it was probably a good thing that we got rained out so we could regroup," Coach Stover said. "I told the girls on the bus on the way home, 'We had a couple calls not go our way. We're going to forget about that and move on,' and that's what they did."
Fort Recovery third baseman Ella Schoen throws to first on the run.
Coldwater (17-11) also had a rocky third inning to dig a six-run hole. But Dana Zahn got an RBI single in the bottom half, and the Cavaliers scored four in the fourth to get back in the game quickly.
"We told them after the third inning, when they got back to the dugout, 'We don't have time to pout about it,' " Coldwater coach Kyle Ahrens said. " 'It's a tournament game. We've got to figure it out, or we're going home.' They decided to start swinging the bats, and it just got contagious from there."
Hailey Stough singled in the fourth, and Lindsey Grieshop walked, bringing up Madison Wendel with two outs.
Fort Recovery coach Carrie Schoen elected to walk Wendel, only for a wild pitch to score Stough. With a base open, Schoen sent Claire Steinke to first too.
Fellow senior Rachel Schroyer made those free runners count, ripping a line drive into the right field corner for a three-run triple.
"Wendel and Steinke are great players, they're great hitters," Coach Schoen said. "It's always a battle when we play against them, and it's just the decisions you have to make to try to produce some outs, try to get out of those innings."
With runners on second and third in the sixth, Coach Schoen sent Wendel to first again, and Steinke launched a grand slam over the left field fence to give Coldwater its first lead.
"Claire was just being herself," Ahrens said. "That's the thing, that's what we told her: 'Just be yourself, go up there and do what you've been doing all year.' "
Coldwater coach Kyle Ahrens high-fives Claire Steinke as she rounds third base on her sixth-inning grand slam against Fort Recovery.
Fort Recovery got to Wendel with six hits in the first three innings and capitalized several misplayed fly balls early on.
"This is the third time this year we've battled with them, and I would say today is the best that we've hit as a team overall," Coach Schoen said.
But from there, Wendel gave up just one hit. Emma Will looked to have a leadoff double in the seventh, but umpires ruled she missed first, and Wendel retired the next two on four pitches.
Fort Recovery's season ends at 12-13. The Indians upset fifth-seeded Fairview and third-seeded Wayne Trace to reach the district.
"We focused a lot this year on having confidence and believing in themselves, and really here at the end, it was everything," Coach Schoen said. "Defense was playing well, offense was playing well, pitching was phenomenal. Everything just gelled, and I think they just figured out they could do all these things."
