The Felicity-Franklin Lady Cardinals pose after their sectional final win over Fayetteville on Tuesday, May 20.

The Felicity-Franklin Lady Cardinals pose after their sectional final win over Fayetteville on Tuesday, May 20.
By Chris Chaney
Sun staff

An impressive regular season for three Southern Buckeye Conference contenders has progressed into a potentially historical postseason as Williamsburg, Felicity-Franklin and Bethel-Tate all raised sectional championship trophies earlier this week.

Heading into the week of May 18, five Clermont County schools has positioned themselves in sectional final games, but Milford and Goshen were unable to win their respective matchups.

Playing in Division III, Williamsburg was the first team to claim a sectional title simply as a result of scheduling. The Lady Wildcats, who shared a piece of the SBC-National title with Felicity-Franklin, only had to play a pair of postseason games to claim their first sectional championship since 2010.

By virtue of the Lady Wildcats exceptional regular season during which the team only dropped two games in 26 times out, Burg received the No. 1 seed in the Cincinnati sectional and had the luxury of choosing a first-round bye and sectional semifinal berth before a pitch was thrown.

In their semifinal matchup, the Lady Wildcats run-ruled No. 12-seed Shroder, 18-0, in five innings. Then, on Monday, May 19, Burg took down a Taylor team that finished second in the Cincinnati Hills League, 8-0.

Senior first baseman Hannah Klein hit two home runs to take care of the Williamsburg offense and freshman pitcher Kacey Smith took a no-hitter into the seventh inning to take care of the defense.

The Lady Wildcats have now won eight games in a row and will try to make it nine when they face Milton Union on Friday, May 23 at Tipp City.

On the opposite side of the Division III regional bracket, the Lady Wildcats will find the Lady Tigers of Bethel-Tate who, after finishing in a tie for third in the SBC-American, have gone on an unexpected run.

The No. 5-seeded Lady Tigers took care of business in the first-round run-ruling St. Bernard, 15-0. Then, in their sectional semifinal game versus Cincinnati Christian, a nearly week-long suspension resumed on Monday, May 19 with the game tied 1-1 in the third inning.

All Bethel did from there was outscore their opponent 16-0 over the next two innings to win 17-1 in five innings. Playing in back-to-back season-on-the-line games, the Lady Tigers overcame an early-inning deficit to Finneytown to score seven runs in the third inning to take a 7-1 advantage. An insurance run was added in the top of the sixth inning, which would prove necessary, as Bethel held on to win 8-7.

The Lady Tigers advance to play Waynesville on Saturday, May 24 at 2 p.m. at Tippecanoe.

The lone Division IV team in Clermont County, Felicity-Franklin, may be the least surprising one calling a 2014 sectional championship home. The Lady Cardinals have won five consecutive sectional titles over the past half-decade.

Rob Wear’s 2014 edition has done it in a similar fashion as his previous teams: strong pitching and timely hitting, although the names, faces and jerseys continually change.

Felicity got their sectional title in come-from-behind fashion as well, trailing Fayetteville 1-0 after 2.5 innings. A three-run third inning put the Lady Cards on top, but not for long as the Lady Rockets took the lead back in the fifth, 4-3.

Ironically, the timely hitting in the sectional championship game came from the starting pitcher, Sandy Woodmansee who, with runners on first and second and two out, hit a bases clearing double to give the Lady Cardinals a 5-4 lead, which they would hold on to.

Felicity begins yet another run upstate against Fort Loramie on Friday, May 23 at Brookville High School at 5 p.m.

Full sectional brackets can be seen on the Southwest Ohio District Athletic Board’s website at swdab.org, but for continuing coverage of the trio of teams headed upstate, log on to the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s website at ohsaa.org.

As always, stay up to the minute with tweets from The Clermont Sun’s sports department by following @ClerSunSports on Twitter.