Photo by Nick Henthorn PITCHING — Big Red pitcher Isabella Cadile delivers to a Wheeling Park batter on Thursday.

WHEELING — The Steubenville Big Red flipped a switch on Thursday evening, just as the top of the fifth inning rolled around in their road game vs. Wheeling Park.

A 5-5 tie turned into a 8-5 lead before Steubenville had to put the bats down in the fifth, and Big Red kept up their newfound scoring pace on their way to a 14-6 victory over the home Patriots.

Steubenville loaded the bases with one out in the top of the fifth after an umpire decision. With one out and runners on first and second, a grounder back to Wheeling Park pitcher Harmony Bittner went to third base for a force out, but officials ruled that Park had obstructed the runner going from second to third, and the play was reversed, loading the bases for Isabella Cadile, who slapped a ground ball between the first and second basemen to score one run, break the tie, and keep the bases loaded.

Park managed to retire the next batter, and with two outs, Addison Meyer stepped to the plate and knocked a base hit down the left field line to bring around two more runs and give Steubenville a three-run lead.

The inning ended on a wild pitch. Wheeling Park catcher Alivia West was quick to the backstop and made a good throw to home plate where Bittner applied a tag for the third out.

Wheeling Park got one back in the bottom half of the frame, West hitting a sacrifice fly to make it an 8-6 game.

Steubenville kept up their run production though. In the sixth, Steubenville shortstop Sadie Edwards punched a no-doubt home run over dead center to tack on two more runs, and Sagan Smarrella smacked a two-run double in the seventh to keep up the scoring spree.

“I tell them just about every inning– it’s a 0-0 game, we’re starting over, let’s get the bats running,” Steubenville head coach April Minniefield said of her team’s offense. “We made some running mistakes, but we’re trying to fix it. We’re trying to fix it and do better. But they came through like usual and I’m very proud of them.”

“I think the big play of the game was, we made the out at third and we got called for interference,” Wheeling Park head coach Patrick Durkin said. “I’d like to see what that looked like. My expectation is the shortstop has a right to go get the ball even though it’s fielded by the pitcher. She’s got to make that play. But that was their call. And I think that gave them the lead and they kept the lead after that.”

Sadie Edwards hit two home runs on Thursday to finish with four RBI. Sagan Smarrella hit two doubles and finished with three RBI.

Addison Meyer had three hits and drove in two. Isabella Cadile also drove in two, knocking two singles.

For Wheeling Park, Alivia West finished with three RBI, while Harmony Bittner drove in two and doubled. Brenna Tipton and Mikaylah Alderman also hit doubles for the Patriots.

“They hit the ball well,” Durkin said of Big Red. “Their outfielders made some really, really good catches. We had four balls with the outfield that we thought would drop and they didn’t, they caught them all. They played good defense. Their pitcher was good enough to keep us down. We didn’t give up. We tried until the end. We’ll keep playing. It’s a long week next week. We’re going to enjoy a couple days off for Easter and then we’ll come back next week and go at it.”

Bittner pitched all seven for Park, striking out seven. Cadile went the distance for Steubenville, striking out three.

Steubenville moves to 4-1 while Wheeling Park goes to 5-5 on the season.

“We’re working on base running, we’re learning new things, we’re trying to be more aggressive,” Minniefield said. “Right now it’s hurting us in certain ways, but in some ways it’s helping us. Those are the mistakes I’d rather see early so we can fix them now and get better at the game. I’m enjoying it. I’m having a good time with my team. They’re having fun just playing softball.”