STERLING – Katie Bridges’ walk-off single to left scored Shelbi Smith in the ninth inning to give host and seventh-ranked Sterling a gut-wrenching 5-4 win over Rush Springs in Saturday’s Regional championship game.

Erick Muncy’s gritty Lady Redskins had a tough week. Four players were home sick and the tournament had to be bumped back a day from the original Thursday start.

They split on Friday, coming out very rusty to lose to Sterling in the first round, but bounced back and played better in a win over Wilson.

They played well again in Saturday’s elimination game but had to rally in their final at-bat for a 5-4 comeback win over Navajo to set up the title game. They rallied again in the championship game for three runs to take a one run lead in the sixth but a controversial home run tied things up to force the extra frames.

Third baseman Lindsey Fehring put the Tigers up 1-0 on an RBI single to right in the bottom of the second but Rush center fielder Mackenzie Manuel tied it up in the fourth with an RBI single to score shortstop Chandler Nichols.

Sterling went up 3-1 in the home fifth on a two-run single by shortstop Emily Fehring but Rush responded with three runs in the sixth to take the lead.

Senior pitcher Shelby Callihan singled with two outs then catcher Whitney Lowe tripled her in with a rope to the right-center field fence. Left fielder Erika Foster kept things going with an RBI single and later scored on center fielder Mackenzie Manuel’s single for a 4-3 lead.

But fate stepped in during Sterling’s last at-bat when Emily Fehring launched a towering fly ball to the left field corner. The ball was tailing away towards foul territory all the way but just cleared the foul pole to tie things up.

Redskin fans thought it was a foul ball but in spite of their protests, the call stood.

Rush went in order in the eighth and dodged another bullet in the home half, getting a forceout at third and another at home and leaving the bases loaded on a popup to third.

But again, they couldn’t get the bats going against freshman pitcher Summer Weeks. A comebacker and two ground balls to Smith at first came back to bite them.

Smith led off with a single and was bunted over on the sacrifice. Second baseman Kimberlin Turpin singled to put runners on the corners and Bridges punched a single to left to score Smith for the winner.

“I couldn’t be any more proud of our kids,” a disappointed Muncy said. “They’re the most resilient group of girls I’ve ever been around. We’ve had some bumps and bruises and had to come from behind all year but they always stepped up and fought back.”

Rush Springs lost three seniors, one their veteran pitcher and two of them All-Staters, off last year’s state semifinalist team.

“There weren’t a whole lot of expectations,” their first-year coach explained. “Each kid played a different position this year and we really over-achieved. Shelby (Callihan) played left field last year and pitched for the first time this year. She did a great job for us and we won more games than we were supposed to, especially at the end.”

Seventh-ranked Sterling takes a 24-11 record to state and Rush Springs closes its season out at 16-18.