NAPLES – Lake Region’s Trish Shorey bent a couple of times, but she never broke.

The senior hurler fanned nine, walked one, and survived a late-inning attack as the No. 4 Lakers downed No. 5 Oak Hill, 6-4, in western Class B quarterfinal softball action Thursday.

Shorey made her presence felt at the plate as well collecting two hits, scoring once and driving in another.

Lake Region posted a 1-0 lead in the second and added four in the fifth to ice the win.

Holly Pelletier led off the deciding frame with an infield hit and was the first of four consecutive Laker batters to reach. They all scored.

For the Raiders, it took most of the game to find the key to Shorey’s pitches. After collecting just three hits over the first five innings, Oak Hill made a game of it in the last two.

Trailing 5-0 in the sixth, Raider pitcher Julie Lizotte walked and sophomore Kristen Easton singled to left. With two outs, Danielle Sargent homered to left to make it a 5-3 game.

“I think they just got used to what she was throwing,” said Lake Region coach JR Warren. “I think they picked up on her change. What were strikeouts early in the game became hits. She doesn’t fold though.”

“I was certainly getting deeper into the counts later on,” said Shorey. “I can’t say why, I just did.”

“(Sargent) is a powerhouse,” said Oak Hill coach Julie Boucher. “In tight situations I know she will drive in a lot of runs.”

Lake Region used smart baserunning and solid execution to get one of those runs back in the sixth. Jamie Monahan walked and took two bases on Alanna Burnett’s sacrifice back to Lizotte. She scored on Pelletier’s sacrifice fly to right.

“It was important to score that run,” said Warren. “After you give some up, you have to come back.”

Oak Hill put three hits together in their last at-bat but Emily Grondin was the only one to make it home on an infield hit by Julie Lizotte.

“They are fighters and pretty decent at rallying,” said Boucher. “We didn’t do a lot of little things well today and that made the difference. We just couldn’t get it in gear and get the consistent offense like we needed to do.”

“We knew Shorey was going to throw low,” continued the coach. “So we practiced that yesterday. We worked on stepping up in the box, then laying back and waiting.”

Julie Lizotte struck out four and walked two for Oak Hill.

Sargeant was the lone Raider with two hits.

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