Ishpeming’s Payton Manninen winds up to pitch during an MHSAA Division 4 tournament regional semfinal softball game against Norway at the Knights’ field on Sunday. (Iron Mountain Daily News photo by Dennis Mansfield)

NORWAY — The battle of the pitchers’ duels came down to a fielding miscue.

The Ishpeming and Norway High School softball teams battled to what was otherwise a scoreless tie over seven innings in a semifinal game of the MHSAA Division 4 regional tournament on Sunday.

The game was a makeup after their Saturday game was rained out.

But because of the error, the host Knights emerged with a 2-0 victory only to lose in the regional finals later in the day 11-4 to Pickford.

In the top of the fourth inning of the Ishpeming-Norway game, the Knights’ leadoff hitter hit a pop fly to the outfield, but a pair of Hematites fielders ran into each other trying to field it and instead it dropped, according to an account from IHS head coach Ben McGuire.

The runner reached third base and soon after scored on a passed ball.

A subsequent batter, Averie Popp, singled, later moving up to third and scoring on a sacrifice fly.

It made a hard-luck loser out of Ishpeming, which actually held a 3-2 edge in hits.

Hematites’ pitcher Payton Manninen pitched all seven innings, giving up the two unearned runs on a pair of hits and no walks as she struck out 10.

“Well, the girls went out there and left it all on the field,” McGuire said. “They played really hard, and it came down to one play making the difference in the game.”

Ishpeming’s hits, all singles, came off the bats of Manninen, Ella Luke and Miley Phillips against Norway hurler Kali Stanchina, who didn’t walk anyone and fanned five.

Though the Hematites didn’t attain their goal of winning a first-ever regional title, they did reach several others.

“One of our goals was to win the district, and we did that,” McGuire said about that tournament held the previous weekend at Superior Central where IHS downed Gwinn and the host Cougars. “And another was to break the wins record, and we got to that one, too.”

Ishpeming finished with a 19-12 record, one more win than the program’s previous high-water mark of 18.

“We had five seniors, and they’re a really good class of seniors,” McGuire said about Luke, Maddy McNab, Olivia Corp, Abby Koski and Hailey Hytinen. “I really feel the whole season was a success. The five seniors really showed a lot of leadership, and that helped us make a lot of progress, especially among our younger players.

“And I think it’s kinda neat, we have (top pitcher) Payton (Manninen) back for two more years, though we’ll have to replace just about our whole infield as that’s where most of the seniors played.”

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.