OLEAN– A large crowd watched a chilly and rainy pitchers duel between Ellicottville and Forestville in the Section 6 Class D Championship game Friday at Olean Middle School.

Four hits and two runs by the gave the Hornets a 2-0 win over the Eagles who started freshman Katie Lafferty at pitcher, but Lafferty didn’t look like a freshman as she struck out 12 with two walks.

“Katie did a great job,” Ellicottville coach Matt Finn said. “She is a young pitcher, with this much pressure and everything else she was right down the middle and her hits were to our gaps.”

Two big hits were the outlier that gave Forestville the edge. An RBI double in the fifth inning and a leadoff triple to start the sixth produced the game’s only runs.

But starting Forestville pitcher senior Megan Gruber might have been the biggest factor, never allowing a walk with only two hits while striking out nine in a complete game shutout while a lot of the contact was weakly hit.

Ellicottville couldn’t make the most of their chances with runners on base, never having multiple runners on while only reaching second base on a misplayed rundown and a passed ball.

“We just struggled putting the ball in play,” Finn said. “She threw a great game, she kept jamming us up so everything we had was soft to them. With the wet conditions I was hoping we would get something through, but they played good defense and we struggled at the plate today.”

Ande Northrup (1-3) and Courtney Marsh (1-3) were the only Eagles that registered hits. Marsh sees her senior year unfortunately come to an end with the loss.

“She has been a staple, captain and everything else,” Finn said.

Four other seniors leave the team, Ava Woodarek, Liz Ball, Hayden Andera and Bri Aronson. It was still a year to hold their head high, finishing 12-4 with a CCAA 4 Championship.

12 players are set to return for next year’s squad with Lafferty gaining another year of experience to lead the Eagles to hopefully more sectional title games.