Despite late-inning home runs by Paige Vroman and Greycen Syferd, Fayette couldn’t erase a seven-run lead by Glasgow over the first two innings in an 11-5 loss at John Donaldson Field on Thursday night.

The night grew worse as Fayette’s senior center fielder was taken from the field by ambulance after she took a spill over the outfield fence chasing down a fly ball. The injury delayed the game by more than half an hour as players from both teams waited anxiously inside their dugouts.

However, on Glasgow’s side, things were a little rosier. Not only did the Lady Yellowjackets blast seven extra-base hits around the diamond, including four doubles, a triple, and two homers, but senior pitcher Brooklynn Morris broke 450 career strikeouts.

The Jackets’ ace finished the night with 11 strikeouts, bringing her total to 460.

“She’s been a stud for us this year. She’s really been the backbone of our team, and we’ve just built off of what she does in the circle,” said Glasgow coach Allison Foster.

Even with Morris’s dominance of opposing lineups, Foster said her ace hadn’t been a strikeout pitcher until this season.

“She creates a lot of outs by creating a lot of ground balls and pop-ups. We’ve got a really good defense behind her,” Foster said. “But she’s really stepped up and has become a big strikeout pitcher this year.”

Case in point, after giving up a leadoff single, Morris struck out Fayette’s second batter. Then, the defense turned a double play behind her.

Offensively, Glasgow came out swinging. With two runners on base, junior cleanup hitter Aly Prentzler blasted a 1-1 pitch over the left field fence to give the Jackets an early three-run lead.

“This last half of the season, we’ve really been able to adjust to any speed of pitching that we see. We work on that a lot in practice. We’ve brought that into games and have been able to hit hard line drives and a lot of home runs,” Foster said.

Glasgow plated four more runs on back-to-back doubles by senior Hailey Monnig and Prentzler, and later back-to-back singles, junior Aynslie Locke and Morris, in the bottom of the second, aided by a walk and a Falcon error.

“We didn’t come out with the energy that we should have,” said Fayette coach Bri Busker. “That wasn’t the team that I know in those first two innings. I think without those two innings, it would’ve been a closer game.”

Fayette has also been dialing up the power as the regular season drew to a close. The Falcons were fresh off an 11-9 extra-innings win at Salisbury two nights prior, where they homered twice and laid down five doubles. Against Glasgow on Thursday, the bats woke up with two outs in the top of the third when junior Emma Hilgedick singled to spark a three-run rally. Junior Paige Vroman then drove a fly ball over the center field fence to put Fayette’s first two runs on the board. Kennady Vroman kept the rally going with a single, followed by an RBI double from senior Leah Thies to cut Glasgow’s lead to four runs.

But the Jackets were far from finished. With a runner on in the bottom of the third, Monnig sent a ball over the fence in center to extend Glasgow’s lead to 9-3. Prentzler then followed with a triple to right field. But she would be stranded on third after back-to-back outs by the Fayette defense.

Things cooled down for a bit once teams were back in action following Eubanks’s injury. That was until Glasgow scored two more runs on three singles and an RBI double by Monnig in the bottom of the fifth.

The Falcons answered with a two-run homer by Syferd in the top of the sixth but would come no closer, despite singles by senior Mariah Felten, Kennady Vroman, and Thies in the final two innings.

“We just weren’t being aggressive at the plate and made mental mistakes in the field,” Busker said after her team’s loss in the regular season finale.

Fayette now heads into districts at .500, with a 13-13 overall record. But despite the record, Busker said all teams revert to 0-0 once the district tournament begins.

Fayette is seeded third in next week’s Class 2 District 8 Tournament hosted by Westran. The Falcons open the postseason with a tough draw against sixth-seeded Salisbury, which will undoubtedly be fixated on retribution after falling in nine innings on Tuesday.

“We talked a lot about mental toughness and the motivation that comes with it. Salisbury is going to want it, and they’re a good team,” Busker said. “It’s districts, and it’s a clean slate. No one cares about records. We just have to want it more and show up.”

The first pitch is slated for 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Huntsville. The winner will advance to the semifinals at 7 p.m. on Thursday against either second-seeded Harrisburg or Lafayette County, the seventh seed.

For Glasgow, the power hitting is coming at just the right time as the team is peaking just as districts begin. Ranked fifth in the state in Class 1, the Jackets drew the third seed in one of the most challenging districts in all of Class 1. Defending state champion St. Elizabeth (20-5) was seeded first, with a perennially strong Cairo (18-5) seeded second.

The district boasts four ranked teams. St. Elizabeth leads in No. 1, followed by No. 3 Cairo, No. 5 Glasgow, and No. 9 Jamestown, the fourth seed.

The Jackets host the tournament and will take on sixth-seeded New Franklin at 7 p.m. on Thursday. The winner will face either seventh-seeded Higbee or Cairo in the semifinals at 7 p.m. on Friday.