In a rivalry where offense tends to come at a premium, it was an old-fashioned slugfest between the South Warren and Warren East softball teams with the Spartans outlasting the Lady Raiders 13-12 in eight innings Thursday at South Warren High School.

South Warren (3-1 overall, 1-0 District 14) saw two leads slip away before rallying for two runs in the bottom of the eighth to send Warren East to its first loss of the season.

“I was really proud of our girls,” South Warren coach Kelly Reynolds said. “They never gave up. We had some critical errors that cost us some runs, but then we had offense that kept powering through – all throughout our lineup.”

The game featured five lead changes, 31 hits combined, four home runs and a pair of grand slams – a far cry from last May’s 3-2 thriller in the region title game also won by South Warren.

“It was a slow-pitch game,” Warren East coach Philip McKinney said. “Not saying anything (bad) about the pitchers, but the score (was like a slow-pitch game). We’ve played South Warren 10 to 15 times since I’ve been here and together we haven’t scored 25 runs total in those games. It’s usually 1-0, 2-0, 3-2. It was a crazy game.

“I’m very proud of how our girls got punched in the mouth and kept punching back.”

Warren East was without junior pitcher Katie Gardner, who McKinney said is out for a couple of weeks after suffering a thumb injury last week. Olivia Price started for Gardner and was spotted a 2-0 lead before she threw a pitch courtesy of a two-run single by Ashton Akins.

Price only lasted an inning, however, as the Spartans sent 10 batters to the plate – scoring five times. Lauren Martin started the rally with a homer, and Abby Mills capped the scoring with a two-run double.

Eighth-grader Emma Markham relieved Price in the second and silenced the South Warren bats over the next three innings, giving the Lady Raiders a chance to rally.

Jeyda Bays’ two-run single in the second trimmed the deficit to one. Two innings later, Bays tied the score with an RBI single.

Price gave Warren East a 9-5 lead in the fifth with a grand slam that clipped the top of the fence as it exited the park.

A pair of home runs allowed South Warren to come right back. Alexis Isable hit a two-run shot to center field in the fifth to make the score 9-7. One inning later, Madison Stumbo gave South Warren an 11-9 advantage with a grand slam that cleared the fence in left.

“It was indescribable,” Stumbo said. “It meant so much for me. It overwhelmed me. It boosted us all up and it felt like that hit (sparked us). It was contagious.”

The Lady Raiders responded with two runs in the seventh – including an RBI single by Hailey Hymer – to tie the score and force extra innings. A two-out error opened the door for Warren East in the eighth, with Hymer giving the Lady Raiders a 12-11 lead on an RBI single three batters later.

A pair of errors helped fuel South Warren’s game-winning rally in the bottom of the inning.

Stumbo tied the game with an RBI single. Two batters later, Kaitlyn LaSala sealed the comeback with an RBI single to left.

“This really shows that we have each other’s back and our teamwork is really strong,” LaSala said. “We care about each other as players and we want each other to do (well). That really shows on the field.”

Stumbo paced the South Warren offense, a triple shy of the cycle, while Emma Mills added three hits.

Hymer had five hits for the Lady Raiders. Lucy Patterson finished with four hits, while Price had three hits – also finishing a triple shy of the cycle.

McKinney said despite the loss his team learned where it stood without Gardner, adding he was impressed with Markham’s composure.

“That little kid threw awesome,” McKinney said. “She threw big-time to kids who are going to college next year and to kids who are going on to college in two years. She didn’t get rattled. They hit the ball 220 feet on her and she said, ‘OK, next batter.’ ”

South Warren will play at Shelby County at 5:30 p.m. CDT Friday. Warren East is scheduled to host Whitesville Trinity and Muhlenberg County on Saturday.

WEHS 220 140 21 – 12

SWHS 500 024 02 – 13

WP: T. Enlow LP: Markham.