The blond-haired girl with the black headband stood 10 feet away from the pitcher's mound and swung her right arm.

"I can't even feel my arm," Megan King said. "It's, like, flailing around."

King, Wawasee's right-handed junior pitcher, started Saturday's Warsaw Sectional championship game against Elkhart Central for one reason and only one reason. Wawasee ace Jaime Conn, the pitcher coach Bo O'Dell wanted to start against the Blue Blazers, was suspended.

So King, Wawasee's No. 2 pitcher, had to pitch her second sectional game in three days. After her, O'Dell had nobody. Sophomore Andrea Gingerich is Wawasee's third pitcher, but she has pitched sparingly, so O'Dell wasn't about to throw her into the sectional championship.

"Not even an option," O'Dell said.

King, who struck out 11 in a 10-0 five-inning win over Goshen in Thursday's first round, pitched 11 more innings Saturday. More importantly, she pitched the 19-11 Warriors to the sectional title with the 7-4 win over 8-20 Elkhart Central.

"Megan did a great job," Elkhart Central coach Mike Hamsher said. "I mean, jiminy christmas, she pitched five innings with 11 strikeouts the other night, then to come in and pitch 11 innings tonight. She did a nice job moving the ball around, and her defense was tough."

Wawasee has won three sectional softball titles, all in the last three years. The Warriors also tied a season record with 19 wins.

Make no mistake, this win was for Conn. Conn was suspended because she was ejected for a slide at home plate in Thursday's 10-0 win over Goshen. The umpire ruled unsportsmanlike conduct and said Conn made no attempt to touch the plate when she crashed into the catcher. IHSAA rules say when a player is ejected, he or she automatically misses the next game.

"We came out and did it for Jaime because she got a pretty bad call the other day, and it's her senior year," King, now 8-3, said. "We wanted her to come out and pitch the regional."

Wawasee's Kari Wortinger broke a 4-4 tie in the top of the 11th with an RBI triple. Elkhart Central left fielder Amy Saal misplayed the ball by charging in when she should have broken back. The ball sailed over her head, rolled to the wall and scored Sara Frantz, who had reached first on an error and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt.

King then helped her cause by singling home Wortinger to put Wawasee up 6-4. King would eventually make the final 7-4 after scoring on a wild pitch.

The Warriors looked like they would win this game, yes, but in regulation, in a tidy seven innings. They held the 4-1 lead entering the bottom of the seventh, the inning everything - pitching and defense -Êfell apart. Elkhart Central rallied for three runs on only one hit to tie the game and send it to extra innings.

Two of Elkhart Central's runners who scored reached on walks, while the third reached on an error. Elkhart Central's Lisa Smith scored the tying run with two outs after back-to-back wild pitches.

She went to third on a pitch that rolled on the dirt to the backstop. She scored on King's next pitch, a ball that sailed halfway up the backstop.

With Elkhart Central's Chasity Smith standing on third as the winning run, King got Kori Eppers to ground out to second to end the inning.

"Megan struggled," Hamsher said. "She was all over the place. We took advantage, but then they shut us down. Mentally, she jumped back into it. She's a tough girl."

A team that scores late like that typically rides the momentum to the win. Hamsher, for one, thought his Blue Blazers would win.

"Mentally, we were right in it," Hamsher said. "We just had a couple breaks go the wrong way."

But the seventh inning was King's only speed bump. After the inning, she settled down and allowed only one hit and one walk in the last four innings.

"That's how much of a competitor she is," O'Dell said. "Most people I know, when they reach that seventh inning and it doesn't work out, they're done. We should have been done. She fought back, got her mechanics back together, got her head back into the ballgame. She got that one last opportunity. We came back."

How could a girl who looked frazzled regain her composure?

"It was the Lord," she said. "I prayed to God to give me the strength. I remembered a Bible verse that says you can do all things through Christ, who strengthens you."

Said O'Dell: "If there was any more excitement in the state of Indiana, I'd like to know what it was. This is what softball's all about. Maybe not this many runs, but what more can you ask for? We laid it on the line. Elkhart Central laid it on the line. Both teams had chances to win."

The loss marked the end for Elkhart Central senior right-handed pitcher Stephanie Jellison. Jellison, who will play softball at Manchester College, went all 11 innings. In four games since May 28, she pitched 30.5 innings out of a possible 32 innings. She pitched the Blue Blazers to 2-1, 1-0 and 1-0 wins before the loss to Wawasee.

"Shoot, you can't ask anymore from our team," Hamsher said. "To go six and something during the regular season and be playing for the sectional championship ... I'm pleased as punch."

Wawasee plays 27-5 Fort Wayne Northrop at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Concord Regional.

"This is something we'll keep with us the rest of the season," O'Dell said. "Why would I want the girls to forget something that's so great? We've come from never winning a sectional championship at Wawasee to winning our third in a row.

"I'm sure our time will come where we hop on the bus and are disappointed, too. That's what the state tournament is all about." [[In-content Ad]]