Staff photo / Neel Madhavan South Range freshman Anna Aey gets congraulated by teammates after hitting a 2-run HR to give the Raiders the lead for good on Wednesday.

CANTON — As South Range freshman Anna Aey stepped to the plate Wednesday, she knew all the Raiders needed was one run.

She got them two, and in the end, it made all the difference.

Aey blasted a two-run homer in the top of the seventh inning, which gave South Range a two-run lead. Despite giving up one run in the bottom of the seventh, the Raiders were able to hold on for a 4-3 victory over defending Division II state champion Wooster Triway to advance to the Division III regional final.

“Anna comes up and it’s awesome to have the bottom of the order win the game for you,” said Raiders head coach Jeff DeRose. “The last few games, we got used to learning how to play from behind. We really didn’t have to do that all year long. We did it against Poland late (in the district final) and against a couple other teams, and it all just paid off (Wednesday).”

In the top of the seventh, South Range had two outs on the board, but Jayli Wilt had doubled deep to center field in the previous at bat to put the potential game-winning run on second base.

“In my past at bats, I had been struggling,” Aey said. “I have these bows that I wear (in my hair), and when I hit my other home runs, I had my bows tied, so I changed it. I walked to the plate, and I’m like, it doesn’t need to be a perfect pitch, I just need to make contact with it — all we have to do is score.”

Aey made contact, but wasn’t sure where the ball went, so she just took off running. As she rounded first, she finally realized it had cleared the fence.

“I made contact and then I heard DeRose yelling at me, so I’m thinking the (outfielder) is going to catch it,” Aey said. “But then I looked back at it and saw it went over and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, now we’re winning!'”

As Aey made her way home, she was greeted by a high-five from assistant coach Don Feren, before getting mobbed by her Raider teammates at home plate.

“My teammates are awesome,” Aey said. “I absolutely love them — they’re the best team that I’ve played with.”

However, even as the Raiders now had the lead, Triway still had three outs left to climb back into it.

“While celebrating was fun, I went down (in the dugout) and grabbed my visor because I knew that we still needed those last three outs,” Aey said.

After a quick ground out, Triway’s Michelle Lyons got on base with a single. Then things started to get nervy for the Raiders.

A high fly ball along the left-field line was controversially ruled to be in play, which scored a run for the Titans and put the game-tying run on second.

But then Juli Stachowicz did what she does best — getting the two remaining outs with a pair of strikeouts to send South Range onto the regional final. Stachowicz finished with nine strikeouts, while giving up five total hits in seven innings of work.

“One thing I learned about Juli — when I met her back maybe in seventh or eighth grade when I went to see her play travel ball — she got smacked around, but she never got rattled, ever,” DeRose said. “I knew she was going to be calm, no matter what they did. Maybe they didn’t know that, but I certainly knew that. I’ll be honest, I didn’t watch those last two batters, but that’s just me. I knew Juli had it.”

Aey may never have had the chance for the go-ahead runs in the seventh inning unless Samantha Susany hits the RBI that tied the game in the sixth inning.

“Tying the game was huge because I think they thought they had us,” DeRose said. “(Triway pitcher Carter Wachtel) is a hell of a pitcher, there’s no question about that. But we’ve seen good pitching. We’ve purposely scheduled up to see good-quality pitching and that sure paid off.”

South Range finished with six hits against Wachtel. Madison Dado had a triple, Wilt had a double and Aey had the home run. Kelly Szolek also added an RBI for the Raiders.

South Range now moves on to the regional final for the first time since 2021, when it made it to the state championship game. The Raiders will face Champion on Friday at 5 p.m. at Willig Park in Canton. The Golden Flashes earned their spot courtesy of a 1-0 win over LaGrange Keystone in the first semifinal on Wednesday.