Staff photo / Neel Madhavan. Ursuline's Lilly Ditz puts the ball in play on Tuesday against Girard with one of her three doubles.

BOARDMAN — Ursuline senior Lilly Ditz has been working through injuries this season.

While it has hampered her at times, she’s finally at the point where she’s able to both pitch and hit a complete game.

On Tuesday, Ditz was dominant in the circle and at the plate, as she helped pace the Irish in their 12-2 victory over Girard in six innings in the first round of the Division II, Northeast 1 Jefferson district playoffs at the Field of Dreams in Boardman.

“I think she’s honestly really been wanting to get that opportunity to be able to hit and pitch at the same time and be able to pitch a full game and be successful, and I think she did that,” Ursuline head coach Kristina Dugan said. “We’ve known she could do it all along. She trusted her defense, and I was just really proud of her for how she overcame (her injuries).”

Ditz pitched the full six innings, giving up just three hits, while striking out four and walking two. At the plate, she was even better — perfect, even, as she went 3-for-3, including three doubles and two RBIs.

“I think it’s a real confidence boost for the rest of our games this season,” Ditz said of her performance. “I think it’ll really help my momentum with pitching and hitting.”

Ditz wasn’t alone in her success at the plate. The Irish racked up 12 hits, with eight of them coming in the final two innings.

Through the first four innings, Ursuline could only pick up one run off four hits due to some steady fielding and defense from the Indians.

“We were just hitting right to people in the beginning,” Dugan said.

But in the fifth and sixth innings, Ursuline’s hitters came alive. After MacKenzie Smith reached on a Girard fielding error, Ditz’s second RBI double of the game tied things up.

A sac bunt from Brooke Opalick advanced Ditz to third base, before Brooke Burton put down a bunt single that scored Ditz to give the Irish their first lead.

A two-run home run from Gia Schiavone capped the scoring for Ursuline in the fifth inning, but the damage had been done. The Irish had found their groove again at the plate.

“Honestly, it’s tough to not swing for the fences because we’re in such a small field,” Dugan said. “We just had to start making contact one at a time.”

In the sixth inning, Ursuline exploded for seven runs, which included a three-run double from Burton, a two-run single from Katie Koulianos and a two-run blast from Savannah Patrone, which triggered the 10-run rule, ending the game.

“I just feel like we knew we were still in it because we just knew our abilities as hitters,” Ditz said. “We know we can hit those pitches. So I feel like once someone hit it, we knew we could all hit it.”

Girard scored its two runs early on in the first inning.

Destiny Flaherty reached on a bunt single, and then Caylee Wilkes reached on a fielder’s choice. A throwing error from Ursuline’s catcher, Smith, went into the outfield, allowing Flaherty to score for the Indians’ first run. Then a base hit from Brooklyn Broll scored Wilkes.

But Girard wasn’t able to build on that early momentum for the rest of the game, finishing with just one more hit and reaching base only three more times.

“We had a couple of miscues out there today,” Girard head coach Jim Keagy said. “The short fence obviously didn’t help us either. But hats off to (Ursuline), they did a good job. They kept us off balance, made plays in the field and hit the ball hard.”

While the Indians may be done in the tournament, Girard still has two Northeast-8 Conference games left against Struthers that it needs to make up. The Indians will play the Wildcats today in a doubleheader to finish off their season.

“I thought we really grew from day one to now,” Keagy said. “Those are two games we’re looking to win and finish on a high note.”

Ursuline now advances to the sectional final, where it will face No. 5 seed Howland on Thursday at 5 p.m.

“They have great pitching and they’re a great hitting team,” Dugan said. “They’re going to be tough, so it’s not going to be a walk in the park. We’re excited.”

Have an interesting story? Contact Neel Madhavan by email at nmadhavan@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @NeelMadhavan.