Staff photo / Dan Hiner Boardman’s Jocelynn Torres (44) singles to center field during a game against Austintown Fitch on Monday in Boardman.

BOARDMAN — The Boardman softball team had its back against the wall, trailing by five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on Monday.

However, the Spartans began to chip away, scoring the necessary five runs to tie Austintown Fitch at 9. But they were unable to score the game-winning run.

As the seventh drew to a close, the game was called at Boardman High School due to darkness and the wintry mix that blew through the area around 7 p.m. The two teams will meet again on Wednesday in Austintown to conclude the extra-inning affair and play their originally scheduled game.

“We know we gotta go right back out there Wednesday and play them again, and hopefully, finish this suspended game here,” Boardman head coach Fred Mootz said. “If we do what we did today in these later innings early on Wednesday, we have a shot to beat anybody. This is a really special team here.”

Fitch’s Kylie Folkwein drew a bases-loaded walk to force home the first run in the top of the first inning. Samantha Severn followed by driving in Morgan Roby on a fielder’s choice groundout to shortstop to take a 2-0 lead.

Severn drew a leadoff walk to start the fourth, and Bella Baumgart drove her in with an RBI double to the left-center gap. The Falcons (7-0, 1-0 All-American Conference) extended their lead to 4-0 later that inning when Rachel Spalding dropped down a bunt, but the throw to first base was high, scoring Baumgart and allowing Spalding to reach.

Kaliana Ray drew a one-out walk in the next at-bat, chasing Tori Strines from the circle. Alyssa Rodgers to load the bases with a bunt single in the next at-bat. And Roby crushed a pitch that bounced off the bottom-right corner of the scoreboard. It was ruled a three-run triple instead of a grand slam, but Abby Toth drove in the extra run with an RBI double to the warning track in center field.

Boardman (6-1, 1-0 AAC) loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth, and Laci Jurus got the Spartans on the board with a two-run single to right field.

“We gotta stay in the moment, we just gotta keep battling, trust each other obviously and I preach the ‘pass the bat’ mentality,” Mootz said. “Not trying to do too much, chip away. Get a couple runs here, get a couple runs in the next inning.”

Boardman pitcher Gabi Sferra came in to pitch, and her outing helped limit the damage in the later innings and allowed her offense to get back into the game.

Boardman’s Alex Ward and Mikayla Rivera both scored on wild pitches in the bottom of the fifth to cut the deficit to 8-4. That resulted in Kourtney Fedorek entering in relief of Fitch starter Tori Greathouse with two outs in the frame.

Boardman loaded the bases with two down, but Fedorek got Jurus to fly out to center, ending the threat.

Rodgers reached and eventually scored on a fielding error in the sixth, pushing the Falcons’ lead to 9-4.

Rivera got things going again for the Spartan with a run when she reached on a dropped popup and scored on a wild pitch in the seventh. Boardman got two more on base before a three-run home run by Kenzie Cherne cleared the fence in right, cutting Fitch’s lead to 9-8.

Jurus reached and Strines doubled to the left-center gap to put the tying run at third and the winning run at second. Ava Freeborough tied the frame at 9 with an RBI groundout to second, scoring Jurus. But the Spartans couldn’t push the winning run across with the bases loaded.

Both Fitch pitchers were freshmen, and they had moments where they controlled the game. But Boardman’s “pass the bat” approach started to take its toll as the game progressed.

“There’s gonna be moments where (Greathouse and Fedorek are) gonna find themselves,” Austintown Fitch coach Steve Ward said. “It develops grit, it develops courage, and they reached back and did the best they could today. Very proud of ’em.”

As soon as the seventh inning ended, the teams lined for the end-of-game handshake. Just as the girls got back to the dugouts, the light rain that began to fall in the fifth inning immediately turned to snow.

“There will be an ending to it,” Ward said. “It’s just not safe out here anymore for the players.”