Staff photo / Neel Madhavan LaBrae’s Riley Rowe pitches during the Vikings’ regional semifinal loss to Akron Manchester on Wednesday at YSU.

YOUNGSTOWN — LaBrae’s postseason run came to an end on Wednesday, as Akron Manchester proved to be too much for the Vikings.

The Panthers got off to a fast start and pulled away late to hand LaBrae a 9-0 defeat in the Division V regional semifinal at Youngstown State.

“It got away from us a little bit at the end,” Vikings head coach Dwayne Buck said. “That’s a great team over there. I’m just so proud of the girls the way they battled the whole way.”

Manchester opened the evening with three straight hits in the bottom of the first inning, batting in runs on two of them, courtesy of Cassidy Perry and Alli Hodgkinson.

But from there, the Vikings settled in and kept the Panthers off the board over the next two innings.

“That didn’t really bother us too much,” Buck said of the early deficit. “We’ve had teams get on us a little bit early in the past and it never really affects us.”

LaBrae’s best scoring opportunity came in the top of the third inning, when it got two runners into scoring position at second and third base with only one out.

Syrina Gargano reached on an error by Manchester pitcher Rachel Baker to lead off the inning. Then after a strikeout, Riley Rowe belted a double to move Gargano to third.

However, Shelby Bragg and Leah DeArmitt each popped out to left field in the next two at-bats and the Vikings squandered a valuable opportunity. At that point, with only a 3-0 deficit, converting the two runners could have changed the dynamics of the contest.

But the Panthers added a run to their total in the fourth inning and broke things open in the fifth and sixth innings, plating four runs in the bottom of the sixth, which included RBIs from Kailyn Eshbaugh and Lily Konen and a two-run double by Chloe White.

“We played well,” Buck said. “We had runners on base, we had opportunities to score and we had some nice hit balls. They made some nice plays. You get to the fifth inning and it’s still a (4-0) game. It’s still anyone’s game.”

Rowe led the Vikings at the plate, batting 2-for-3, while also pitching 4 2/3 innings with four strikeouts and two walks.

Before the start of the season, LaBrae wasn’t quite sure what it had.

The Vikings had graduated then-senior Rylee McDonough (.500 avg) last year, then they lost sophomore Mariah Jones (.469 avg) to an injury before the spring even began.

“Then we had another girl decide not to play, so it was a lot of big losses at the beginning of the year,” Buck said. “Then no incoming freshmen this year. So at the beginning of the year, you never would have thought that we’d have been here.”

But with games, came experience, and despite their youth, the Vikings showed their growth throughout the season.

LaBrae won 23 games, which included wins over Mineral Ridge, McDonald, Hubbard, Poland and Girard, before it won its first district championship since 2013 last week against Columbiana.

“It’s amazing what they accomplished this year,” Buck said. “The way this team came together and became a team and stepped up is just an amazing story. … (I told them), look where you’ve come from at the beginning of the year. That’s just a testament to how hard you guys have worked.”

Despite graduating one senior — Vada Allen — LaBrae will return the entirety of its roster next season, while also getting Jones back from her injury.

“We’re still getting better every day and we’re still working,” Buck said. “We’re going to keep building right from where we’re at. Next year, we should expect to get this far and farther. They’re ready. … I’ve already put some things in plan to get ahead of the game for next year. As I told them, is it February yet? Because I can’t wait to get started. We got big things coming up.”