Staff photo / Dan Hiner Canfield’s Caylee Ortiz delivers during the Thursday’s Division III sectional final against Lakeside at Canfield High School.

CANFIELD — The Canfield softball team is no stranger to the postseason. And the Cardinals didn’t waste any time in their first tournament game of the spring.

Canfield scored six runs in the bottom of the second inning of a Division III, Northeast 1 sectional fina lto easily take control in a 10-0 win over Lakeside at Canfield High School.

“The bats are really peaking at this time of the year, and the pitching is starting to come,” Canfield head coach Kerry Durkin said.

The Cardinals (13-9) struck first with three runs in the bottom of the first inning.

Then, the Cardinals had a little two-out magic in the second frame.

Sophia Payne got the scoring started with an infield RBI single, and Leah Figueroa added a sacrifice fly to center for the second out of the inning.

Another run then came across when Sami Economous reached on a fielding error. Caylee Ortiz broke the game open when a sinking liner to left went under the defender’s glove with two outs, which resulted in a two-run double. And Kitt Testa drove in Ortiz with a double to push the lead to 9-0.

“Hitting is contagious, and it’s really been contagious for the last seven or eight days for this team,” Durkin said. “All of a sudden, it’s clicked. We’re putting up double-digit hits every game, sometimes double-digit runs. Like I said, they’re peaking at the right time.”

Following a scoreless third inning, Lily Rich drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the fourth. Karmyn Moyer followed with an RBI single to right field, making it a 10-0 game and putting the Cardinals in position for a run-rule victory.

Ortiz got the start in the circle for the Cardinals. She pitched three shutout innings before Camryn Hrina came on in relief in the fourth.

Hrina got the next five outs, and then Adalee Crowgey came on to strike out one final Dragon to end the game.

“Cam Hrina and Caylee (Ortiz) – Cam Hrina’s the sophomore, and has kind of emerged a little bit and shown some consistency to help out Caylee – we’re gonna be kind of a tag team going forward,” Durkin said.

Canfield entered the playoffs winning back-to-back games. The Cardinals suffered a 14-9 loss against Lakeview on May 7 and an 11-9 defeat in 10 innings at Steubenville on Saturday. But since then, they’ve beaten Cardinal Mooney 12-2 and Division II Green 10-7 on the road.

The Cardinals, the 13th seed, will have another challenge in the next round. They will travel to face sixth-seeded Chardon in the district semifinals on Tuesday.

“They hit the ball really well,” Durkin said of Chardon. “It’s gonna be a challenge. We’re gonna have to go up there to take care of business to come back to Austintown to play, what it looks like, Aurora in the district final. That’s kinda the way it’s lining up.”