Staff photo / Joel Whetzel Ursuline’s Savannah Patrone (15) trots home as she’s congratulated by her teammates after hitting a three-run home run in the third inning of the Irish’s 7-2 win over Cardinal Mooney on Monday at Youngstown State.

YOUNGSTOWN — By her own admission, Paige Ogden wasn’t in the right mindset at the beginning of Ursuline’s rivalry matchup with Cardinal Mooney. As a result, the Cardinals jumped on her early, as Alaina Francis and Alaina Scavina launched back-to-back solo home runs over the left field fence.

After that wake-up call and a brief visit with coach Kristina Dugan, Ogden dominated. The Irish ace finished with 17 strikeouts and only allowed one more hit the rest of the game as Ursuline (13-1) rallied back for a 7-2 victory over its arch rival Monday at Youngstown State.

“I wasn’t really in the mindset at the beginning of the game,” Ogden said. “I don’t know. I guess I just needed to settle in and relax.”

She did just that. After allowing those early home runs, Ogden struck out the next eight batters she faced, including twice striking out the side during that stretch and another time later.

Ogden finished with a complete game and allowed the two runs on three hits. She walked one batter and hit another with a pitch.

“I think she hit her spots well, and she was throwing well,” Dugan said. “(The visit) was just, ‘Hey, you got this, and there’s no one better out there.’ (Mooney) had two good hits — those are two good hits, and we’re going to give credit to them. But (I told her), ‘I know you got this.'”

After those early homers, Mooney’s bats went quiet until Scavina doubled in the sixth inning. She was one of just three Cardinals (8-7) to reach base Monday, as Mooney’s batters spent plenty of time chasing high pitches.

“We’ve seen some good pitchers this year, and (Ogden) was another one,” said Mooney coach Mark Rinehart. “We didn’t show the discipline to make her bring the ball down where it’s hittable. We didn’t show good knowledge of the strike zone, and that’s a little bit disappointing.”

He added, “She had a bunch of strikeouts. We would have liked to get the ball in play more and see if we could put some pressure on them. We tried to make the adjustment, and she shut us down. So you have to give (Ursuline) credit.”

While Ogden settled in, Ursuline’s offense went to work immediately. The Irish batters hung seven runs through the first three innings of the game, all of which came with two outs.

In the bottom of the first, Ursuline’s Madelyn Miklandric drove in a pair of runs on a sacrifice fly to center field, the second of which scored after a throwing error.

Then, in the second inning, Alyssa Sheely drove one in on a triple into the right-center gap, and she was brought home on a single by Kyleigh Golden. Sheely finished with three hits — a triple, double and single. Miklandric doubled, as well.

Ursuline rounded out its scoring in the bottom of the third, as Savannah Patrone hammered a three-run home run into the centerfield bleachers.

“We battled, and I thought in the first three innings, when Ursuline scored, it was like we had two outs every time, and we’d make one mistake,” Rinehart said. “They took advantage of them, and that’s what good teams do. So you have to give them credit for it.”

Scavina came on in relief for Mooney in the fourth inning, and didn’t allow Ursuline to score the rest of the game. In her three innings of work, she struck out eight Irish batters and didn’t surrender any walks.

“She’s poised, and she works hard,” Rinehart said of Scavina. “She moves the ball around, changes speeds, and her pitches have a lot of movements. That makes her hard to hit. … She kept (Ursuline) right where they were; we just couldn’t muster anything offensively.”