HAMPTON — How big can a single at-bat be in a game ended by the 10-run rule?

Real big.

South Park banged out 14 hits — collecting at least one hit from every spot in the lineup — in dispatching Freeport from the WPIAL Class 3A softball playoffs Wednesday with a 13-3, five-inning victory at Hampton Community Park.

“We've got some hitters,” Eagles coach Larry Mercurio said, South Park bringing a .425 team batting average into the game. “We've got girls on our bench who can hit.”

It was one of the latter who had perhaps the biggest hit Wednesday.

Freeport (11-5) had just scored three runs in the top of the third inning to pull within 4-3. Jenna Hildebrand reached on an infield error and scored on Ashley Schmidt's double to right. Ally DeJidas delivered a run-scoring triple to left and later scored on a fielder's choice.

“When you get a big inning like that to get back in a game, you have to shut down any potential big inning by the other team,” Freeport coach Sam Ross said.

“We didn't do that.”

They almost did.

Two hit batsmen and a walk loaded the bases for South Park (16-2) with one out in the bottom of the third. Yellowjacket pitcher Kristie Radvan got pinch-hitter Julie Shinavski to pop out to shallow right for the second out.

Radvan then got ahead of sophomore pinch-hitter Morgan Seles 0-2. She wasted the next pitch outside. Then she barely missed the outside corner. A pitch down the middle was called low.

Seles lined the 3-2 pitch into right field for a single. When the ball got past the right fielder, all three base-runners scored.

Seles wound up on third base and scored on Jess Dean's infield single. Suddenly, Freeport trailed 8-3.

“One at-bat, one pitch ... sure, it can make a difference,” Ross admitted. “If we get out of that inning unscathed, we're in the game.”

Instead, South Park added a two-out, two-run single by Shinavski in the fourth and tacked on three runs in the fifth to end the contest.

“I thought I had (Seles) struck out a couple of times,” Radvan said. “A couple of 3-2 pitches didn't go my way, either.

“You have no control over the umpire. Sometimes you get the calls, sometimes you don't.”

Shinavski was in the game for injured Eagle second baseman Grace Albitz, who got hurt during a violent collision with Hildebrand while covering first base on a bunt play leading off the third.

Albitz was bleeding profusely from the nose. Mercurio said her neck was bothering her as well.

“I haven't had a chance to check on her yet,” he said. “That was a rough collision over there.”

South Park lost in the WPIAL Class AA title game last season. The Eagles eliminated Freeport, 7-0, in that tournament as well.

“They are what they're supposed to be,” Ross said of South Park. “They make you pay for every mistake. That's a tough lineup to contain.”

South Park third baseman Katlyn Pavlick is committed to Pitt while shortstop Kaitlyn Morrison is headed to Penn State.

Winning pitcher Justine Dean limited Freeport — sporting a .420 team batting average — to five hits.

“Justine was hitting her spots today and that's what she had to do against that lineup,” Mercurio said. “And our hitters worked the count full a number of times. We were patient at the plate and hit good pitches.

“We beat a good team today.”

Freeport says goodbye to two seniors: Radvan and outfielder Savannah Claypool, who entered the game in the final half-inning.

“She's a four-year letterwinner and I had to get her in there,” Ross said. “Kristie is a four-year letterwinner, too. We're going to miss both of those girls.”

Freeport 003 00x x — 3 5 2

South Park 404 23x x — 13 14 1

1 out when 10-run rule occurred

W: Justine Dean 5IP (6K, 1BB). L: Kristie Radvan 4.1IP (2K, 4BB).

Freeport (11-5): Ashley Schmidt 2B RBI, Ally DeJidas 3B RBI, Kristie Radvan 2B RBI, Tori Radvan 2B, Madison Wagner 1B

South Park (16-2): Jess Dean 3B 1B RBI, Kaitlyn Morrioson 1B RBI, Katlyn Pavlick 1B 2-R, Justyine Dean 2-1B RBI 4-R, Chelsea Carolla 3-1B 2-RBI 2-R, Char Blackburn 2-1B RBI, Jill Davison 1B 2-RBI, Julie Shinavski 1B 2-RBI, Morgan Seles 1B RBI