JEFFERSON TWP — Kirsten Brant has never been in a softball game quite like this one before.

Her nerves could hardly take it.

"I was shaking the whole time," the Knoch junior shortstop said. "Every breath I took was like the deepest breath I have taken in my whole entire life. The adrenaline was just crazy."

Brant ended a tense Friday afternoon for the Knoch and Mars softball teams when her sharp hit into the left-center field gap brought home Justine Rich with the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning for a 1-0 victory.

"It's been so long since we beat (Mars)," Brant said. "They've been our rivals forever. To play them 0-0 into the 11th inning — we made very few mistakes. That's an accomplishment."

The game was a study in pitching dominance, particularly early in the contest.

Mars pitcher Monica Glomb struck out the first 10 batters she faced and gave up only two hits through the first seven innings. She ended up with 19 strikeouts in 10-plus innings.

But Knoch starter Stephanie Fincher matched her pitch for pitch, wiggling out of trouble in the third and fourth frames on the way to eight shutout innings.

Chelsea Martin relieved Fincher in the ninth inning with two runners on and no outs and was able to get out of the jam with back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout to third.

Mars left three runners in scoring position in the game.

"We're not going to dwell on this loss," said Mars coach Mike DelDuca said. "We'll just go back out and play and move on."

Knoch coach Scott Docherty has long been a proponent of limiting the amount of innings a softball pitcher can throw in a week.

He said he replaced Fincher because she was tiring and had absolute faith inMartin to preserve the stalemate.

"They only have one pitcher," Docherty said. "That's all they got. There should be a law stating that you're not allowed to ride one pitcher through an entire season. The sooner we get it in this sport, the better this sport is going to be."

Ironically, the fact that there is no such rule probably led to the Knoch win.

Glomb threw eight innings on Wednesday during the Planets' suspended game against Indiana, seven more during her no-hitter Thursday and another 10-plus on Friday.

By the the 11th inning, the zip and movement on the senior's pitches was noticeably absent to the Knoch hitters.

"She was getting real tired at the end," Brant said. "None of her pitches were breaking the way they did before."

The play of the game for Knoch actually may have come in the third inning.

With a runner on second and two outs for Mars, Glomb hit a shot to center that Zoe Hughes tracked down with a diving catch to end the inning.

Had it fallen in for a hit, the Planets could have been the ones with the 1-0 victory.

Hughes also singled and worked a walk in the 11th inning to move Rich into scoring position.

"We had the heart," Hughes said. "Today was the day."

The win wasn't just satisfying because it came against a rival and against one of the most dominant pitchers in the WPIAL.

The victory kept the Knights (8-2, 5-2) firmly planted atop the Section 5 in Class AAA standings.

It also dropped Mars (5-3, 4-3) into a tie for third in the section with three losses.

Mars 000 000 000 00—0 5 1Knoch 000 000 000 01—1 4 1None out when winning run scoredWP: Chelsea Martin (3 IP) 3 strikeouts, 1 walk.

LP: Monica Glomb (10 IP) 19 strikeouts, 3 walks

Mars (5-3, 4-3): Kaitlyn Cubarney 2-1B, Glomb 2-1B, Saber Horner 1B

Knoch (8-2, 6-2): Kirsten Brant 2-1B, GWRBI; Zoe Hughes 1B; Martin 1B; Justine Rich R