Sidney Donaldson, Alyssa Martin and Natalie Armstrong each belted home runs, and Raegan Boone collected four hits and scored four times.
That offensive combination helped the Effingham Lady Hearts pull away and post a 13-6 victory Tuesday over Highland in a semifinal game of the Highland Class 3A Regional.
EHS, the No. 3 seed, fell behind 1-0 in the top of the first inning, but then turned their bats loose.
In the bottom of the first, Donaldson got things started with a two-run blast that put the Lady Hearts on top to stay.
In the second, Ryley Engel led off with a walk and Martin followed by driving a pitch over the leftfield fence. With one out, Saige Althoff walked, stole second and scored on an RBI single by Boone. She also stole second base and came around to score on an error by the Highland catcher. Jerzi Bierman then doubled and Armstrong capped the six-run frame by belting a two-run homer to extend Effingham’s lead to 8-1.
The Lady Hearts added three more runs in the third and wrapped up their scoring with a four-run fifth.
All nine batters got at least one hit in the 14-hit attack. Bierman, Donaldson, Armstrong and Martin each had two. Donaldson and Martin both had three RBI.
Althoff got the win. She went all seven innings, allowing 11 hits and six runs. She didn’t walk a batter and struck out four.
The Lady Hearts, who improved to 22-10, will now play for the regional championship. They will face either Salem or Mattoon at 4:30 p.m. Friday.