BROOKVILLE — In a wild game that saw Bethel and Brookville produce a combined total of 23 hits Wednesday in the sectional final, the Lady Devils hung on to secure a 12-10 victory.

Bethel came out with bats buzzing to take a 3-0 first inning lead. The Bees got a leadoff infield single by Morgan Rodgers. An outfield error enabled the next batter, Allie Sheen to reach second with Rodgers advancing to third.

Layla Moore followed with a triple to right field. Moore then scored on a ground out to shortstop by Paige Kearns.

The Lady Devils responded with seven runs in the bottom of the first. Grace Burton drew a one-out walk with Abby Stanoikovich coming in as a courtesy runner. She scored on a double to right by Melina Davidson with Davidson reaching third on the throw to the plate.

Maya Haydon followed with a double to left to score Davidson. Makenzie Roesser singled down the third base line. Haydon scored on a passed ball and Isabelle Holp doubled to left to score Roesser.

Jordyn Oliver singled to shallow left to score Roesser. Madisyn Cantrell belted a double to the left field fence to score Oliver and Kara Gardner singled to right to score Cantrell.

Bethel lifted starting pitcher Lily Williams with Alyson Byrd coming on in relief. She got the Bees out of the inning by getting Burton to hit a fly out to left field.

Bethel got three runs in the top of the second on hits by Faith Moorfield, Ryleigh Harris, Morgan Rodgers and Layla Moore.

Brookville responded with two runs in the bottom of the second. Davidson reached on dropped pop fly to the pitcher. Haydon drew a walk and Holp got an infield hit to score Davidson. Haydon scored on a ground out by Oliver.

The Lady Devils added a run in the fourth when Haydon got aboard on an infield hit and reached third on a pair of wild pitches. She scored when Holp hit a ground ball to the shortstop, who threw the ball to the plate with Haydon beating the throw to put Brookville up 10-6.

Bethel got one run in the top of the fifth on a single by Moorefield who later scored on a Brookville error.

The Bees closed the gap to 10-9 with a pair of runs in the sixth. Ryleigh Fisher singled and Alyson Bird reached on an error. Fisher scored on a ground out and Harris laid down a bunt to score Bird.

Brookville boosted its lead to 12-9 with two runs in the sixth. Roesser reached first on a bunt and stole second. She advanced to third on a ground out and scored on an infield hit by Oliver. Oliver stole second and scored on a single to center by Jolie Bittorf.

The top of the seventh was a real nail biter as Bethel got a leadoff infield single from Allie Sheen. Moore struck out looking and Paige Kearns hit a ground ball to Cantrell who fired the ball to plate to gun down Sheen trying to score from second.

Lily Williams tripled to score Kearns but Burton got Fisher to ground out to end the game.

“They put three runs up on us early and we came out and answered it with a few more than what they had and then it was back and forth all game long,” said Brookville coach Mike Gardner. “We did not play clean defense and made that game more interesting than I wanted it to be, but I will take an ugly win.”

Gardner was glad to get timely hitting from players throughout his batting order.

“We’ve got girls in the lineup now that haven’t been in for probably three-quarters of the season, and they are coming in and are producing for us,” Gardner noted. I’m really proud of those girls. We are hitting all the way through the lineup, and you can’t ask for much more than that at this time of year.”

Brookville advances to face Arcanum at Arcanum on Monday at 5 p.m.

Reach Ron Nunnari at [email protected].