It wasn’t just one player that was the reason for the Wildcats (22-0) dominance in the district title game on Wednesday, as was the case throughout their perfect season thus far. The lineup produced from top to bottom, with only one girl unable to contribute to the run-scoring output.

Then, from the circle, senior Taylor Stewart never looked rattled on her way to a five-inning gem, which turned out to be a no-hitter. Only three baserunners reached against her, via two walks and an error, as she struck out three over five innings.

Stewart attacked the Defenders (13-10) and wasn’t afraid to go right after them in the zone. She described how it was all about trusting the defense behind her.

“There are some games that I try to do it all myself, but as the season’s gone on, I know I’m not gonna be able to do that anymore,” Stewart said. “So it’s kind of just trusting my team with anything at this point.”

BRIAN HOLTZAPPLE/Special to the Sun-Gazette Mifflinburg's Mia Reibsome catches a fly ball.

The Mifflinburg offense got rolling immediately after a double play ended the top of the first inning for Warrior Run. They pounced with a four-spot, taking advantage of defensive miscues that put them in scoring position. Brooke Gessner and Avery Reibsome each singled in one run each on hits to right field. Then Lainey Miller doubled in a pair on a liner to center after a wild pitch set her up with two runners in scoring position.

With Stewart dominating in the circle, the Wildcats’ offense was able to quickly get back to work after quick top halves. Interestingly enough, the game opened with a walk, but Stewart quickly locked in after that. She also allowed a leadoff walk in the fourth before bouncing back with three quick outs.

The senior pitcher only needed 61 pitches (40 for strikes) to get through her five innings — 12 in the first, 13 in the second, 10 in the third, 19 in the fourth and seven in the fifth. An error in the fifth is all that caused her not to have a 1-2-3 frame.

“(Stewart) was hitting her spots all game. Whatever our pitching coach called, she threw and she threw it very well,” Mifflinburg head coach Ron Hernandez said. “We had a good scouting report on this team, and she executed it perfectly.”

After her 1-2-3 second inning, the Wildcats’ offense went right back to work. Pachucki Anna lined a double to the left-center gap, moved to third on a wild pitch and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Brooke Gessner to right field.

BRIAN HOLTZAPPLE/Special to the Sun-Gazette Mifflinburg's Lainey Miller shouts and flexes after hitting a two-run double.

“It was really good,” Stewart said of the lineup clicking on all cylinders. “Like I’ve said all year, we’ve had games where the top of the lineup is on and the bottom is off. But in this game, everyone was on from top to bottom.”

Mifflinburg added its sixth run on an RBI single by Ava Fry to left to score Miller, who had walked. Anna then launched a solo homer over the left-center wall to lead off the fourth inning, knocking out Warrior Run starter Mackenzie Litchard. Coming in for Litchard was Mackenzie Heyler.

Stewart drove in the eighth run on a sacrifice fly to score Gessner, who had tripled to right.

The Wildcats wasted no time in ending the game prematurely in the fifth. Miller was hit by a pitch to open the frame and came around to score on a double by Fry. Amelia Fluman lined a single to center with two outs to score the game-ending run.

“Whenever you get the opportunity to get out of here early, that’s what you want to do,” Hernandez said. “You don’t want to give a team, especially like Warrior Run, a good team will sneak back up on you. So if you get the opportunity, you take advantage of it.”

BRIAN HOLTZAPPLE/Special to the Sun-Gazette Warrior Run's Ella Pritzenhoff throws to first for an out.

Mifflinburg will host the first round of the PIAA tournament on Monday, coinciding with their baseball team, which also defeated Warrior Run this week.

“It’s big,” Hernandez said. “That gives us home-field advantage and hopefully we’ll have a lot of fan support, which we always do, as you can tell.”

“There is nothing better than you can do,” Stewart said of playing in front of their home fans to begin states. “We weren’t thinking that far. We were just thinking one game at a time, but just to know that, it makes it even better.”

As the district runners-up, Warrior Run will face District 2 champion Mid Valley, who defeated Lake-Lehman in the District 2 AAA championship on Tuesday.

“They (Mifflinburg) are undefeated for a reason,” Warrior Run head coach Mark Evans said. “It’s a good team that we’re facing; we knew that. We weren’t sharp in really any aspect of the game. Made some mistakes early-probably just nerves or jitters there a little bit. But Mifflinburg hit the ball; we didn’t.”

BRIAN HOLTZAPPLE/Special to the Sun-Gazette Warrior Run's Maura Woland and Makenzie Heffner converge on a pop-up in the second inning.

Despite the loss, Evans noted how they weren’t supposed to make it to this point, having sat with a record of 7-9 earlier in the season.

“So that’s my message. We’re not supposed to be playing Monday either,” he said. “So let’s try to get motivated, correct what we need to correct and come out and be competitive.”

En route to earning a spot in the district title game, Warrior Run won its last four games of the regular season to snag the seventh seed and then took down No. 2 Loyalsock and No. 6 Montoursville in the tournament.

Mifflinburg 10, Warrior Run 0

(5 INNINGS)

Warrior Run's Cait Waltman has a diving catch.

Mifflinburg 411 22 — 10 10 1

Warrior RUn 000 00 — 0 0 2

Taylor Stewart and Brooke Gessner. Mackenzie Litchard, Mackenzie Heyler (4) and Rylee Reeder. W: Stewart. L: Lichard.

Top Mifflinburg hitters: Pachucki Anna, 3-4, 3 runs, RBI; Amelia Fluman, 1-3, RBI, BB; Brooke Gessner, 2-2, 2 runs, 2 RBIs; Avery Reibsome, 1-2, run, BB; Lainey Miller, 1-1, 2 runs, 2 RBIs, BB; Ava Fry, 2-3, 2 RBIs, run. Top Warrior Run hitters: Ella Printzenhoff, 2 BBs.