DuBOIS — Running into a team gunning for a three-peat, the Redbank Valley Lady Bulldogs were shut out in Monday’s District 9 Class 2A Championship game by Cranberry in a 6-0 decision at Heindl Field.

Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference Most Valuable Player for the league champion Berries Gracee Hess fired a four-hitter with eight strikeouts against no walks and it took her just 84 pitches to lead her team to a third straight district title.

“High pitches. We struggle with high pitches,” Lady Bulldogs head coach Lee Miller said of Hess, who bedeviled his team all game. “For some reason, we can’t lay off them and we don’t hit them hard. So they definitely scouted and knew that was our down fall and it work. And they’re a very good hitting team.”

But it’s not over for the Lady Bulldogs, who receive the second seed out of D9 for next Monday’s state playoff opener against the District 5 runner-up at a D5 site and time to be announced. The D5 final was scheduled for Tuesday with Everett playing Chestnut Ridge at Northern Bedford High School.

“We didn’t tell the girls,” Miller said. “They had no clue until just right now that they were still going on. They thought that their season was over. The mentality now is one and done. We live for one game and see what happens. We’ll go there with that.”

Lady Bulldogs pitcher Mackenzie Foringer was also the team’s top hitter with three of her team’s four hits out of the leadoff spot. She doubled to start the game, but was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple for the first out of the inning.

Foringer also singled in the fourth and sixth innings with Natalie Troup singling to lead off the sixth. That was it for the Lady Bulldogs, who saw six of Cranberry’s eight hits going for extra bases including three home runs.

Jadyn Shumaker doubled and scored on Hess’ single in the second. Cassie Scarbrough singled home a run and scored on Ashlyn McWilliams’ two-run hoer in the second to make it 4-0.

Then it was two solo homers that completed Cranberry’s scoring, Danica Wenner’s one-out blast in the fourth and Lexi Reisinger’s two-out homer in the sixth.

“That’s a well-rounded team that can hit top to bottom and play good defense and they have a good pitcher,” Miller said. “You have to play sound softball to beat them, that’s for sure.”

The Berries (18-4) face the WPIAL runner-up on Monday — Neshannock meets Chartiers-Houston on Thursday at PennWest California — in the first round of the state tournament.

CRANBERRY 6,

REDBANK VALLEY 0

Score By Innings

Redbank Valley 000 000 0 —0

Cranberry 013 110 x — 6

Redbank Valley –0

Mackenzie Foringer p 3030, Breanna Crawford cr 0000, Bella Orr 3b 3000, Quinn White ss 3000, Braylee Yeany c 3000, Keyauna Schimp 3000, Alara Altobelli cf 2000, Molly Evans 2b 2000, Natalie Troup rf 2010, Avery Ortz lf 2000. Totals: 24-0-4-0.

Cranberry –6

Danica Wenner 2b 3111, Emma Morrow rf 1000, Avery Coe ss 2100, Keele Schneider 3b 3000, Cassie Scarbrough 2110, Ashlyn McWilliams rf-2b 3112, Lexi Reisinger lf 3121, Jadyn Shumaker c 3110, Haylie Gregory cf 3010, Gracee Hess p 3010. Totals: 26-6-8-6.

Errors: Cranberry 1, Redbank Valley 0. LOB: Cranberry 5, Redbank Valley 4. 2B: Foringer, Shumaker, Reisinger, Gregory. HR: Wenner, McWilliams, Reisinger. SB: Coe.

Pitching

Redbank Valley: Foringer 6 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 0 SO, 3 BB.

Cranberry: Hess 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 8 SO, 0 BB.

Winning pitcher: Hess. Losing pitcher: Foringer.