ABOVE: Fairmont's Brylee Miller delivers a pitch in a Big South Conference softball game against Worthington Tuesday night in Fairmont.

FAIRMONT – The Fairmont Cardinals fell to the Worthington Trojans Tuesday after a six-run sixth inning that put Worthington up 7-1. Despite responding with three runs of their own, the deficit was too much for the Cardinals to overcome and they ultimately lost 7-4 in a Big South Conference softball game.

“I don’t think we brought enough energy and we’re ready to play today, that’s on me,” said Fairmont head coach Cory Hainy. “Give credit to Worthington. They played better than we did. They made defensive plays, and we didn’t. That’s what cost us the game was that sixth inning. We did not play well defensively and gave them some runs.”

Leading the Cardinals was Alexis Sundeen, who went 1 for 2 and had an RBI, while Gabriella Leiding and Abigail Sundeen each had an RBI. In the circle, Brylee Miller struck out nine through seven innings, giving up four hits.

Both teams’ first innings got off to a shaky start. They gave up a run each before both defenses locked in and kept things tied at 1-1.

In the top of the second inning, Fairmont was able to retire the side. The first out came off a ground ball back to Brylee Miller, who tossed it to first for the out. A quick groundout, followed by a strikeout swinging, sent the Cardinals back to the batters’ box. Worthington returned the favor, retiring the side in order.

The third inning was a quick one. Neither team allowed a runner to reach base, sending the game to the fourth.

The Cardinals kept the Trojans off the scoreboard in the top of the fourth inning. The Cardinal batters tried to get the offense going after Worthington walked Alexis Sundeen, but they could not capitalize, stranding the base runner to keep things tied at 1-1.

A quick 1-2-3 inning for the Cardinals presented the next opportunity to take the lead. Gabriella Leiding looped a ball to left field to give Fairmont its first base runner of the inning before Makenzie Lowry took first on a catcher’s interference call. With runners on first and second, a pop-up to the catcher ended the inning with the score remaining 1-1.

Things got out of hand for Fairmont in the top of the sixth inning. A lead-off single toward second base started things off for the Trojans. That was followed by a hard ground ball to third, which put two runners on. Miller struck out the third batter, but that was followed by a line drive through the gap by Worthington that loaded the bases. Back-to-back drives towards short broke the tie, putting the Trojans up 3-1.

The Worthington offense kept rolling, scoring four more runs before Fairmont could get out of the inning. The Cardinals offense did find its footing in the bottom of the inning, a leadoff single to short put Gwyneth Schultz on base. Miller followed that up by looping a ball into right field to put runners on second and third. Alexis Sundeen stepped to the plate, driving a ball to left field that brought Schultz home. Sacrifice flies to by Abigail Sundeen and Leiding brought in two more runs for Fairmont who closed the inning down 7-4.

Reenergized, the Fairmont defense quickly retired the side with Miller striking out two before fielding a hard ground ball for the third out. Worthington however returned the favor retiring the Cardinals in order locking in the Cardinals first loss of the season.

“We had a little chat after the game about, we need to be sharper, we need to be ready to play,” said Hainy. “So we’ll work on that tomorrow and then we just need to show up on Thursday. Pipestone’s traditionally very good, so we need to be ready to play on Thursday.”

The Cardinals now 4-1 host Pipestone at 4 p.m. on Thursday.