PEMBERVILLE — Otsego hit five home runs to defeat Eastwood, 18-17, in 10 innings during a pivotal Northern Buckeye Conference softball game Thursday.

Despite two of the best pitchers in the NBC, Lexi North and Cassie Kieper, facing off, the two teams combined for 32 hits and 12 errors, resulting in a three hour-plus marathon softball game.

Three Otsego home runs were by the Dingledine family — two by Kiana and one by Makayla. The other two came off the bat of Evelyn Rider.

“I thought it was going to be a low scoring game, some very good pitching in our league, and for them to come out and hit, it was good,” Otsego coach Jason Colyer said.

“You never knew how many runs was going to be enough. I was shocked that it was 18, but we talk about we just need to be one run better, and tonight we were one run better.”

Otsego improves to 11-1 and remains undefeated in the NBC, taking sole possession of first place. Eastwood falls to 11-2.

For Kiana Dingledine, it took a strikeout on five pitches in the first inning for her to get back on track.

“First, I went up and struck out, so then coach Jason came up and gave me a pep talk and I was like, ‘Alright, it’s going to be a good day,’” Kiana said.

“So, I hit one and then I hit another one, but everybody else came out and did really well, too. Everybody came out (and got their hits) at the right times.”

Both of Kiana Dingledine’s homers were shots that cleared the straightaway center field fence.

Her first homer, a grand slam, came on a 1-and-0 inside pitch in the third inning, and her second was on a curveball thrown on a 2-and-0 count. She finished with a game-high six RBIs.

Despite the hit parade, twice it appeared that Otsego had the game in the bag, even to the point where they might win by mercy rule after five innings.

Otsego went up 9-0 after their fourth team at-bat, but Eastwood belted four doubles in the bottom half of the fourth to score six runs.

After the two teams traded runs, Otsego scored six in the top of the seventh to go up 17-8, but the rally to beat all rallies followed when the Eagles had their backs against the wall.

Eastwood’s first nine batters in the bottom of the seventh all got on base, and all nine scored, tying the game at 17-17 before the Knights could record a single out.

Somehow, Otsego pitcherNorth managed to strike out two of the four final batters and get Jessyca Smith to fly out to left field.

“It was a great effort by us of coming back and hitting the ball. They made a couple errors that inning, but we also hit the ball,” Eastwood coach Joe Wyant said.

“Our girls did not give up the whole game. They kept fighting back. It was an exciting game for people to watch.”

The eighth and ninth innings were scoreless, but the Knights struck paydirt in the 10th.

North led off by reaching on a hard-hit grounder up the middle, and she was replaced on the basepaths by courtesy runner Nataleigh Hartman.

Rider singled to right-center field, sending Hartman to third, and after a strikeout, Wyant chose to give Makayla Dingledine a free pass on an intentional walk.

With bases loaded and one out, Ashtyn Gregory hit a long fly ball to center field for the second out, but it allowed Hartman to score the winning run on a sacrifice fly.

“It was very exciting, and I knew we’d pull through,” Kiana Dingledine said. “We always do. I believed in us.”

Otsego finished with 17 hits, Eastwood had 14, but for the Eagles they came against a pitcher, North, who had tossed no-hitters in her first four outings this season.

“I had 14 hits against a first team all-state pitcher. I think we played very well, we made a few errors, also, and mental mistakes, but so did they,” Wyant said.

At the plate for Otsego, North was 5-for-6 with a double and two RBIs, Riley Rowe was 3-for-6 with two doubles and two RBIs, and Rider was 3-for-5 with four RBIs.

Makayla Dingledine was 2-for-5 with an RBI and Summer Berry had a double and stolen base.

For Eastwood, Addy Bowe was 3-for-7 with a double and four RBIs, Kaitlyn Luidhardt was 3-for-6 and reached twice on errors, and Delaney Maynard was 2-for-6 with a triple and three RBIs.

Kieper and Delaney Maynard had two hits apiece, Jessyca Smith doubled and scored three runs, and Grace Kingery had a base hit.

Perhaps the biggest miracle of all was two pitchers combining to throw 403 pitches and still tossing complete games. That could only happen in softball.

North threw 218 pitches, including 148 for strikes, but of the 17 runs she gave up only five were earned because of 10 errors.

After striking out the side in the first inning on 10 pitches, all swinging on the third strike, North finished with 15 strikeouts and six walks.

Of 56 batters faced, North threw 39 first pitch strikes and got four groundouts and six flyouts over 10 innings.

Kieper threw 185 pitches, 123 for strikes, and of 18 runs scored on her, just 10 were earned. Three of the home runs were hit after an Eastwood fielder made an error that would have resulted in a third out.

Kieper struck out nine, walked four, allowed 17 hits, threw 37 first pitch strikes in facing 53 batters, and recorded five groundouts and 14 fly outs.