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Polk County’s nemesis over the past month – one bad inning – again surfaced Thursday and bit the Wolverines.

When that happened left Polk even more frustrated.

East Rutherford clinched the Mountain Foothills 7 Conference regular-season title with an 11-2 victory over the Wolverines in the regular-season finale for both teams at Polk. The Cavaliers (13-8, 9-3) did so thanks in part to a five-run fifth inning, breaking open what had been a close game to that point.

The Wolverines (10-12, 4-8) felt it could have been much closer.

With East up 4-2, Polk’s Aslyn Scruggs opened the bottom of the fourth with a leadoff double. That base hit immediately brought Cavalier head coach Laura Ray onto the field to confer with umpires.

The issue centered around Scruggs’ jersey number, 5, which had been entered as 4 on the Polk County lineup card. After lengthy discussions with Ray and Polk County head coach Phillip Miller, umpires ruled Scruggs out.

The National Federation of High Schools softball rulebook notes in Rule 3-1-3 that “After the lineup card has been submitted to and verified by the umpire and a change is subsequently made to a player/substitute name or number, or if a player/substitute is added to the lineup card, the umpire shall issue a team warning to the head coach of the team involved. Any further changes made to a player/substitute name or number results in the head coach being restricted to the dugout/bench area for the remainder of the game.” At no point does it note that a player batting with the wrong number should be called out – as long as the player’s name is correct on the lineup. A regional booking agent also confirmed in a call with Polk County officials that Scruggs should not have been called out.

Be it the delay or the impact of the ruling, the moment definitely felt like a momentum shift in the game. Polk’s next two batters were retired, and the Cavaliers then strung together four hits, a couple of hit batters and a Polk error in the top of the fifth to extend the lead to 9-2. East added single runs in the sixth and seventh to pad the margin.

The Cavaliers opened a 4-0 lead in the second, but the Wolverines responded with a pair of runs in the third to halve the deficit. Mia Bradley singled to open the inning, followed by a Laney Littlefield walk. Junie Mitchell’s single to center scored Bradley, and Sarah Vitale followed with a base hit to plate Littlefield. Polk had the bases loaded with one out, but Cavalier pitcher Chloe Adair notched a pair of strikeouts to end the threat.

Vitale and Mitchell each finished 2-for-4 with an RBI for Polk, with Miya Jackson delivering a 2-for-2 day. Bradley and Littlefield each added a base hit.

Polk County is expected to be on the road Tuesday for the opening round of the state 1A playoffs. Pairings will be announced Monday.