SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – Maybe it\’s time for \”Golden\” to be inserted into the nickname for the Curwensville Area High School girls athletic teams.
The boys teams always have been the Golden Tide.
Friday, the Lady Tide softball players were golden in the 2007 PIAA Class A championship game.
They proudly wore the gold medals and hoisted the school\’s first state championship trophy on a victory lap around Shippensburg University\’s Robb Field after coming from behind to defeat Upper Dauphin 7-3.
Coach Allen Leigey\’s Lady Tide fell behind for only the third time this season in the third inning, but quickly drew even and then snapped a 2-2 tie with five runs in the fourth inning en route to its 16th consecutive victory.
Senior catcher Dana Johnson came through with two big hits for three runs batted in and sophomore pitcher Holly Lansberry got stronger as the game went along to post her 23rd win as the Lady Tide wrapped up the greatest season in school history with a 25-2 record. Only Brandywine Heights (28-1), which was humbled 11-6 by District 6 champion Philipsburg-Osceola in the Class AA title game, had more wins.
\”It feels great!\” was a beaming Leigey\’s quick response to how he was feeling. \”We\’re the first team state champion in Curwensville history, and that\’s something these girls can take with them forever. Because 20 years from now, they can still say they were the first. There\’ve been individual state titles, but this is the first team state title.\”
Leigey was especially happy for his seniors. Johnson, shortstop Dani Struble and second baseman Kristi Newpher are four-year letterwinners. Unable to break into the starting lineup until this spring, first baseman Ronna Knepp made the most of her opportunity in solidifying the infield.
\”They deserve it,\” he said. \”They put in a lot of time, a lot of sweat, a lot of tears, everything. They can just enjoy this for a lifetime. When the banner\’s in Curwensville High School, and they come to a basketball game or a volleyball game, they can tell their kids, \’I was part of something special.\’ That\’s what\’s important.
\”And they were a great group. I know all these kids are great groups, but this was just a fantastic group of kids to coach. It makes it easy as a coach when you have kids that are willing to work together and do any extra that you ask them to do.
\”They raised the bar. This is my six year as head coach – I had one as an assistant – and we\’ve just slowly raised the bar. This group raised it to the max.\”
For a brief time on this overcast day, some of the many Curwensville fans in the overflow crowd might had their doubts about the Lady Tide accomplishing that.
Upper Dauphin (20-5) threatened in the second on Jen Messner\’s one-out single and a Lady Tide miscue, but Lansberry turned Lindsey Brown\’s one-hopper into a force at third and caught Katrina Wolfe looking for second, and last, strikeout of the game.
Then, the District 3 champion Trojans broke through in the top of the third. Emalie Stroup, the No. 9 hitter, sliced an opposite-field single over third base and Janelle Antes beat out a slow roller to short. Lansberry appeared on the verge of working out of the jam by getting another force at third and holding Antes there on Krysten Ligon\’s comebacker.
However, Newpher couldn\’t cut off Janine Koppenhaver\’s grounder to the right side, and the Trojans had a 2-0 lead.
Leigey admitted he was a little concerned at that point.
\”The only two times were behind this year, we lost,\” he noted. \”In every other game, we were always ahead, or even.\”
His players were confident, though.
\”They came in and told me, \’Coach, we\’re answering right now.\’ And they did.\”
The Lady Tide had shown they could put the ball in play against Ligon, stranding three runners in the first two innings, and they finally broke through when Johnson belted a double into the left field corner to drive in Struble, who had reached base on an error. Johnson dashed to third when Wolfe had trouble coming up with the ball and then scored the tying run on Ashley Demchak\’s looping single to short right center.
Lansberry, not as sharp as she was in the other playoffs games, walked Brown to start the fourth inning, but Struble gloved pinch-hitter Kylie Schrey\’s grounder up the middle, stepped on second and fired to Knepp for a double play. Struble then sprinted toward the circle to make a diving catch of Stroup\’s pop-up over Lansberry\’s head.
\”I always say it\’s Struble Time,\” Leigey said. \”We have this ritual. If Struble doesn\’t catch the ball in pre-game – I don\’t know if she does it out of habit or she just toys with me – we have a great game and she makes the plays. Nothing amazes me about her. We\’ve said it all along. She\’s probably the best female athlete to come out of Curwensville High School.\”
And Johnson is one of the best hitter\’s to wear the Vegas Gold and Black.
Her rocket that almost tore first baseman Brown\’s glove off for a two-run single highlighted the Lady Tide\’s outburst which pretty much settled matters in the lower fourth.
\”That one was smoked,\” Leigey marveled. \”That really opened the door. She\’s a hitter. When she\’s relaxed, she\’s as good as anybody. I think she has 113 (hits) for her career, and a lot of them were in tough situations.\”
Johnson\’s drive made it 5-2 after Tess Bloom greeted relief pitcher Sarah Dietrich with a single through the middle and Lansberry drew a four-pitch walk to force in pinch-runner Sara Clark with the go-ahead run. Veteran Upper Dauphin coach Rich Keeney had lifted Ligon following a walk to Samantha Haney and a single by Knepp, a strategy he had successfully employed with the two pitchers earlier in the playoffs.
Dietrich, a freshman pressed into a very difficult situation, wasn\’t fully warmed up, and Curwensville got another run as she was going to a full-count against Demchak. The Trojans didn\’t cover second on Johnson\’s stolen base, Struble scoring a gift run when Messner\’s throw sailed into center field.
Johnson advanced to third and scored on sophomore Shannon McDonald\’s sharp grounder through the left side, the last hit allowed by Dietrich.
A 7-2 lead was pretty much money in the bank for the District 9 champs.
\”I thought we were in pretty good shape,\” Leigey said. \”We haven\’t blow too many leads. You give me that, and I say we win. I was thinking all we\’ve gotta do is not collapse. And I didn\’t see us collapsing.\”
Not with Lansberry enjoying that cushion.
Upper Dauphin did add a run in the fifth on a Lady Tide misplay, Koppenhaver\’s single to left and a throwing error, but Lansberry was back in the groove and working ahead of the Trojans. Demchak snared Messner\’s liner to prevent another run, and Lansberry allowed only more hit to finish with a seven-hitter.
\”She off just a little bit, not a lot, and that\’s all just nerves, I think,\” Leigey explained Lansberry unusually high number of pitches early in the game. \”It wasn\’t enough to cause concern, but we were getting behind. We weren\’t in the driver\’s seat a lot. We had to alter our pitch selection.
\”When you get down 2-0, 3-0 in the count, you gotta bring a strike and usually you gotta bring a fastball, something she\’s capable of throwing of throwing for a strike. So, that made good hitting situations. But once we relaxed and started getting ahead, then we could start mixing it up a little bit, and we started getting better. They were making a little bit of contact, but it was more pop-ups, more easy ground balls.
\”We weren\’t mixing it up too much. We were staying hard most of the day, fastball, hard curve, screwball.\”
When Lansberry regained her season-long form, all that remained was waiting for the victory celebration.
\”Awesome!\” Johnson, Struble, Knepp and Lansberry repeated in describing their feelings.
\”Incredible!\” added Newpher, who had a tough day in the field. \”It\’s a great way to end my senior year. Coming in as a freshman, I never thought we\’d make it here. It\’s amazing. It\’s a great feeling.
\”It\’s not the best game of my life, but my teammates picked me up. And that\’s what it\’s all about. It\’s about being a team. And we\’re a team.\”
A team of Golden Girls.
UPPER DAUPHIN – 3
Janelle Antes ss 4220, Sarah Dietrich 2b-p 4100, Krysten Ligon p-2b 4000, Janine Koppenhaver 3b 3022, Jen Messner 3020, Karyn Ligon cf 3000, Lindsey Brown 1b 2000, Birttany Rhine pr 0000, Katrina Wolfe lf 2000, Kylie Schrey ph 1000, Emalie Stroup rf 3010. TOTALS: 29 3 7 0.
CURWENSVILLE – 7
Holly Lansberry p 3111, Dani Struble ss 4200, Dana Johnson c 3223, Ashley Demchak 3b 4011, Morgan Peterman pr 0000, Shannon McDonald rf 3011, Kristi Newpher 2b 3000, Samantha Haney lf 2110, Sara Clark pr 0100, Ronna Knepp 1b 3010, Tess Bloom rf 3110. TOTALS: 28 7 8 6.
Score by Innings:
Upper Dauphin 002 010 0 – 3 6 4
Curwensville 002 500 x – 7 8 3
Errors – Antes, Messner, Brown, Wolfe; Newpher 2, Haney 1. DP – Curwensville (Struble and Knepp). LOB – Upper Dauphin 6; Curwensville 6. 2B – Johnson. SB – Johnson.
Pitching
Upper Dauphin – Krysten Ligon 3+ IP (faced 2 batters in 4th), 5 H,3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K; Dietrich 3 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 K.
Curwensville – Lansberry 7 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K.
W – Lansberry (23-2). L – Krysten Ligon.
Umpires – Brian Sonak (home), Scott Viehdorfer (first), Frank Germino (second), Al Fricke (third).