CURWENSVILLE – It was an afternoon of more great pitching and more great hitting for the Curwensville high school softball team as they kept their 2009 season perfect at 5-0.
This time it was the Harmony Lady Owls who were the victims as the Lady Tide made short work of their visitors, 13-0 in five innings in a Moshannon Valley League (MVL) battle.
Actually the Lady Owls were the home team as their field in Westover was unplayable which necessitated the game being moved to Curwensville. It didn’t really matter.
It was a day that saw senior catcher Ashley Demchak pick up the 100th hit of her career. Demchak, who went 2 for 3 against the Owls, is now hitting .875 this year.
Head coach Allen Leigey of Curwensville immediately afterwards mentioned his senior hitting machine, “Ashley (Demchak) has worked so hard in achieving this goal. It’s like scoring 1,000 points in high school basketball. She is so deserving because of all the time spent on the sport of softball. It was just great to be a part of it.”
Holly Lansberry still has a 0.00 ERA after posting her fifth straight shutout. The Curwensville hurler, also a senior, now has four one hitters and one no-hitter while striking out 63 in 2009. Lansberry now trails Brittany Murphy of Philipsburg-Osceola by just 6 K’s for second place on the area’s all-time list. Murphy ended her career with 641 strikeouts. The most recent one hitter gives her a total of 19 for her career.
Then there were the Lady Tide’s home runs Thursday afternoon. Shannon McDonald and Jenessa Stiles, two more seniors, smacked round trippers. Stiles, a 2 out, three run homer to center in the first frame and McDonald a three run shot in the fifth to left field with no outs.
The Lady Tide scored in every inning with the fifth stanza reaping five to invoke the mercy rule after the Lady Owls went down in the bottom half of the inning. Owl pitcher, Megan Brink, had the only hit, a fourth inning single.
Leigey is still a very happy skipper, “Our hitting is right now on top. We’re just smacking the ball everywhere which makes it really easy for us to be very competitive. And we are progressing and doing all the other things pretty well too.”
Stacey Johnson had two doubles for the Lady Tide. McDonald and Jenessa Stiles paced the way with 3 RBI’S each. McDonald now needs just three hits to also reach 100 for her career.
The Lady Tide return to action when they welcome Glendale on Monday afternoon at 4:00 pm in another MVL contest.
The current MVL standings are : West Branch 2-0, Curwensville 1-0, Moshannon Valley 1-1, Glendale 0-1, Harmony 0-2.
CURWENSVILLE – 13 Holly Lansberry p 3100, Tess Bloom cf 3111, Shannon McDonald ss 4323, Ashley Demchak c 3220, Jenessa Stiles 3b 3223, Molly Demchak 3b 0000, Stacey Johnson 1b 2321, Sara Clark lf 2010, Hannah Walls lf 1001, Morgan Peterman 2b 1000, Jenae Stiles 2b 2000, Erin Bressler rf 2100. TOTALS – 26 13 10 9
HARMONY – 0 Brianna Franklin 3b 2000, Megan Brink p 2010, Kierstyn Kruise cf 2000, Lauren Neff 1b 2000, Makenzie Kruise c 2000, Megan Wholaver ss 2000, Danelle Wright 2b 2000, Kerri Coble lf 1000, Brittany Maseto rf 1000. TOTALS – 16 0 1 0
SCORE BY INNINGS R H E
CURWENSVILLE 311 35 13 10 0
HARMONY 000 00 0 1 5
ERRORS – Wholaver 3, Wright, Maseto. LOB – CURWENSVILLE – 9 HARMONY – 1 2B – Johnson 2 HR – Jenessa Stiles ( 3 run, 1st inning), McDonald (3 run, 5th inning) SB – Lansberry, Bloom, Peterman SAC – Bloom
PITCHING
CURWENSVILLE – Lansberry 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 12 K.
HARMONY – Brink 5 IP, 10 H, 13 R, 10 ER, 6 BB, 0 K.
WP – Lansberry (5-0) LP -Brink (0-1)