CURWENSVILLE – Back to back one run thrillers. This time the Curwensville Lady Tide softball team came out on top of one of those nail biters in beating Elk County Catholic (ECC) Wednesday afternoon 2-1 at Riverside Stadium in Curwensville. The Lady Tide had also defeated the Lady Crusaders 2-0 earlier this year.
Curwensville senior shortstop Shannon McDonald was perfect at the plate going three for three with a double and one RBI. McDonald drove in pitcher Holly Lansberry, who had reached first on an error, with the game\’s first run in the bottom of the first inning.
The Lady Tide would score all of their runs in the first; and it was third baseman Jenessa Stiles who would actually knock in the winning run with a single that plated McDonald putting the Tide up 2-0 after one frame.
Allen Leigey, Curwensville head coach, talked about his team\’s recent offensive output, “We had seven hits today but we need to bunch them together to be able to bring some runs home.” The Lady Tide had eight hits and stranded 10 runners on Tuesday night in a 1-0 loss to Punxsutawney.
Holly Lansberry of the Lady Tide picked up her 17th victory of the season from the circle firing a two hitter and striking out 16 Lady Crusaders in the process. Her only blemish was a two out sixth inning solo home run by ECC catcher Lauren Olewink over the left field fence.
Lansberry upped her area leading career strikeout total to 786, well in reach of the magic number of 800.
Leigey also spoke about Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon, “I think we still suffered with some ill effects from the Punxsy game but today was a good win for this team after a very tough loss. They always seem to bounce back.”
Curwensville has an overall record of 17-1, and is 13-0, in first place, in the District 9 Northern Allegany League Small School Division Southern Tier standings.
The Lady Tide will play at West Branch on Friday at 3:00 pm for the Moshannon Valley League (MVL) championship. The Tide and Lady Warriors are both 3-0 in MVL action.
NOTE: Senior Curwensville catcher Ashley Demchak needs 12 hits to break the area record for career hits set by MacKenzie Gonder of Philipsburg-Osceola in 2007. Gonder ended her career with 128 hits and Demchak has 117.
ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC – 1 Lauren Olewink c 3111, Laura Mohney ss 2010, Anna Hawkins lf 3000, Lauren Evers p 3000, Mary Kate Minnick rf 3000, Dani Cassels cf 2000, Kayla Leuschel cf 0000, J. McGaughlin 3b 2000, Samantha Schlimm 1b 2000, Kathleen Caruso 2b 2000. TOTALS – 24 1 2 1
CURWENSVILLE – 2 Holly Lansberry p 3100, Tess Bloom cf 2000, Shannon McDonald ss 3131, Ashley Demchak c 3000, Jenessa Stiles 3b 3011, Stacey Johnson 1b 3010, Lindsay Barrett pr 0000, Sara Clark lf 3010, Jenae Stiles 2b 2000, Morgan Peterman 2b 1000, Erin Bressler rf 2010. TOTALS – 25 2 7 2
SCORE BY INNINGS R H E
ECC 000 001 0 1 2 2
CURWENSVILLE 200 000 X 2 7 0
ERRORS – Mohney, Schlimm. LOB – ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 1 CURWENSVILLE 5. 2B – McDonald. HR – Olewink (solo, sixth inning). SAC – Bloom
PITCHING
ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC Evers 6 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
CURWENSVILLE Lansberry 7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 16 K
WP – Lansberry (17-1) LP – Evers