ALLPORT – It\’s four in a row for the Lady Tide softball team.
Curwensville won another Moshannon Valley League (MVL) title on Friday when they traveled to Allport to play the Lady Warriors of West Branch and it was the Lady Tide coming out on top 6-1.
West Branch, led by head coach Jerry White, drops to 14-4 overall and 3-1 in the MVL while the Tide run their season record to 18-1 and 4-0 in league play.
The Lady Tide seniors have never lost a Moshannon Valley League game and ran their unbeaten league mark to 16-0 with the win Friday afternoon. In fact, the Tide have now won and/or shared the league title five straight seasons.
The Lady Warriors drew first blood in the battle as Leann Bell, West Branch right fielder, came home with the game\’s first run in the second inning. West Branch held the one nothing lead until the top of the fourth when the Tide finally put their offense in forward.
Holly Lansberry highlighted the fourth inning with a two out, two run double. The Tide got a big boost from freshman pinch hitter Molly Demchak, who drove in the first run for Curwensville in the fourth with a sacrifice fly.
Curwensville would add three more runs, one in the fifth, and two in the sixth, to secure the win and the title.
Lansberry picked up her eighteenth win of the season while giving up the most hits in any game, five, so far in 2009. The run scored by West Branch against the Tide ace was only the third earned run of the year in 102 and 2/3 innings of work from the circle.
Rebecaa Kephart and Amanda Arnold each had two hits for the Lady Warriors. Kephart had the only extra base hit for West Branch, a double.
Winning head coach Allen Leigey of Curwensville said afterwards, \”One of our many goals starting every year is to win the Moshannon Valley League and this group of seniors is perfect in the league at 16-0 with four straight titles.\”
Leigey continued with some praise for the Lady Warriors, \”West Branch has a lot of talent out there. They play very well and very hard so this was a really good win for our squad.\”
Curwensville ends their regular season on Saturday when they go on the road to play the Lady Rovers of Brockway, a team they beat earlier in their first game of the year, 5-0.
NOTE: Lansberry struck out eight Lady Warriors to put her career strikeout record close to 800 with 794.
CURWENSVILLE – 6 Holly Lansberry p 2112, Tess Bloom cf 3001, Shannon McDonald ss 3110, Ashley Demchak c 3011, Jenessa Stiles 3b 4110, Stacey Johnson 1b 3010, Lindsay Barrett pr 0100, Sara Clark lf 3000, Jenae Stiles 2b 0000, Morgan Peterman pr/2b 2110, Molly Demchak ph 0001, Erin Bressler rf 3110. TOTALS – 26 6 6 5
WEST BRANCH – 1 Victoria Jarrett 3b 3000, Bethany Kopchik ss 4000, Sloan Sample cf/p 4000, Rebecca Kephart c 2020, Leann Bell rf 3110, Amanda Arnold 2b 2020, Mariah McDowell 1b 3000, Jada Larson p/cf 3000, McKayla Ahlberg lf 2000. TOTALS – 36 1 5 0
SCORE BY INNINGS R H E
CURWENSVILLE 000 312 0 6 6 1
WEST BRANCH 010 000 0 1 5 2
ERRORS – Peterman, Kopchik. LOB – CURWENSVILLE 8 WEST BRANCH 7. 2B – Lansberry, McDonald, Kephart. SAC – Johnson, M. Demchak. SB – Peterman, McDonald. HBP – Jenae Stiles (by Larson)
PITCHING
CURWENSVILLE Lansberry 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K
WEST BRANCH Larson 5 1/3 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 5 BB, 6 K; Sample 1 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
WP – Lansberry (18-1) LP Larson