CURWENSVILLE – Good teams find a way to win even on off nights, and sometimes the right situations present themselves at just the right time. The latter was the case for the Curwensville Area High School Softball Team Tuesday night. The Lady Tide capitalized on the right situation to get past a pesky Johnsonburg team 4-2 in an AML clash at Riverside stadium.
“I was pleased at the way we played,” said Head Coach Allen Leigey. We faced some adversity. Stacey (Johnson) wasn’t hitting her marks (on the mound), but she fought through it.”
Ramettes’ pitcher Laura McAlee seemed to have the Tide hitters on their heels giving up just one earned run and four hits while striking out six. However, the Tide was able to take advantage of two key errors and six walks to record the victory.
For the Lady Tide Johnson also gave up just four hits and one earned run while striking out 10 batters. However, the seven walks and one hit batter helped the Ramettes to stay in the game.
“Stacey did what she had to do to get the win,” Leigey said. “When it comes right down to it, she worked out of two bases loaded jams and showed her heart. That was big for us.”
Johnson opened the game strong with two strike outs on eight pitches. Dani Dwyer then reached on the only Tide error of the game which opened the door for the first Johnsonburg run. Justis Myers drew a walk and K.D. Zilkotski laced a two-strike pitch into right-center to score Dwyer and set the score at 1-0.
The Ramettes pushed a second run across in the third inning when Paige Dececchis walked to open the inning. After the first out, walks to Dwyer and Myers loaded the bases. Zilkotski grounded to second, but Dececchis was able to score ahead of the throw for a 2-0 lead. Johnson struck out the next batter and caught Dwyer off the bag at third for the final out.
The Lady Tide took advantage of a miscue in the third as Sara Clark slapped a ball to right center. Tomi Wildnauer tried to track down the drive but couldn’t quite squeeze it as the ball slipped from her glove and Clark rolled into second base. Tess Bloom followed with a sacrifice to move Clark to third, and Johnson helped her own cause with a RBI single. Johnson scampered to second on a wild pitch and scored to tie the game on a two-out single to center off of the bat of Rachel Holland.
Through the middle innings both teams loaded the bases but came up empty. Johnsonburg loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the sixth as Zilkotski doubled, Wildnauer walked and Cassie Biondi was hit by a pitch. Curwensville calmly brushed off the threat as Molly Demchak erased Zilkotski at the plate, Johnson struck out McAlee and Dececchis popped out to Cheyenne Pentz at second.
“We made some plays in the middle innings that were outstanding,” Leigey said. “Lindsay (Barrett) made an acrobatic play at first and Rachel (Holland) handled a hard liner in left. Those plays keep us in the game and come up big in the end.”
That momentum carried over for the Tide as catcher Macy Palmer singled to lead off the bottom of the sixth. Katie Wriglesworth’s grounder to short scooted through Myers’ legs for the start of the finish for Johnsonburg. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch and Clark drilled a single to center that plated the winning runs and ended the scoring at 4-2.
“We had the right batter up at the right time,” said Leigey. “Sara had been hitting the ball the best off their pitcher, even her foul balls were solid. I just knew she was going to hit the ball hard, and she did.”
Johnsonburg again found the bases loaded in the seventh after one out. However, Johnson recorded her second strike out of the inning and Clark was in the right place again on a pop out behind third base to end the game.
The result of the right batter at the right time was the second win in two nights for the Lady Tide – now 3-0. The Ramettes fall to 1-3 on the season.
Curwensville will travel to Dubois Central on Thursday.
JOHNSONBURG – 2
Paige Dececchis 2b 3100, Kianna Myers 3b 4000, Dani Dwyer c 3110, Justis Myers ss 1000, K.D. Zilkotski 1b 3022, Tomi Wildnauer rf 3000, Cassie Biondi lf 3000, Erika Solorio dp 3010, Laura McAlee p 3000, Brittany Watts, flex/cf 0000, TOTALS – 26 2 4 2
CURWENSVILLE – 4
Sara Clark ss 3112, Tess Bloom cf 2000, Stacey Johnson p 2111, Molly Demchak 3b 3000, Rachel Holland lf 2011, Lindsay Barrett 1b 3000, Macy Palmer c 1110, Katie Wriglesworth dp 3100, Maddie Peterman rf 2000, Hannah Bressler ph 1000, Cheyenne Pentz flex/2b 0000, TOTALS – 22 4 4 4
SCORES BY INNINGS – R H E
Johnsonburg – 1010000 – 2 4 2
Curwensville – 002002x – 2 4 1
ERRORS – J. Myers, Tomi Wildnauer; Pentz LOB – Johnsonburg 11; Curwensville 7 2B – Zilkotski DP – Johnsonburg HBP – Biondi (by Johnson)
PITCHING
Johnsonburg – McAlee 6 IP 4 H 4 R 1 ER 6 BB 6 K 0 HB
Curwensville – Johnson 7 IP 4 H 2 R 1 ER 7 BB 10 K 1 HB