CURWENSVILLE – The match-up has been the feature softball game in the Moshannon Valley League over that past several years, and in recent meetings, Curwensville Area High School has held the upper hand. However, that was not the case in Friday night’s meeting as the visiting West Branch Lady Warriors and pitcher Jada Larson blanked the Lady Tide for a no-hit, 16-0 victory after five innings.
I’m very surprised,” said Lady Warrior Head Coach Jerry White of the final outcome. “Even though they lost quite a few of their starters, I never expected this. This is by far the best game, all-around, that we’ve played all year.”
Larson faced just 17 batters on the evening as she struck out eight and walked two in the no-hit effort. Meanwhile, the defense behind her played errorless ball and made the tough plays to preserve the hitless outing. Right fielder MeLesha Ahlberg took away one hit by throwing a runner out at first, and Leanna Bell ran down a looping pop-up behind second base to take away another. No Curwensville baserunner got further than second base in the game.
“Jada is faster than anyone we’ve seen this year – she’s faster than Evers (of ECC),” said Curwensville Head Coach Allen Leigey. “We need a taste of that to get better. West Branch is very good. They have a senior oriented team, and they can play.”
The fact that West Branch can play is only compounded by the fact that they never let up. In the first three innings, when it appeared that the Lady Tide was about to end an inning with minimal damage, the Lady Wariors came to life. The fact is that the visitors scored all but one of their first 12 runs after two outs were recorded. Only two runs were scored in the game with less than two outs.
“Over at Bellwood (Thursday night), we left 10 runners on base, and we talked about pushing people across the plate,” White noted. “I really liked the inning tonight when we had no one on after two outs and still scored. We showed good discipline at the plate tonight.”
That discipline for the Warriors was led by Mariah McDowell who collected three hits, including a three-run homer, and five RBI’s. Rebecca Kepart added three hits, and Bethany Kopchik added two including a double. Sloan Sample also added a first inning double for the winners.
The visitors started the scoring in the first inning as Leanna Bell singled with one runner on and Sample’s double opened the scoring at 1-0. A ground-out pushed the second run across, and after that second out, Kopchik singled for the 3-0 lead.
MeKayla Ahlberg led off the second for West Branch by reaching safely on a bad throw after a strike out. Two outs later, which would have ended the inning, Sample walked, Kopchik doubled and McDowell, Kephart and MeLesha Ahlberg all singled to push the score to 8-0.
“We dropped that third strike and threw one away at third,” Leigey pointed out. “We can’t have that. We’ve gotten by in some cases this season, but against a good team, we just can’t have that. They weren’t rapping us hard at first – there were a couple bleeders, but it really escalated from there.”
Four more runs scored for the Lady Warriors in the third inning – again after two outs. Sara Clark took care of the first two batters for Curwensville as she gloved two hard liners. However, Sample followed with a walk, Kopchik singled and McDowell blasted a shot over the right field fence. Kephart then reached second on an error to left, and Larson doubled home the twelth run of the game.
A walk, an error and singles by McDowell, Kephart, Mekayla Ahlberg, and Victoria Jarrett helped the guests to four additional runs in the fifth to end the game at 16-0 after five innings.
“The girls were talking about this game all day,” White said. “They were in this kind of a game that went the other way two years ago, and the seniors wanted to put it together today and get the win.”
West Branch moves to 10-4 overall and stands alone at the top of the MVL. Curwensville falls to 8-3 overall and will complete a suspended game with Ridgway before starting the second on Tuesday.
WEST BRANCH – 16
Victoria Jarrett 3b 4111, Leanna Bell 2b 5110, Sloan Sample cf 2311, Bethany Kopchik ss 3322, Mariah McDowell 1b 4335, Rebecca Kephart c 4332, Jada Larson p 2011, MeLesha Ahlberg rf 3012, Taylor Reams ph 1100, MeKayla Ahlberg lf 4111. TOTALS – 22 2 0 1.
CURWENSVILLE – 0
Lindsay Barrett 3b 2000, Tess Bloom cf 2000, Sara Clark ss 1000, Stacey Johnson p 2000, Rachel Holland lf 2000, Macy Palmer c 1000, Hannah Bressler rf 2000, Madi Peterma rf 2000, Taylor Goodman 3b 1000, Cheyenne Pentz flex/2b 0000. TOTALS – 15 AB 0 R 0 H 0 RBI.
ERRORS – Palmer, Holland, Goodman. LOB – West Branch 7, Curwensville 2. 2B – Sample, Kopchik, Larson. HR – McDowell. WP – Johnson. PB – Kephart; Palmer 3. HBP – Larson 2 (by Johnson).
SCORE BY INNINGS – R H E
West Branch 354 04x x – 16 14 0
Curwensville 000 000 0 – 0 0 3
PITCHING
West Branch – Larson – 5 IP 0 H 0 R 0 ER 2 BB 8 K o HB
Curwensville – Johnson – 5 IP 14 H 16 R 8 ER 4 BB 2 K 2 HB