Curwensville Softball Holds Off Moshannon Valley 5-3

HOUTZDALE – The teams know each other very well, some play on the same team in the off season, and when they take the field, they come to play regardless of the relationships.  When the Curwensville and Moshannon Valley Area High School softball teams took the field on Friday, friendships were temporarily set aside and a good high school contest broke out. 

The Lady Tide was able to walk away from this scrappy battle with a 5-3 win over the Damsels, but sportsmanship did abound as seniors from both teams were recognized before the game and wishes of good luck exchanged when all was done.  Curwensville pushed its season record to 13-4 while Mo Valley slipped to 6-13.

“I’m very pleased with the way we played,” said Tide Head Coach Allen Leigey.  “We knew this was going to be a competitive game.  Mo Valley has good athletes, they’re coached very well, and they’re going to battle tooth and nail to the end.”

 The visiting Tide sqeezed out the first run in the top of the first inning.  Senior lead-off hitter Sara Clark drew a walk, moved to second on a force out, and scored on a two out double off the bat of Stacey Johnson.

In the third inning, a lead off walk to catcher Tiffany Carter proved costly for the hosts again.  Carter rolled into third when Clark doubled to center.  A Damsel throwing error on a gounder allowed one run to score and put runners at second and third.  The Lady Tide held a 3-0 lead after an RBI ground-out by Johnson.

Nearly half of Curwensville’s hits came consecutively in the sixth inning as the score pushed to 5-0.  Carter, a freshman, picked up her first varsity hit with a double to right-center after two outs.  Three pitches later, Clark belted a triple, and Tess Bloom followed with a single to left to plate Clark.

“Sara is in a good groove at the plate right now,”Leigey said.  “You might get her once in a while, but it is going to have to be a pretty good pitch.  Meanwhile, defensively we played  pretty well.  Tiffany caught a good game and picked up a big hit with two outs”

However, as Leigey said, the Damsels were ready to battle until the end,  and they still had six outs to make some noise.

In the bottom of the sixth, Mo Valley took advantage of a lead off walk to Taylor Murarik. Venessa Rowley ripped the next pitch off the left-field fence for an RBI double.  Two walks sandwiched around the first out loaded the bases to allow a ground out by Natasha Hudzy to set the score at 5-2 going into the seventh inning.

In that seventh inning, Rowley slapped a two-out single to left.  The Tide’s only error of the game off the bat of Chelsea Domanick put runners on first and second.  Both moved up on a passed ball and Rowley scored on a wild pitch for a 5-3 tally.  The Damsels went on to load the bases via walks, but couldn’t take further advantage as Clark handled a grounder and flipped it to first for the final out.

Only two Curwensville runners scored on the day, Clark (three times) in the lead-off spot and Carter (twice), the number nine hitter. Clark, who pushed her batting average to .477, was 2-for-3 on the night with a double and a triple.  Johnson’s two doubles and two RBI’s in four-at-bats will keep her average at .500 for the season.

Johnson picked up the win in the circle  giving up just three hits while striking out eight and walking nine, none before the fifth inning, and hitting two batters. 

Kristen Gallagher suffered the loss for Mo Valley striking out eight and walking four while giving up seven hits.  Rowley scored twice for the Damsels after hitting safely twice including a double.

Moshannon Valley was victorious in JV action.

The Tide will be back in action on Monday when they travel to Kane to try to avenge an earlier 2-1 loss to the the Lady Wolves.

CURWENSVILLE – 5

Sara Clark ss 3321, Tess Bloom cf 4011, Taylor Goodman 3b 4010, Stacey Johnson p 4022, Hannah Bressler rf 4000, Lindsay Barrett 1b 2000, Macy Palmer ph 1000, Sarah Wriglesworth lf 4000, Cheyenne Pentz 2b 3000, Tiffany Carter c 1210, TOTALS –  30 AB 5 R 7 H 4 RBI.

MOSHANNON VALLEY – 3

Jenna Miller 1b 3000, Kristen ODonnell cf 4000, Taylor Murarik 2b 2110, Venessa Rowley ss 4221, Chelsea Domanick 3b 3000, Kristen Gallagher p 3000, Ruthie Hutton rf 1000, Natasha Hudzy c 3001, Tayia Swoope dp 1000, Mikayla Lewis flex/lf 0000, TOTALS: 24 AB 3 R 3 H 2 RBI.

 SCORES BY INNINGS – R H E

Curwensville  102 002 0 – 5 7 1

Mo Valley  000 002 1 – 3 3 2

ERRORS – Pentz; Rowley 2.  LOB – Curwensville 8; Mo Valley 11.  2B – Clark, Johnson 2, Carter; Rowley. 3B – Clark. SB – Barrett; Muriak 2. HBP – Muriak, Hutton (by Johnson). PB – Carter 3 ; Hudzy.  WP – Johnson  3; Gallagher. 

 PITCHING 

Curwensville –  Johnson 7 IP 3 H 3 R 1 ER 9 BB 8 K 2 HB

Mo Valley – Gallager 7 IP 7 H 5 R 3 ER 4 BB 8 K 0 HB