ST. MARYS – In Wednesday’s 7-2 loss, the Curwensville Area High School softball team hoped to have learned a little more about the top team in next week’s District IX Class A playoffs. Elk County Catholic’s win elevated the team’s season record to 18-0, but the Tide battled throughout the game and should feel good about a possible third meeting between the two teams.
“We hit her (ECC’s Lauren Evers) better this game than the first time,” Tide Head Coach Allen Leigey said of his team. “We put the ball in play more. She didn’t have a lot of strike outs, and we made good contact.”
The Lady Tide scraped out one run in the seventh inning of the two team’s first meeting. Tuesday afternoon, they jumped on the offensive early. Sara Clark opened the game with a hard single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Tess Bloom and hustled to third on an infield single from Taylor Goodman. Stacey Johnson drove a second pitch offering to right and plated Clark via a sacrifice fly to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Unfortunately for the Tide, ECC had a similar frame in the bottom of the first. Hanah Gowan slapped the first pitch she saw to center for a lead-off hit. Laura Mohney followed by drawing a nine-pitch walk, and after the first out, Evers walked to load the bases. While Johnson was working to strike out the next two batters for Curwensville, one pitch went wild and Gowan was able to tie the game at 1-1.
The hosts took the lead in the bottom of the second when Dani Cassels singled with one out. A walk and a fielder’s choice ended in a put-out at third made it look like Curwensville would get out of the inning, but Mohney singled to drive in the go-ahead run.
Curwensville calmly knotted the game in the third when Bloom singled with one out. Goodman bunted to move her to second and Johnson hit the right-center gap for the RBI and a 2-2 score.
ECC built a cushion in the fourth when two unearned runs scored. Singles by Jess McLaughlin and McGowan set the table, but the runs scored due to a stolen base, two passed balls and a ground out to third that would have put runners at second and third before Johnson struck out Evers to end the inning.
“We botched some things up ourselves,” Leigey said. “We’re a young team and these are the kinds of things we have to eliminate to be successful.
Evers seemed to get tougher with the lead as the Golden Tide was unable to get a runer past second base the rest of the game. Meanwhile the Lady Crusaders added three runs in the sixth inning with the aid of two hits.
“We were in this game until about the sixth inning,” Leigey said. “Stacey seemed to have good stuff in the circle, but it just wasn’t enough. Hopefully, we’ll get another chance at them.”
Johnson allowed just seven hits in the game striking out eight, walking six and hitting one batter. ECC bats drove in just three runs as two wild pitches, a passed ball and an error allowed the other runs to score. Only three of the seven runs were earned, and two of those came home on wild pitches.
Clark led the Curwensville offense with two hits and scored one run. Johnson was 1-for-1 at the plate and drove in both runs for the visitors.
The Lady Tide, 14-5, will host Punxsutawney for “Senior Night” on Thursday at 4:15 at Riverside Stadium.
ECC won the junior varsity contest 11-0.
CURWENSVILLE – 2
Sara Clark ss 4120, Tess Bloom cf 3110, Taylor Goodman 3b 2010, Stacey Johnson p 1012, Hannah Bressler rf 3010 Sarah Wriglesworth lf 2000, Madi Peterman 1000, Lindsay Barrett 1b 1000, Cheyenne Pentz 2b 3000, Rachel Holland dp 3000, Tiffany Carter flex/c 000, TOTALS – 23 AB 2 R 6 H 1 RBI.
ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC – 7
Hannah McGowan cf 4220, Laura Mohney ss 3123, Anna Hawkins rf 3001, Lauren Evers p 3000, Lyndsey Trumbull 2b 3010, Jenny Cappiello dp 4000, Torie Gradizzi c 3000, Dani Cassels lf 3110, Jessie McLaughlin 3b 1310, Taylor Schlimm flex/1b 0000 Totals 27 AB 7 R 7 H 4 RBI.
SCORE BY INNINGS – R H E
Curwensville – 101 000 0 – 2 6 2
Elk County – 110 203 x – 7 7 1
ERRORS – Clark, S. Wriglesworth; Trumbull. LOB – Curwensville 6; ECC 9. 2B – Mohney. SB – McLaughlin. SAC – Bloom, Goodman, Johnson, Barrett. PB – Carter 3. WP – Johnson 2. HBP – McLaughlin (by Johnson).
PITCHING
Curwensville – Johnson – 7 IP 4 H 1 R 1 ER 1 BB 8 K 1 HB
Elk County – Evers – 7 IP 6 H 7 R 1 ER 7 BB 4 K 1 HB