The Lady Wildcats beat Clearfield last week 6-1 but this time around it wasn’t to be as the Lady Bisons improved to 8-10 on the year while Central Mountain slipped to 9-7.
Central Mountain drew first blood as they turned three first inning doubles into two runs to quickly go out in front 2-0 after the first frame was complete.
Lady Wildcat Johnna Garbrick led off the game with a double to left field followed by two-out back-to-back doubles from Kayla Glossner and Racheal Shady.
The Lady Bisons, however, put together a huge second inning when they scored five runs on four hits, one error and one hit batsmen.
Rachel Hoffman, the Lady Bison starting pitcher, started the second with a single to left field. Lucy Kovalick was hit by a pitch with Tristan Lewis then smacking a single which scored Hoffman with the first run of the game for Clearfield.
Andrea Butler reached on an error by Wildcat starting pitcher Whitney Peters to load the bases for Melinda Owens.
Owens drove in Kovalick on a fielder’s choice to third base making it 2-2.
Lady Bison B. J. Bowman put Clearfield ahead with a single to left field that scored Butler, which was then followed by Suzie Colesar launching a double to center field scoring both Owens and Bowman.
The 5-2 margin the Lady Bisons held going into the top of the third didn’t last long as the Wildcats picked up three tallies on a two-out three run home run over the left field fence by Racheal Shady. On the day Shady was 2 for 4 with four RBI’s to pace Central Mountain.
After Central Mountain tied the game at 5-5 Clearfield went back out in front 6-5 with a run in the bottom of the third on a bases loaded walk to Owens that scored Hoffman, who had earlier singled to lead off the inning for the Lady Bisons.
Of course, not to be out done, the Wildcats tied the game once again with a run in their half of the fourth inning to make it six each.
Then Hoffman, just a freshman, went to work on the mound, blanking her opponent over the final three innings, allowing just one single after a bit of a rocky start.
The game remained even until Clearfield came to bat in the bottom of the sixth against relief pitcher Racheal Shady, who had taken over in the fourth inning with one out.
Bowman led off the bottom of the sixth and was promptly hit by a pitch that sent her to first base.
Colesar put runners on first and second with a single to center field with Mikalya Ebeling then laying down a perfect bunt single to load the bases.
Hoffman helped her own cause with a two-run double to right center field that drove in all the runs Clearfield would need to gain the victory.
Kovalick’s ground out to second would score Ebeling and a bases loaded walk to Tristan Lewis would force in the game’s final run with Hoffman doing the honors.
Hoffman also had a great day at the plate, going 4 for 4, scoring three times and driving in two while picking up her fifth win of the season. Colesar also was huge offensively as she banged out three hits with two RBI’s. Owens chipped in with two RBI’s and Ebeling stroked two big singles in an all around good offensive performance by the Lady Bisons.
Clearfield head coach Bob Dixon liked what he saw in Hoffman, “I thought overall that Rachel (Hoffman) threw an excellent game. Her location was very good the entire game which is something we stress time and time again with our pitchers.”
Dixon continued with, “We played solid defense and hit the ball very well this afternoon. Rachel (Hoffman) had four hits and Suzie Colesar ( three hits) really hit the ball hard, especially on the double to center field in the bottom of the sixth. And B. J. did a nice job, even though she was hit twice, she had a big single and a stolen base.”
Finally Dixon said, “This was a big win for us and all the girls did a great job today.”
Clearfield closes out the year with home games on Wednesday against Hollidaysburg and then Friday against Bradford.
See photos of the big win here: http://www.ladybisonsports.org/lbsSBall051611.html
CENTRAL MOUNTAIN – 6
Johnna Garbrick cf 2110, Ciarra Peters rf 4111, Brittany Koch ss 4110, Kayla Glossner 3b 4111, Racheal Shady lf/p 4124, Meisha McGinnis dp 3000, Whitney Peters p/1b 3000, Paige Dickey c 3120, Moriah Lindsey cr 0000, Morgan Kunes 1b 2000, Clara Windle rf 0000, Hannah Shady flex/ rf 0000, TOTALS – 29 6 8 4.
CLEARFIELD – 10
Andrea Butler ss 5110, Melinda Owens 2b 3112, B. J. Bowman cf 2211, Suzie Colesar 3b 4132, Mikalya Ebeling rf 4120, Rachel Hoffman p 4342, Lucy Kovalick c 2101, Tristan Lewis lf 3011, Rebecca Byerly 1b 4000, TOTALS – 31 10 13 9.
SCORE BY INNNGS R H E
CENTRAL MOUNTAIN 203 100 0 6 8 1
CLEARFIELD 051 004 X 10 13 0
ERRORS – W. Peters. LOB – CENTRAL MOUNTAIN – 6, CLEARFIELD – 9. 2B – Garbrick, Glossner, R. Shady, Hoffman. HR – R. Shady (3 run, 3rd). SB – Lindsey, Bowman. SAC – Windle. HBP – Bowman ( by W. Peters, R Shady), Kovalick (by W. Peters), Garbrick (b y Hoffman).
PITCHING
CENTRAL MOUNTAIN
W. Peters 3 1/3 IP, 10 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HB
R. Shady 2 2/3 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HB
CLEARFIELD
Hoffman 7 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 1 HB
WP – Hoffman (5-2) LP – R. Shady