HYDE – Averting a losing season was an incentive for the Clearfield Area High School softball team Friday, and the Lady Bisons played like they were motivated.
They stormed past Bradford 12-1 in five innings at the Bison Sports Complex to end the season feeling good about themselves with a four-game winning streak and a 10-10 record.
Freshman Rachel Hoffman set a school record with her eighth home run and B.J. Bowman whacked a walk-off homer to highlight a 13-hit attack that produced a season-high in runs.
They were two of six Lady Bisons with two hits in the non-league game.
Robyn McBride singled and doubled, while Andrea Butler, Melinda Owens and Tristan Lewis singled twice.
Suzie Colesar, the lone senior starter, and McKenzie Moore both walked and scored.
Hoffman posted her sixth victory with a four-hitter, striking out eight.
“Our goal was to win the last four games and get to .500, and everybody chipped in today,” Lady Bison coach Bob Dixon said. “We hit well. We fielded well. And Rachel did a good job.
“I’m pleased with them.”
Hoffman’s record-setting roundtripper to dead center in the second inning triggered the offense.
Clearfield added two more runs in that frame on a double steal, Lewis beating the throw home on Bradford’s cut-off play, and an RBI single by Owens.
Leading 3-1 in the fourth, the Lady Bisons put the finale on ice with a six-run flurry, cashing three of loser Erica Bacha’s five walks with Owens and Hoffman lacing two-run singles and McBride and Lewis adding RBI hits.
Two runs away from a Mercy Rule finish, Clearfield got one in a hurry as Kovalick singled, McBride doubled into the left field corner and Butler lofted a sacrifice fly to center.
One out later, Bowman ended it with her third homer of the season, a laser to left center.
“Because she was pulling the ball so drastically, I told her to shift her feet,” Dixon said. “She adjusted and hit that a ton.
“Their pitcher didn’t throw hard. Fortunately, we didn’t do what we did at Huntingdon. They have a similar pitcher, and we had 14 pop-ups.
“The key is you’ve gotta hit the ball on a line or get it down on the ground. We hit the ball (today) like I thought we could all year.”
The Lady Bisons enjoyed their fourth double-digit hits game in a row, but only their sixth of the season.
Hoffman issued four walks to the first 10 batters she faced before settling down.
She lost a shutout when Angie Comilla homered to center leading off the third inning.
No. 9 batter Amber Abers had two singles and Megan Hillard tripled for Bradford (3-12).
Dixon had envisioned more wins for the Lady Bisons, pinpointing lack of confidence and intensity as reasons they fell a little short of his expectations.
“I think confidence was a big thing,” he said. “If you don’t have the confidence you’re gonna win, it’s tough to go out there and not have that inning where, if you make a mistake, you start believing the wheels are coming off.
“I think the (2-1) loss to Philipsburg-Osceola was what really built up their confidence, knowing they could play with them.
“It’s too bad we didn’t get that (confidence) the fifth game of the year, instead of the fifth game from the end.
“And I think, sometimes, we were a little too easy going. We’re too relaxed and don’t always play with the intensity you need to be a winner.”
Dixon cited the pitching of Hoffman and sophomore Heather Picard as the best and most consistent aspect of the team’s overall performance.
“They kept us in almost every game,” he said.
Clearfield’s prospects for next season are bright with both hurlers and seven other starters returning.
Colesar and reserve outfielder Sarah Graham were the only seniors on the 2011 team.
See photos of the win here: http://www.ladybisonsports.org/lbsSBall052011.html
EXTRA INNINGS – Bowman, a junior, wound up in the Lady Bison .500 Club. She was 29-for-58 and drove in 11 runs… Hoffman, who eclipsed the CAHS home run record of seven set by Lindsey Rowles in 2005, had 22 hits for a .349 average. She had 11 extra base hits and led the team with 23 RBIs… Colesar collected 20 hits for a .333 average and knocked in 11 runs… Lewis, a junior who sat out two weeks because of a gall bladder operation, hit .346 in nine games… Sophomore Mikayla Ebeling had 17 hits and a .306 average, missing the last two games because of the chicken pox.
BRADFORD — 1
Erica Bacha p 1000, Lindsay Rinfrette 1b 2000, Angie Comilla c 2111, Megan Hillard ss 3010, Marissa Cobb rf 2000, Dallas Helgren lf 3000, Ashland Kelly 3b 2000, Ryleigh Langianese 2b 2000, Amber Abers cf 2020. TOTALS: 19 1 4 1.
CLEARFIELD — 12
Andrea Butler ss 3121, Melinda Owens 2b 4123, B.J. Bowman cf 3222, Suzie Colesar 3b 2100, Rachel Hoffman p 3123, Tristan Lewis lf 3121, McKenzie Moore c 1100, Lucy Kovalick 1b 2110, Robyn McBride rf 2321. TOTALS: 23 12 13 11.
Score by Innings
Bradford 001 00 – 1 4 2
Clearfield 030 63 – 12 13 1
Errors – Hillard, Abers; Kovalick. LOB – Bradford 8; Clearfield 4. 2B – McBride. 3B – Hillard. HR – Comilla; Bowman (3), Hoffman (8). Sac – Moore. SF – Butler. SB – Lewis, Kovalick. CS – Kovalick (by Comilla).
Pitching
Bradford – Bacha 4-2/3 IP, 13 H, 12 R, 12 ER, 5 BB, 0 K.
Clearfield – Hoffman 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 8 K.
W – Hoffman (6-2). L – Bacha.
Umpires – Mark Gormont (plate) and Scott Viehdorfer (bases).
