HUNTINGDON – The Clearfield Area High School softball team broke out of its hitting slump and broke into the win column by trimming Huntingdon 9-1 in its Mountain League Allegheny Division opener Wednesday afternoon.
After mustering only five safeties in three losses, two of them shutouts, the Lady Bisons solved Lady Bearcat Morgan Glover for 13 hits to back Rachel Hoffman’s strong pitching performance.
Hoffman paced Clearfield with a double and two singles, while Andrea Butler, Rebecca Byerly and Megan Vanderburgh chipped in two hits apiece.
Butler, who doubled, drove in three runs and Vanderburgh had two RBIs.
Melinda Owens also had double.
Lucy Kovalick scored three times, and Hoffman and B.J. Bowman scored two runs apiece.
The Lady Bisons ended a 15-inning drought with a run in the first and went on to send at least one runner across the plate in the next five frames.
Meanwhile, Hoffman was handcuffing the Lady Bearcats on four hits.
She struck out eight and walked only one to even her record.
Clearfield faces three ML-Allegheny opponents next week, trekking to Martinsburg to test Central Monday before returning to the Bison Sports Complex for games against Tyrone Wednesday and Philipsburg-Osceola Friday.
See photos of the Lady Bison win here: http://www.ladybisonsports.org/lbsSBall040412.html
CLEARFIELD — 9
Andrea Butler ss 5123, Melinda Owens 2b 4010, B.J. Bowman cf 4201, Rachel Hoffman p 4230, Mikayla Ebeling rf 4011, Tristan Lewis lf 4011, Lucy Kovalick c 3310, Rebecca Byerly 1b 3020, Robyn McBride pr 0100, Megan Vanderburgh 3b 4022. TOTALS: 35 9 13 8.
HUNTINGDON — 1
Brionna Mort c 4010, Kyra Shea ss 4000, Atalie Yingling lf 3000, Casey Baird 1b 3110, Alexyss Spencer rf 3010, Cheyanne Snyder 3b 3010, Kiley Dubbs 2b 2000, Morgan Glover p 1001, Kadeja Nix ph 1000, Toni Strait cf 3010. TOTALS: 27 1 4 1.
Score by Innings
Clearfield 111 231 0 – 9 13 3
Huntingdon 000 100 0 – 1 4 5
Errors – Lewis, Byerly 2; Mort, Shea, Snyder 2, Dubbs. LOB – Clearfield 9; Huntingdon 7. 2B – Butler, Owens, Hoffman.
Pitching
Clearfield – Hoffman 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K.
Huntingdon – Glover 7 IP, 13 H, 9 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 2 K.
WP – Hoffman 2; Glover 3.
W – Hoffman (1-1). L – Glover.