HYDE – After keeping her Altoona in the game with her right arm, senior Didi Rizzo also got the job done with her bat in the top of the seventh inning Thursday afternoon, whacking a three-run home run with two outs to give the Lady Lions a 5-3 win over Clearfield in scholastic girls softball action at the Bison Sports Complex.
Rizzo’s blast to dead center field, set up by an error on pinch-hitter Margot Berry’s grounder and a single to right field by Madeline Berry, unlocked a 2-2 duel between the Lady Lions’ back-up pitcher and Lady Bison junior Heather Picard.
“I knew she was a good hitter,” Clearfield coach Bob Dixon said. “We tried to stay away from her. I think what happened, Heather just got that one in a little too far.”
Clearfield, which failed to climb over .500 for the second time in a week, did get the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the inning.
With one out, Megan Vanderburgh lined a single to left, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Andrea Butler’s single near the left field line.
Butler went to second on the play at the plate and advanced to third on Melinda Owens’ groundout but was out trying to score when catcher Marshe Barnes retrieved an errant pitch and her throw to Rizzo covering the plate went up the third base line. Third baseman Summer Feathers was able to flip the ball back to Rizzo, who tagged the sliding Butler to end the game.
Dixon was disappointed his Lady Bisons dipped to 8-9 with the non-league loss to a team that had won only two of 15 games.
“We shouldn’t even have been tied going to the top of the seventh,” he said. “We let them hang around, hang around. We didn’t score. We had four hits going into the last inning.
“You leave them in the game long enough, and they gain confidence and believe in themselves. They jumped up and bit us.”
Rizzo, who struck out eight and walked three, finished with a six-hitter.
Picard was equally effective and deserved a better fate.
She surrendered nine hits, but fanned nine, walked none and allowed only one earned run.
“She threw an excellent game,” Dixon said. “When you hold someone to two runs for six innings, you’ve gotta score more.
“That girl didn’t throw that hard. We stood there and let her get ahead of us. Then she’d throw a changeup or a slow drop, whatever it was, and we just swung and missed it.
“You can’t stand there and get in a hole, 0-and-1, 0-and-2, and expect to come up with a lot of hits, because, when the pitcher’s ahead of you, you’re going to hit her pitch. You’re not gonna get your pitch. Your pitch is out the window.
“And that’s just how we hit all night long.”
Clearfield did own a 2-1 lead through the middle of the game.
In the second inning, Picard stretched her hitting streak to six games with a grounder through the left side, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and dashed home on Becca Byerly’s single that spun away from first baseman Morgan James.
A two-out miscue gave the Lady Bisons the go-ahead marker in the third after Butler walked, Owens sacrificed and Rizzo uncorked a wild pitch.
Altoona had picked up an unearned run in the first frame when Morgan James’ single, the third consecutive two-out hit, was misplayed.
Picard then retired 14 of next 16 batters before Parrish singled for the third time with one out in the sixth and scored the tying run on a two-out double up the right center alley by Barnes.
The Lady Lions carried the momentum into the seventh inning, and Rizzo made sure it didn’t slip away.
One of the Lady Bisons who had no success against Rizzo was Rachel Hoffman, who saw her hitting streak halted at 15 games.
Clearfield will close the regular season with three non-league home games next week, Monday against Brookville, Tuesday against Central Mountain and Friday against Punxsutawney.
ALTOONA — 5
Summer Feathers 3b 4000, Madeline Berry 2b 4110, Didi Rizzo p 4223, Amanda Parrish ss 4130, Morgan James 1b 3000, Marshe Barnes c 3011, Sckylaur Kane lf 3000, Shania Feathers rf 3010, Hayley Weaver cf 2000, Margot Berry ph 1100. TOTALS: 31 5 8 4.
CLEARFIELD — 3
Andrea Butler ss 3111, Melinda Owens 2b 2010, Rachel Hoffman rf 3000, B.J. Bowman cf 3000, Heather Picard p 3110, Lucy Kovalick 3010, Robyn McBride lf 3000, Becca Byerly 1b 1011, Mikayla Ebeling ph 1000, Megan Vanderburgh 3b 3110. TOTALS: 25 3 6 2.
Score by Innings
Altoona 100 001 3 – 5 9 1
Clearfield 011 000 1 – 3 6 2
Errors – McBride, Byerly. DP – Altoona 1 (Barnes and Mad. Berry). LOB – Altoona 5; Clearfield 5. 2B – Barnes. HR – Rizzo. Sac – Owens. SB – Sh. Feathers; Picard.
Pitching
Altoona – Rizzo 7 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 K.
Clearfield – Picard 7 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K.
WP – Rizzo 7.
W – Rizzo. L – Picard (3-6).
Umpires – Kenny Knepp (plate) and Bud Brennan (bases).
