Shope Fans 11 To Help Lady Tide Shut Down Rovers 3-1

BROCKWAY – What makes for a better ball game – a high run count or a pitcher’s duel? While either might keep the fans in their seats, it was the pitcher’s duel on Tuesday that held the attention of Curwensville Area High School and Brockway fans.  In the end, the Lady Tide showed the better duelist is Tierra Shope, as she hurled her team to a 3-1 win over the Rovers.

Shope struck out 11 batters, walked two and gave up just one hit in her best outing of the season.  She held onto a perfect game into the fifth inning before issuing a free pass after one out.  The blemish was later erased at the plate when Cheyenne Pentz cut down the host’s threat for the third out.

“Tierra was in a zone, and I told her it was a lot easier to pitch when you get ahead in the count,” noted Tide head coach Allen Leigey.  “She was hitting her marks well and was ahead all night long.”

Shope settled into her game from the start as she struck out all three Rover batters in the first inning.  Those outs took just 11 pitches, and the junior right-hander went on to fan the first five batters to come to the plate.

With things taken care of in the Lady Tide’s circle, it was up to the offense to break down Rover ace Alexandra Wright’s game.  The visitors opened the door in the third inning.

Sophomore Nikki Harker opened the frame with a single and yielded to a pinch runner in Melanie Milliron.  Milliron advanced to third on infield ground-outs from Tricia Laird and Sarah Wriglesworth consecutively.  Taylor Goodman opened the scoring with a hard RBI single to left for a 1-0 mark.

In the sixth inning, Goodman doubled and stole third with one out.  After the second out, catcher Tiffany Carter singled up the middle to plate Goodman.  With two outs Riley Young took over first as a courtesy runner for Carter.  Abby Johnson followed with a gap shot to left-center that rolled to the wall and allowed Young to scamper home from first to set the score at 3-0.

The Rovers utilized Shope’s second walk in the sixth to earn their only run.  Juli Espisito broke up the no-hitter with a double for an RBI.  A pop-up and a strike out closed the door on any further threat the Rovers could muster.

“Wright is a pretty good pitcher, and we got to her enough to notch the win,” Leigey said.  “Other than the walks, which were close enough to go the other way on 3-2 pitches, we made one mistake in the circle – the change-up to Espisito.

“We came up with the big hits when we needed them and continued to perform well at the plate.  This was a playoff like game, and we rose to the challenge.”

Goodman was the lone batter on the night with multiple hits as she and Johnson both doubled and stole a base.

Curwensville, 5-1, will keep to the road on Thursday as they travel to Ridgway and Saturday at Dubois Central Catholic in a 1:00 start.

CURWENSVILLE — 3

Sarah Wriglesworth cf 3000, Taylor Goodman 2b 3121, Cheyenne Pentz ss 3000, Tiffany Carter c 3111, Riley Young cr 0000, Abby Johnson lf 3011, Alaina Stiles rf 3000, Abby Dugo 3b 3000, Nikki Harker 1b 2010, Melanie Milliron pr 0100, Tricia Laird dp 3000,  Tierra Shope flex/p 0000, TOTALS – 26 AB 3 R 5 H 3 RBI.

BROCKWAY — 1

Juli Espisito cf 3011, Domonique Martino lf 3000, Alexandra Wright p 3000, Hailey Adams 3b 3000, Adrianna Terwilliger rf 2000, Brooke Carleson c 3000, Sam Anderson 2b 2000, Juliana Vokes 1b 1000, Alyssa Buesink pr 0100, Ashley Cherubini ss 1000, Kayla Raybuck ph  0000,  TOTALS – 22 AB 1 R 1 H 1 RBI.

SCORES BY INNINGS – R H E

Curwensville  001 002 0 – 3 5 0

Brockway   000 001 0 – 1 1 1

ERRORS – Vokes.  LOB – Brockway 2; Curwensville 4.  2B – Goodman, Johnson; Esposito.  SB – Goodman, Johnson. SAC – Harker. WP -Shope.

PITCHING

Curwensville –   Shope 7 IP 1 H 1 R 1 ER 2 BB 11 K 0 HB

Brockway –  Wright 7 IP 5 H 3 R 3 ER 1 BB 0 K 0 HB

WP – Shope (5-1).  LP – Wright.

Lady Tide Scoreboard: