Lady Tide Miscues Help Punxsutawney To 8-2 Victory

PUNXSUTAWNEY – The Curwensville Area High School softball team knew they would have their hands full on Friday against District IX Class AAA powerhouse Punxsutawney, but head coach Allen Leigey never figured to help the Lady Chucks out in the game. Three Lady Tide errors in the first three innings allowed runs to score as Punxsutawney downed Curwensville 8-2.

The three miscues (one in each of the first three innings) all came on plays that would have gotten the Tide out of the innings and held the hosts scoreless.  Instead, Punxsy held a 7-2 lead through that same time period.

“We just self-destructed in the early innings,” said Leigey.  “Unfortunately, we couldn’t leave the problems there and recover to play the rest of the game.”

The aspect of the game that compounded the errors became evident in the top of the third.  With two outs in the frame, junior Abby Dugo singled, and senior slugger Taylor Goodman brought two runs home with one swing for a 5-2 mark at the time.  Without the errors, Curwensville would have led 2-0.

“I was a little disappointed with our hitting,” Leigey noted.  “I don’t know what she (Ashley Bacha) was doing out there, but she didn’t seem overpowering, but got the job done.”

Bacha struck out nine batters for the Chucks while walking none and giving up just three hits.  Goodman had two of those hits for Curwensville.

Punxsutawney added a run in the fourth for the 8-2 final score.  Sydney Phillips, with a triple and a single, and Ivy Philips , with two singles, posted the only two-hit output for Punxsy.

The Chucks earned seven hits off Tide pitcher Tierra Shope.  Shope struck out four, walked four and hit one batter in the game.  Unfortunately for the visitors and coach Leigey, all three runners who reached on errors, two of the walks and the hit batsman all eventually scored.

The Lady Tide (9-3) will try to regroup on Monday afternoon when they travel to Glendale for a Moshannon Valley League showdown.

CURWENSVILLE — 2

Abby Dugo 3b 3110, Taylor Goodman 2b 3122, Cheyenne Pentz ss 3000, Tiffany Carter c3000, Abby Johnson lf 3000, Alaina Stiles cf 3000, Nikki Harker 1b 2000, Megan McCartney ph 1000, Tierra Shope p 2000,  Tricia Laird rf 2000, TOTALS –25 AB 2 R 3 H 2 RBI.

PUNXSUTAWNEY — 8

Chelsea Engholm ss 4210, Ashley Bacha p 2110, Stephanie Smith ph 0000, Ashley Walls c 4111, Anna Horner pr 0000, Sydney Phillips cf 4121, Ivy Phillips 3b 3121, Emily Horner rf 1000, Nicole Dipietro ph 1000, Monica Cameron lf 2100, Lauren Wolfe 1b 1000, Shaina Painter pr 0100, Savanna Hallman ph 1000, Mary Sloniger 2b 2000, Jensen Constantino ph 1000, TOTALS – 27 AB 8 R 7 H 3 RBI.

SCORES BY INNINGS – R H E

Curwensville  002 000 0 – 2 3 3

Punxsutawney   142 100x –8 7 1

ERRORS – Shope 2, Pentz; Sloniger.  LOB – Curwensville 2; Punxsutawney 7.  3B – S. Phillips.  HR – Goodman.  SAC – E. Horner, Smith. PB – A. Walls.

PITCHING

Curwensville –   Shope 7 IP 7 H 8 R 1 ER 4 BB 4 K 1 HB

Punxsutawney –  Bacha 6 IP 3 H 2 R 2 ER 0 BB 9 K 0 HB

WP – Bacha .  LP – Shope (9-3).

Lady Tide Scoreboard  – includes new dates for previously postponed games: