Lady Bison’s Picard Hurls No-Hitter for 2-0 Victory Over Lady Chucks

PUNXSUTAWNEY — Clearfield Area High School senior Heather Picard couldn’t have picked a better time to pitch her first career no-hitter.

The right-hander completely shut down perennial District 9 Class AAA champion Punxsutawney’s offense and struck out 11 for a 2-0 win at Harry Noerr Field Wednesday afternoon.

Her superb effort against a team that has been a major hurdle for Lady Bison teams in recent years, both in the regular season and the district playoffs, put the brakes on a six-game losing streak.

Coach Bob Lewis hopes it can be a turning point in what has been a somewhat disappointing season thus far.

“It’s a tremendous win,” he said. “It a confidence-booster for the entire team.

“Hopefully, it’ll carry over to (Thursday) at Tyrone and we can build some momentum.”

Picard never let the Lady Chucks (8-3) get on a roll even though she walked pairs of batters in the second and third innings.

Staked to the two-run lead before she stepped into the circle, Picard kept her composure and worked out of those jams with runners at second and third both times.

Punxsy never had another baserunner.

Picard retired the last 14 batters she faced, seven on strikes.

“She was dealing,” Lewis said. “She was throwing hard. This is the warmest day we’ve had to play, and she was really cutting it loose.”

Prior to the game, Picard expressed her concern to Lewis about having to throw Wilson balls.

“She usually throws Dudleys, cause she likes the higher seam,” Lewis said. “I told her, ‘Don’t worry about it. You’ll throw well.’

“She rolled her eyes a little bit, and I said, ‘You’ll be fine.'”

Picard was, and so were the Lady Bison behind her, handling the 10 balls the Lady Chucks did put in play.

Completing the trifecta for success – pitching, hitting and defense – was the quick start against Punxsy starter Monica Cameron, for Clearfield (4-10) had changed the scoreboard in the first inning in only three previous games.

Megan Vanderburgh provided the spark with a single up the middle. One out later, Rachel Hoffman beat out a grounder to deep short and Devynn Ireland followed with a single to left field to drive in Vanderburgh.

Hoffman advanced to third on the throw to the plate and scored the insurance run on Lucy Kovalick’s sacrifice fly to right.

“I think that was very important,” Lewis said. “It relaxed everybody, and we played solid defense behind Heather.

“That’s a classic win for us.”

Vanderburgh and Ireland had two singles apiece for the Lady Bison, who got to Cameron and Ashley Bacha for seven hits.

See more photos of the game here: http://www.ladybisonsports.org/lbsSBall050113.html

CLEARFIELD — 2

Megan Vanderburgh ss 3120, Lauren Butler 2b 3000, Rachel Hoffman cf-1b 311, Devynn Ireland 3b 3021, Lucy Kovalick 1b-c 2001, Josie Eamigh dp 3000, Janelle Wallace c-lf 3000, Heather Picard p 3010, Macala Leigey rf 2010, Mikayla Ebeling lf-cf (flex) 0000.  TOTALS: 25  2  7  2.

PUNXSUTAWNEY — 0

Chelsea Engelholm ss 3000, Ashley Bacha 1b-p 2000, Ashley Walls c 3000, Sydney Phillips cf 3000, Ivy Phillips 3b 3000,  Savannah Hallman dp 2000, Emily Horner rf 2000, Monica Cameron p 2000, Sarah London 1b 0000, Mary Sloniger 2b 1000, Lauren Wolfe lf (flex) 0000.  TOTALS: 21  0  0  0.

Score by Innings

Clearfield          200 000 0 – 2  7  0
Punxsutawney   000 000 0 – 0  0  0
PB – Wallace 3. LOB – Clearfield 4; Punxsutawney 4. 2B – Ireland. Sac – Leigey. SF – Kovalick.

Pitching

Clearfield – Picard 7 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 11 K.
Punxsutawney – Cameron 4-2/3 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K; Bacha 2-1/3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K.
WP – Picard 1; Cameron 2.
W – Picard (2-4). L – Cameron.

Lady Bison Scoreboard: