Lady Tide Regroup Again after Loss to Best Elk County Catholic 5-3

ST. MARYS – One aspect about the Curwensville Area High School softball team’s season has been the fact that after losses opponents have not been successful.  The trend continued on Monday as the Lady Tide traveled St. Marys to battle Elk County Catholic after losing to Redbank Valley on Friday.  Curwensville bested the Lady Crusaders 5-3 to avenge one of their earlier losses.

Beating ECC also kept the Tide on pace to beat the squads who handed them losses in their first meetings.  The Black and Gold (12-4)  had already defeated Kane in a second encounter and will await a possible second meeting with Redbank in the district playoffs.  The only loss they will not have a chance to amend is with Punxsutawney, who they will only meet once this campaign.

In the first meeting at home with the Crusaders, Curwensville came out on the short end of a 5-0 score – it was the only game that the Tide was unable to score in this season.  In Monday’s game, the offense put the hits together to push the winning runs across.

“The first game with ECC was the only game this year that felt like we were beaten,” said head coach Allen Leigey.  “We hit the ball hard in that first game, but the breaks seemed to go their way.  The breaks went our way in game two and we took advantage.”

Curwensville capitalized on an error in the second inning to open the scoring.  Senior Abby Johnson led off with a single and moved to second on Abby Dugo’s sacrifice bunt.  Alaina Stiles also bunted, and when first baseman Taylor DaCanal tossed the ball to first, no one was there to cover and Johnson was able to score.

The advantage moved to 3-0 for the Tide in the fourth inning.  Johnson, Dugo and Stiles all singled to load the bases in with no outs in the frame. First baseman Nikki Harker and pitcher Tierra Shope both followed with RBI grounders to the pitcher for the 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the fourth, ECC got on the board via two free passes, a stolen base and a two-out single.  With the score 3-2, the Tide had to stiffen up to keep the lead.

“In most of our losses, we gave the game away with walks or errors,”  Leigey reminded.  “I didn’t want that to happen again, and the girls came through with the win.”

The one-run advantage held up through the seventh when the visitors put some security in the books.  Sarah Wriglesworth opened the last inning with a single.  She scored after two outs when Tiffany Carter tripled to right-center.  Carter then scampered home on Johnson’s third hit of the game for a 5-2 advantage.

The Lady Crusaders gave Curwensville a little scare in the bottom of the seventh as an error put the first batter on base.  A single, a walk and a fielder’s chioce set the score at 5-3 with the bases loaded and no outs.  Shope shut the door on the threat by striking out ECC slugger Jessie Ginther, and Cheyenne Pentz handled the final two outs on a pop-up and a ground-out.

Johnson’s three hits paced the Tide offense with Dugo hitting safely twice.  Carter’s triple was the only extra-base hit in the game.  Micheala Cashmer slapped out three of the five ECC hits.  Curwensville had nine hits, and five of those batters scored.  ECC managed five hits in the game and none of those runners managed to cross the plate.  The host’s runners who did score reached base on two walks and an error.

“Abby Johnson and Abby Dugo both had strong games at the plate,” said Leigey.  “Dugo played tough at third on defense as well.  She had four put outs, and none of them were easy.

“ECC didn’t hit the ball hard all night.  Shope pitched well and kept the ball on the infield.  We backed her up pretty well, and were able to move the runners around on offense.  This was a big win”

Shope struck out one batter (Ginther was caught looking with the bases loaded in the seventh) and walked three in the win.  She scattered five hits on the day and gave up just two earned runs.

Curwensville comes back home on Wednesday to take on Brockway.  The Lady Tide downed the Rovers 3-1 in their first meeting.

CURWENSVILLE – 5

Sarah Wriglesworth cf 4110, Taylor Goodman 2b 4000, Cheyenne Pentz ss 3010, Tiffany Carter c 4111, Abby Johnson lf 4231, Abby Dugo 3b 3120, Alaina Stiles rf 3010,  Nikki Harker 1b 2001, Tierra Shope p 2001, Melanie Milliron ph 1000, TOTALS – 30 AB 5 R 9 H 4 RBI.

Elk County Catholic- 3

Michelle Imbrogno ss 3000, Abbey Bauer p 4010,  Jessie Ginther cf 3100, Kristy Hanes c 3100, Mackenzie Neureiter 2b 4001, Sadie Vigilone rf 3011, Taylor DaCanal 1b 3000, Carly Schneider dp 3100,  Micheala Cashmer ph 3030,  Rachel Stauffer flex/3b 0000, TOTALS – 29 AB 3 R 5 H 2 RBI.

SCORES BY INNINGS – R H E

Curwensville 010 200  2– 5 9 2

Elk County  000 200 1 – 3 5 4

ERRORS – Pentz 2; Bauer, Imbrogno, Vigilone, DaCanal.  LOB – Curwensville 7; ECC 6.  3B – Carter.  SB – Ginther.  SAC – Dugo, Harker.

PITCHING

Curwensville –  Shope 7 IP 5 H 3 R 2 ER 3 BB 1 K 0 HB

Elk County –   Bauer 7 IP 9 H 5 R 4 ER 0 BB 2 K 0 HB

WP – Shope (12-4).   LP -Bauer.

Lady Tide Scoreboard