Lady Tide Walk Away with 10-0 Win over Ridgway in Five Innings

CURWENSVILLE – One sign of a maturing team may just be to accept a win any way you can – even if you’re not happy about it.  The Curwensville Area High School softball team walked off their home field with a 10-0 win over Ridgway on Tuesday, but not everyone had a satisfied taste in their mouths.

“It really wasn’t a crisp game,” noted Lady Tide head coach Allen Leigey.  “We only had five hits in the game, and it never felt like we dominated.  Then, (in the post-game meeting) the girls reminded me that they really didn’t get much to hit.”

The team was referring to the fact that Lady Elkers’ pitcher Holly Schneider issued 13 walks to the Tide in less than four complete innings of pitching.  Of those walks, seven eventually came around to score.  The Curwensville hitters, who rattled out 18 hits on Monday, were frustrated by the number of free passes offered.  However, they did have the patience at the plate to collect the runs and not let Schneider off the hook.

“We did get a good hit from Cheyenne Pentz with runners in scoring position,”  Leigey said of the double up the middle in the eight-run, fourth inning.  “One important thing to take from the game was that we didn’t give them anything defensively or in the circle.  Defensively we were very solid.”

Junior hurler Tierra Shope had much to be happy about in the Tide circle.  Shope struck out nine batters on the day to put her over 100 K’s for the season while walking just one Elkers batter and scattering four hits to record win number 14 on the season.

“The seventh strikeout was number 100 for Tierra, and she really wanted that after finishing with 97 last season,” noted Leigey.  “She was hoping to get it before the end of the week, but took care of it in this game.”

Shope was also productive in the offensive line-up, scoring twice and driving in a run.   Pentz paced the Tide as the only player with multiple hits in the game.  Pentz and Sarah Wriglesworth also scored twice, while Taylor Goodman and Alaina Stiles drove in two runs each.

“This wasn’t the kind of game we wanted as we’re trying to gear up for next week (the District IX, Class AA Championships),” Leigey noted.  “It works out better that we had the game with Brockway postponed until Saturday.  Without that game, we would be done Wednesday and would have had to wait a week before the playoffs began.  We need to get into playoff mode, and Brockway is a natural rivalry that will give us a tough look.  It will be a good tune-up game.”

Before that Saturday make-up, Curwensville (14-4) will attempt to collect the Moshannon Valley League Title at home on Wednesday.  The Lady Tide is unbeaten in the MVL and needs to get past Moshannon Valley to gain outright bragging rights for the season.

The rescheduled contest for Saturday with the Rovers is slated to start at 1:00.

RIDGWAY — 0

Jenni Hoffman 2b 3000, Jenna Thomas ss 2000, Holly Schneider p/3b 2010, Paige Grazioli c 2000, Taylor Roseto 1b 1010, Emily Spiers cf 2000, Jill Gaio lf 2010, Renee Catalano dp 2000, Dani Shirey rf 2000, Sierra Kos flex/3b/p 0000, TOTALS – 18 AB 0 R 4 H 0 RBI.

CURWENSVILLE — 10

Sarah Wriglesworth cf 1200, Taylor Goodman 2b 4012, Cheyenne Pentz ss 3221, Tiffany Carter c 0100, Abby Johnson lf 1001, Abby Dugo 3b 1101, Alaina Stiles rf 3112, Nikki Harker 1b 2000, Tricia Laird ph 0100, Tierra Shope p 1211, TOTALS – 16 AB 10 R 5 H 8 RBI.

SCORES BY INNINGS – R H E

Ridgway   000 00x x – 0 4 0

Curwensville  100 9xx x – 10 5 1

ERRORS – Carter.  LOB – Ridgway 4; Curwensville 8.  2B – Schneider, Roseto; Pentz.  SAC – Johnson. WP -Schneider 7; Shope 2.

PITCHING

Ridgway –  Schneider 3.2 IP 4 H 10 R 10 ER 13 BB 3 K 0 HB

Kos   .1 IP 1 H 0 R  0 ER  0 BB 0 K 0 HB

Curwensville –   Shope 5 IP 4 H 0 R 0 ER 1 BB 9 K 0 HB

WP – Shope (14-4).  LP – Schmeider.

Lady Tide Scoreboard