Riverside Perfection Ousts Lady Tide From PIAA Tourney 6-0

WEXFORD – When Curwensville Area High School softball head coach Allen Leigey was looking for information about his PIAA first round opponent, he had trouble finding information about anyone but pitcher Kirsten Wilson.  The reason why became very apparent as the Lady Tide was eliminated by Riverside on Monday by a 6-0 score.

While the Tide made the long trip to North Allegheny High School, Wilson made short work of the Curwensville offense tossing a perfect game from the circle.  She also added the only offense the Panthers needed with two home runs and four RBI to bring the Tide’s season to an end. Wilson’s solo homer in the second inning off of the second pitch that she saw from Curwensville’s Tierra Shope proved to be the game winner.

“She (Wilson) threw hard.  We had her on the speed gun in the sixth inning, and she was still throwing around 62 mph,” Leigey noted.  “That’s faster than we have seen all year.  And, if you pitch to her, she’s going to hurt you.  She went yard on two pretty good pitches from Tierra.  The second (home run) she took off her shoe strings.”

Riverside (20-0) has only allowed two teams all season post runs on them as they have now shut out opponents 17 times on the year.  Only Mohawk, who scored in both of its meetings with Riverside, and Deer Lakes in the WPIAL Championship game have been able to cross the plate with Wilson in the circle this season.  She has given up just seven total runs in 2013.

In Monday’s PIAA contest, the Panthers opened an early 2-0 lead in the first inning.  With two outs, Wilson reached an outside pitch for her first home run.  Natalie Pritts followed with a single and scored when Nicole Mansfield doubled.

Shope was able to keep the game close until the fifth inning when three hits by the Panthers iced the game.  Logan Snyder and Brooke Baker singled in front of Wilson’s golf shot which cleared the large scoreboard at North Allegheny High School.  Snyder added a double and an RBI in the sixth to end the scoring at 6-0.

“We were just overmatched in this playoff game,” Leigey said.  “If we could have stayed away from Wilson, the game should have been 2-0, but we just couldn’t generate any offense.

“I just want to thank the seniors for their effort all year and wish them good luck.  We made the District IX goal we set and overcame the losses during the regular season.  The worst thing that came out of this game is that we don’t have practice tomorrow.  We had fun this season.”

Wilson finished the game with 13 strikeouts to emphasize the perfect game.  Shope allowed nine hits while striking out four and walking three in the loss.  Snyder finished with three hits on the day with Wilson and Pritts adding two hits each.

District VI Class AA Champion Philipsburg-Osceola was a victor in the first round of the PIAA Tournament.  The Mounties dropped Chartiers-Houston 4-1 and will take on WPIAL runner-up Deer Lakes on Thursday.  Should P-O be successful in Thursday’s contest, they will see the winner of the Riverside vs Ligonier Valley match-up also set to take place on Thursday.

Monday was not a good day for District IX teams all around.  In Class A action, Elk County Catholic lost to Neshannock 9-1, St. Marys lost to Greensburg-Salem 2-0 in Class AAA play and Dubois was a 5-3 loser to North Allegheny as the Class AAAA representative from the district.

CURWENSVILLE — 0

Sarah Wriglesworth cf 3000, Cheyenne Pentz ss 3000, Taylor Goodman 2b 3000, Tiffany Carter c 2000, Abby Johnson lf 2000, Abby Dugo 3b 2000, Alaina Stiles rf 2000, Nikki Harker 1b 2000, Tierra Shope p 2000, TOTALS – 21 AB 0 R 0 H 0 RBI.

RIVERSIDE — 6

Logan Snyder ss 4131, Brooke Baker 2b 3110, Kirsten Wilson p 3224, Natalie Pritts  1b 3120, Nicole Mansfield c 2011, Morgan McaElwain  3000, Andrea Lippman rf 1100, Cathy Barker dp 2000, C. Wass ph 1000, Nicole Kranz  2000, M. Bailey ph 1000,  TOTALS – 25 AB 6 R 9 H 6 RBI.

SCORES BY INNINGS – R H E

Curwensville   000 000 0 – 0 0 0

Riverside  200 031 0 – 6 9 0

LOB – Curwensville 0; Redbank Valley 5.  2B – Snyder, Mansfield.  HR – Wilson 2.  DP – Curwensville. 

PITCHING

Curwensville –   Shope 7 IP 9 H 6 R 6 ER 3 BB 4 K 0 HB

Riverside –  Wilson 7 IP 0 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 13 K 0 HB

WP -Wilson (20-0).  LP – Shope (17-6).