CURWENSVILLE – The late great Chicago Cub, Ernie Banks, once said on a beautiful day, “Let’s play two.”
The Curwensville Area High School softball team did just that on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon on the Lady Tide diamond, playing the Brockway Lady Rovers in game one, and then the Elk County Catholic (ECC) Lady Crusaders in game two.
And, boy, did they play!
They played so well, that they played themselves right into the upcoming District 9 playoffs.
Needing to win one of the two games, the Lady Tide decided to take both ends of the double dip, leaving no doubt about qualifying for the postseason.
And, get this. The Lady Tide have played in three doubleheaders this season, and have won all three.
First a sweep of Sheffield, then a wipe out of North Star and then on Tuesday, another sweep, against two different opponents. So six of the Lady Tide’s nine wins have come on three days in doubleheader action.
In the first contest it was all Lady Tide, downing Brockway 7-1. And in a game two thriller, Curwensville bested ECC in extra innings, by a score of 11-10.
With the sweep, the Lady Tide are just one game under .500, (9-10), on the regular season with one game remaining.
Curwensville wasted no time against the Lady Rovers, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first to go out in front 2-0.
Tide third baseman Hannah Dixon started things off, reaching on an error and then stealing second.
Kayley Harnett then drew a base on balls to give Curwensville runners on first and second with no outs.
One out later Camryn Richards delivered an RBI with a sacrifice fly that scored Dixon with Harnett coming home later on a wild pitch.
In the bottom of the third Harnett picked up another free pass, moving to second on a passed ball and scoring on a Chloe Tubbs single to give Curwensville a 3-0 margin after three innings.
Curwensville picked up another insurance run in the bottom of the fourth when Keisha Maines reached on a fielder’s choice and later came around to cross home plate on a Harnett RBI single.
The Lady Rovers scored its lone run in the top half of the fifth inning, but the Lady Tide made sure Brockway didn’t get any ideas of a comeback as it scored three tallies in the last half of the sixth to ensure the victory and punch the ticket to the playoffs.
Curwensville pitcher Clerissia Cole went the distance to up her season record to 6-5.
Harnett and Bailey Bloom each had two hits in the first game with Harnett scoring three times.
One of the hits for Bloom was a double.
Brockway was paced by shortstop Kaitlyn Morelli with two hits that included a double.
The Lady Rovers defeated the Lady Tide in late April, in Brockway, 6-5.
GAME 1
BROCKWAY – 1
Kaitlyn Morelli ss 4020, Leah Lindemuth lf 3000, Kayla Dowdall p 3010, Anndi Bartlett 3b 3000, Kalie Raybuck 2b 3010, Morgan Uhl c 3110, K. Overbeck rf 1000, Savannah Terwilliger rf 1000, A. Azzato cf 3011, Gabby Sabatose 1b 3010, TOTALS – 27 1 7 1
CURWENSVILLE – 7
Hannah Dixon 3b 4211, Kayley Harnett ss 2322, Bailey Bloom c 4021, Camryn Richards rf 3000, Olivia McGarry cr 0000, Chloe Tubbs dp 3011, Ariel Zattoni lf 2000, Lauren Tozer 1b 3110, Kelsi Bumbarger cr 0000, Keisha Maines 2b 3100, Anne Hoover cf 1000, Mackenzie Anderson ph 0000, Clerissia Cole flex/p 0000, TOTALS – 25 7 7 5
SCORE BY INNINGS R H E
BROCKWAY 000 010 0 1 7 4
CURWENSVILLE 201 103 x 7 7 1
ERRORS – Morelli 2, Bartlett, Lindemuth, Hoover. LOB – BROCKWAY – 6 CURWENSVILLE – 8. 2B – Morelli, Uhl, Sabatose, Bloom. SB – Morelli, Dixon. SAC – Hoover. SF – Richards. DP – BROCKWAY
PITCHING
BROCKWAY
K. Dowdall 6 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 2 K
CURWENSVILLE
Cole 7 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
WP – Cole (6-5) LP – K. Dowdall
UMPIRES: Denny Koppenhaver, Colleen Shannon
GAME 2
The second game was pay back and also icing on the cake with the Lady Tide edging Elk County Catholic in eight innings, 11-10.
The Lady Crusaders shutout Curwensville back on April 3, in St. Mary’s, 4-0.
ECC jumped on the Tide for three first inning runs with Curwensville gaining one back in the bottom of the first stanza.
With the Lady Crusaders still in the lead 3-1 going into the bottom of the third the Lady Tide surged ahead with four runs to take a 5-3 edge after three.
After one out Curwensville got five straight singles, from Harnett, Bloom, Richards, Tubbs and Ariel Zattoni, plus a walk to Maines that enabled the five runs to score for the Lady Tide.
Of course, ECC was far from being done, as it scored two each in the fourth and fifth innings and added another in the sixth to bolt back into the lead 8-5.
The Lady Tide picked up two in the bottom of the sixth on a walk to Lauren Tozer, a Maines single, another walk, this time to Anne Hoover, an RBI single from Dixon and a sacrifice fly by Harnett.
Up now by just one run, 8-7, the Lady Crusaders scored one tally in the top half of the seventh inning as what they thought would be a good insurance run.
But hold your horses, Tonto!
Back came the newly and recently found offense of Curwensville.
Now trailing the visitors from St. Mary’s by two, 9-7, the Lady Tide went to work. Again.
Richards picked up a single to start off the seventh with Tubbs then getting on after being hit by a pitch.
Zattoni hit into a fielder’s choice that wiped Richards off the bases giving the Tide one out.
Then Tozer hit into a four to three fielder’s choice that allowed Tubbs to score from third base leaving Curwensville one run down at 9-8.
Maines came up for Curwensville and calmly stroked a single to left field that scored Zattoni with the tying run. And after seven innings it was all knotted at 9-9.
The Lady Crusaders certainly had no plans to make it easy for the Lady Tide, as it scored the go ahead run in the top of the eighth and were now just three outs away from a 10-9 victory.
And, once again, hold that horse, Tonto!
Dixon started it all for Curwensville in the bottom of the eight inning with a lead off single to left field and then promptly stole second base.
Harnett then crushed a double to left center that easily scored Dixon with the tying run.
An error by the Lady Crusader shortstop that put Bloom on base and then an intentional walk to Richards to load the bases had the Lady Tide in business. Big business.
Then with one out, and one run away from a truly special win, up stepped left fielder Ariel Zattoni who promptly singled over a drawn in infield to give the Tide a walk off victory as Harnett raced home with the winning score.
In the end, Curwensville 11, ECC 10.
Making the playoffs for the 14th straight season is very special to Lady Tide head coach Allen Leigey, who commented after the game, “It was just a great day. I am really happy for this team and to make the playoffs. This ranks up there with winning a district title when you can beat Brockway and Elk County on the same day.”
Then Leigey added, “My biggest thing was our girls just stepped up constantly all day, especially against Elk County with the way we came back to win. And I knew in the seventh inning (against ECC) we were going to win this game. I just had that feeling in my gut and the girls delivered.”
Curwensville will close out the regular season before the District 9 AA playoffs start next week, on the road, on Wednesday, taking a trip to DuBois to play DuBois Central Catholic (DCC) with the start set for 4:15 pm.
DCC took down the Lady Tide the first time they met, 12-1, back on April 21 at Curwensville.
ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC – 10
Jenna Weisner 2b/ss 4221, Sady Vanalstine lf 5010, Emily Evers 3b 4210, Josie Smith ss/p 5121, Michelle Gerber p/2b 4112, Brandi Clyde 1b 5232, Rosina Nero c 4011, Hannah Barnett cr 0000, Jordyn Fox dp 4130, Emily Wolf cf 4111, Brianna Weisner flex/rf 0000, TOTALS – 39 10 15 8
CURWENSVILLE – 11
Hannah Dixon 3b 5231, Kayley Harnett ss 4222, Bailey Bloom c 5121, Camryn Richards rf 3031, Alexzandria Zattoni pr 0100, Chloe Tubbs dp 4011, Olivia McGarry pr 0100, Kelsi Bumbarger pr/dp 1100, Ariel Zattoni lf 5122, Lauren Tozer 1b 3102, Keisha Maines 2b 3021, Anne Hoover cf 2100, Mikayla Warren ph 1000, Rachel LeGars flex/p 0000, Clerissia Cole flex/p 0000, TOTALS – 36 11 15 11
SCORE BY INNINGS R H E
ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 300 221 11 10 15 1
CURWENSVILLE 104 002 22 11 15
One out in eight inning when winning run scored.
ERRORS – J. Weisner, Harnett 2. LOB – ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC – 8 CURWENSVILLE – 8. 2B – Clyde 2, Gerber, Fox, Dixon, Harnett, Bloom. 3B – J. Weisner. SB – Dixon, Bloom. SF – Harnett. DP – ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC HBP – Tubbs (by Smith).
PITCHING
ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC
Gerber 2 1/3 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
Smith 5 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 1 K, 1 HB
CURWENSVILLE
LeGars 3 2/3 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
Cole 4 1/3 IP, 10 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
WP – Cole (7-5) LP – Smith
UMPIRES: Denny Koppenhaver, Colleen Shannon
Lady Tide Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 3/27 | BROCKWAY | ppd. | 0 – 0 |
| 3/28 | BROCKWAY | ppd. | 0 – 0 |
| 3/29 | MO VALLEY | 1 – 8 | 0 – 1 |
| 3/30 | BROCKWAY | ppd. | 0 – 1 |
| 4/03 | @ Elk County Catholic | 0 – 4 | 0 – 2 |
| 4/05 | @ Johnsonburg | 0 – 4 | 0 – 3 |
| 4/07 | @ Clearfield | ppd. | 0 – 3 |
| 4/11 | SHEFFIELD | ppd. | 0 – 3 |
| 4/11 | SHEFFIELD | ppd. | 0 – 3 |
| 4/12 | SHEFFIELD | 9 – 2 | 1 – 3 |
| 4/12 | SHEFFIELD | 17 – 0 | 2 – 3 |
| 4/18 | @ Kane | 5 – 9 | 2 – 4 |
| 4/21 | DUBOIS CENTRAL CATH | 1 – 12 | 2 – 5 |
| 4/22 | @ North Star | 15 – 0 | 3 – 5 |
| 4/22 | @ North Star | 8 – 2 | 4 – 5 |
| 4/25 | @ Brockway | 5 – 6 | 4 – 6 |
| 4/27 | HARMONY | 2 – 1 | 5 – 6 |
| 4/28 | WEST BRANCH | 2 – 13 | 5 – 7 |
| 4/29 | @ Clearfield | ppd. | 5 – 7 |
| 5/01 | @ Brookville | ppd. | 5 – 7 |
| 5/02 | ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC | ppd. | 5 – 7 |
| 5/03 | @ Brookville | 0 – 8 | 5 – 8 |
| 5/08 | @ Glendale | 0 – 15 | 5 – 9 |
| 5/10 | @ Clearfield | 4 – 5 | 5 – 10 |
| 5/11 | KANE | 15 – 4 | 6 – 10 |
| 5/15 | JOHNSONBURG | 13 – 7 | 7 – 10 |
| 5/16 | BROCKWAY | 7 – 1 | 8 – 10 |
| 5/16 | ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC | 11 – 10, 8 inn. | 9 – 10 |
| 5/17 | @ DuBois Central Catholic |
