HYDE — Aspen Bishop, Kate Lansberry and Abby Fedder slugged home runs as the Clearfield Area High School softball team overpowered Huntingdon 10-3 at the Bison Sports Complex Monday.
Bishop offset the Lady Bearcats’ quick start with a two-run homer in the first inning, Lansberry dazzled in a pinch-hitting role with a grand slammer in the fifth and Fedder added a solo shot in the sixth.
Their circuit blows raised the Lady Bison’s number to 10, two more than the combined total of the last three Clearfield teams.
The Lady Bison also got good pitching and did not have a misplay in their most complete performance of the season that leveled their record at 3-3 in the Mountain League and 4-4 overall.
“I thought we did a great job in all aspects of the game,” coach Derek Danver said. “We walked some batters, but we worked our way out when they had runners on base.”
The Lady Bearcats broke on top with three of their four hits off Erica Hanes, Destiny Beamesderfer driving in Catherine Miller and Hannah Heintzelman with a two-out double to deep center field.
Bishop answered by crushing her third homer of the season to center after Brooke Cline had reached on an error.
“That was huge,” Danver said. “Two outs, two strikes, and she evened the score.
“That could have been a completely different game if we come in and we don’t score any runs. They may have went back out there and jumped on us and scored a couple more.
“We played a good game from there on out.”
Hanes, making her first start, and Miller settled down and surrendered just one run apiece over the next three frames.
“Coach (Sloan) Sample and I talked during school, and we felt Erica earned the start,” Danver said. “She’s been pitching really well, and she did a good job with it.”
Clearfield went ahead 3-2 on a sacrifice fly by Hanes in the second inning, but Huntingdon (2-8, 0-7 ML) tied it up again on Leah Reed’s sacrifice fly in the fourth.
When Hanes issued her seventh walk to Beamesderfer leading off the top of the fifth, Danver switched off to Fedder in the circle, and she slammed the door on the Lady Bearcats.
She whiffed the first six batters she faced and rang up two more around a pair of walks in the seventh inning to earn her second win in six decisions.
The eight strikeouts are a career high for the senior right-hander, who had started the first seven games and was relieved by Hanes in five of them.
“She pitched great off the bench,” Danver said. “I was really pleased with what we saw in reverse order from what we’ve been doing most games.”
The Lady Bison took all the pressure off Fedder with a six-run outburst in the bottom of the fifth, when Miller experienced control problems and walked Cline and, after Bishop laced a single to right, hit Makayla Ross to load the bases.
Fedder then drew a free pass to plate what was the winning run before Lansberry provided plenty of insurance by blasting her first career homer to straightaway center.
“Kate has that ability to put one out over the fence,” Danver said. “I knew it was gonna happen at some point. In practice, she puts on a show in BP.
“It happened at the right time. She just made me look good there. She did the work.”
Lindsay Hand followed by dropping a single behind first base and advanced to third base on two wild pitches to set up Hanes’ second sacrifice fly.
Fedder’s first career roundtripper, which cleared the fence in left, came off reliever Amanda Norris in the sixth.
Fedder, Bishop and Hand each had two hits for the Lady Bison.
Clearfield will travel to Bellefonte Tuesday.
HUNTINGDON — 3
Catherine Miller p 3110, Hannah Heintzelman 3b 3110, Leah Reed c 2001, Riley Confer 1b 3000, Destiny Beamesderfer ss 2012, Lauren Heintzelman 2b-rf 4010, Lauren Smith dp-2b 3000, Amanda Norris rf-p 1100, Gabby Brown cf 1000, Chrislyn Patrick lf (flex) 0000. TOTALS: 22 3 4 3.
CLEARFIELD — 10
Karly Rumsky cf 2000, Erica Hanes p-dp 2002, Brooke Cline ss 3200, Aspen Bishop lf 4222, Makayla Ross 1b 3110, Abby Fedder dp-p 3222, Casey English 3b 3000, Kate Lansberry ph 1114, Lindsay Hand rf 3220, Mackenzie Lansberry 2b 3010, Kyra Mollura c 0000. TOTALS: 27 10 9 10.
Score by Innings
Huntingdon 200 100 0 – 3 4 3
Clearfield 210 061 x – 10 9 0
E – Beamesderfer 2, Norris 1. LOB – Huntingdon 10; Clearfield 6. 2B – Beamesderfer. HR – Bishop (3), Fedder (1), K. Lansberry (1). Sac – Brown 2. SF – Reed; Hanes 2. SB – Beamesderfer, Smith; Cline, M. Lansberry.
Pitching
Huntingdon – Miller 5 IP, 8 H, 9 R, 6 ER, 5 BB, 0 K; Norris 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 1 K.
Clearfield – Hanes 4+ IP (faced 1 batter in 5th), 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 7 BB, 4 K; Fedder 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K.
HB – Miller 1 (Ross). WP – Miller 2; Hanes 2, Fedder 1.
W – Fedder (2-4). L – Miller.
Umpires – Kenny Knepp (plate) and Bud Brennen (bases).
Lady Bison Scoreboard:
Date Opponent Score Record
3/23 CENTRAL ppd. 0 – 0
3/26 @ Curwensville 14 – 2 1 – 0
3/27 CENTRAL ppd. 1 – 0
3/29 @ Huntingdon ppd. 1 – 0
4/02 CENTRAL ppd. 1 – 0
4/03 @ Bellefonte ppd. 1 – 0
4/05 @ Huntingdon ppd. 1 – 0
4/06 TYRONE 8 – 18 1 – 1
4/09 @ Bald Eagle Area ppd. 1 – 1
4/11 PUNXSUTAWNEY 7 – 13 1 – 2
4/12 PENNS VALLEY 9 – 7 2 – 2
4/16 GLENDALE ppd. 2 – 2
4/17 @ Philipsburg-Osceola ppd. 2 – 2
4/18 @ Philipsburg-Osceola 2 – 8 2 – 3
4/19 CENTRAL ppd. 2 – 3
4/20 @ Central 8 – 6 3 – 3
4/20 @ Central 5 – 11 3 – 4
4/23 HUNTINGDON 10 – 3 4 – 4
4/24 @ Bellefonte
4/26 BELLEFONTE
4/28 @ Bald Eagle Area
4/30 @ Bradford
5/01 @ Tyrone
5/02 GLENDALE
5/03 @ Huntingdon
5/04 BALD EAGLE AREA
5/07 @ Penns Valley
5/09 @ Hollidaysburg
5/10 PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA
5/14 ALTOONA