CURWENSVILLE – It took nine innings Monday afternoon, but in the end the Curwensville girls softball team edged visiting Johnsonburg 3-2 thanks to a couple of Lady Tide heroes.
Senior Anne Hoover, who struggled at the plate for Curwensville early on, singled home the winning run with a two out base hit to right field in the bottom of the ninth that sent home Keisha Maines.
Another Lady Tide hero was junior pitcher Rachel LeGars who actually started the game, went five innings, was taken out for one inning, and then came back in for the final three frames to pick up a very unusual victory.
Curwensville jumped out to a 2-0 edge after three innings when Sabrina Spencer got on base on a one out error and then crossed home plate when the next Tide batter, Abby Pentz, doubled to centerfield.
Pentz later would score with two outs on a RBI single to right field by Mackenzie Anderson.
The Ramettes, who came into the game sporting a 3-1 record on the season, picked up its first run of the afternoon in the top of the fifth when Maria Jones reached base on a Tide error, then scored on a double by teammate Lindsey Kojancic.
Johnsonburg shortstop Allysa Kasmierski knotted the game at two apiece with a lead off home run to left center field in the top of the sixth.
Meanwhile, Jones was pitching pretty well herself for the Ramettes as from the fourth inning into the eight stanza she retired 12 straight Lady Tide hitters before Bailey Bloom broke the streak with a double to center.
LeGars in the first five plus innings did fairly well, but when she came back to the circle after being pulled after the Kasmierski homer she really settled in.
Over the final three innings, seven through nine, LeGars gave up just two hits, no runs, no walks and four strikeouts to pick up the win, basically in relief of teammate Clerissia Cole.
With two different turns in the circle, LeGars had double digit strikeouts on the day with 10.
The Lady Tide didn’t have anyone with a multi hit game but did have the two doubles as mentioned earlier, one each by Bloom and Pentz.
For Johnsonburg, Jones had three hits that included two doubles, Kojancic had two hits with a double and chipping in with singles was Michaela Herzing.
Lady Tide head coach Allen Leigey was especially pleased with the victory, saying, “After losing a tough game on Saturday against Elk County Catholic (9-7), I was really impressed how the girls bounced back to win this one. That’s big for us at this point of the season.”
Leigey continued, commenting, “We used just about everyone off of our bench to pull out the win, and I was very happy that we found a way to win against a good Johnsonburg team.”
The Lady Tide (3-3) are home once again on Tuesday at 4:15 pm when they host the Lady Rovers of Brockway, a team they shutout earlier in April, 14-0 in Brockway.
JOHNSONBURG – 2
Maria Jones p 4130, Lindsey Kojancic 3b 4021, Allysa Kasmierski ss 4111, Jenna Pavlock cf 3000, Michaela Herzing 1b 2020, Brooke Thomas 2b 4000, MacKenzie Freeman c 4000, Kiara Schauer lf 3000, Olivia Papa rf 4010, TOTALS 32 2 9 2
CURWENSVILLE – 3
Sabrina Spencer 3b 4110, Abby Pentz ss 4111, Bailey Bloom c 4010, Mackenzie Anderson dp 4011, Erica Buck cr 0000, Ariel Zattoni lf 4010, Lauren Tozer 1b 3000, Kelsi Bumbarger cr 0000, Keisha Maines 2b 4110, Ally Hess rf 2000, Alex Zattoni ph 1000, Anne Hoover cf 3011, Olivia McGarry ph 1000, Rachel LeGars Flex/p 0000, Clerissia Cole Flex/p 0000, TOTALS 34 3 7 3
SCORE BY INNINGS R H E
JOHNSONBURG 000 011 000 2 9 2
CURWENSVILLE 002 000 001 3 7 3
Two outs in 9th inning when winning run scored.
ERRORS – Herzing 2, Spencer, Bloom, Maines. LOB – JOHNSONBURG – 6 CURWENSVILLE – 7. 2B – Jones 2, Kojancic, Pentz, Bloom. HR – Kwasniewski (Solo 6th). SB – Jones 2, Kojancic, Herzing, Pentz 2. SAC – Tozer.
PITCHING
JOHNSONBURG
Jones 8 2/3 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
CURWENSVILLE
LeGars 5 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Cole 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
LeGars 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
(Re-entered game as pitcher in top half of the 7th inning)
WP – LeGars. LP – Jones.
UMPIRES: Jay Siegel, Ray Sudik
Lady Tide Scoreboard:
Date Opponent Score Record
3/26 CLEARFIELD 2 – 14 0 – 1
3/27 @ Brockway ppd. 0 – 1
4/04 ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC ppd. 0 – 1
4/06 @ West Branch 1 – 13 0 – 2
4/07 @ Brockway ppd. 0 – 2
4/09 JOHNSONBURG ppd. 0 – 2
4/13 @ Purchase Line 6 – 2 1 – 2
4/14 @ Brockway 14 – 0 2 – 2
4/17 KANE ppd. 2 – 2
4/19 @ DuBois Central Catholic ppd. 2 – 2
4/21 ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 7 – 9 2 – 3
4/23 JOHNSONBURG 3 – 2, 9 inn. 3 – 3
4/24 BROCKWAY
4/26 @ Mo Valley
4/27 PURCHASE LINE
4/28 @ North Star
4/30 GLENDALE
5/01 @ Elk County Catholic
5/02 @ DuBois Central Catholic
5/07 @ Harmony
5/08 @ Sheffield
5/08 @ Sheffield
5/09 KANE
5/10 @ Kane
5/15 @ Johnsonburg
5/16 DUBOIS CENTRAL CATH.