NEW BETHLEHEM – One bad inning can pretty much decide a game in softball, as also in baseball, and that’s exactly what happened to the Curwensville Lady Tide softball team Wednesday afternoon in the District 9 “AA” semifinal game in New Bethlehem.
Although the Lady Tide were completely shut down by the home team and number one seed Redbank Valley
3-0, the third inning basically decided the outcome as the Lady Bulldogs scored those three runs that held up for the win.
Allen Leigey, Lady Tide head coach, said after the game, “Again, I thought we played well for most of the game. Joslynne (Freyer) pitched a pretty good game. And Redbank didn’t really hit the ball that hard against her today. Our bats just didn’t produce and that was the difference.”
Then Leigey continued, saying, “But overall we played a fairly good game. I thought for a very young team that we have, that we handled the pressure well and it was the story of not getting enough hits.”
Redbank Valley sophomore pitcher Montana Hetrick held the Curwensville squad to just four hits while picking up six strikeouts in the shutout to earn the win and send her team in to the District finals.
Yes, Tide pitcher Joslynne Freyer gave up four singles in the bottom of the third, but two costly fielding errors enabled the Lady Bulldogs to score those three runs in an inning where, perhaps, they should have tallied just one.
The big hit for the Lady Bulldogs in the third frame was a single up the middle by second baseman Brooke Holben that drove in two runners, Hetrick and Brynn Rearick. T. L. Nelson earlier in the inning, scored the game’s first run on a RBI single from Rearick.
Then again Curwensville couldn’t put up much offense as they had only one runner get past second base and onto third base in Kelsey Bumbarger, a courtesy runner for catcher Bailey Bloom in the top half of the fourth inning.
Bumbarger was, of course, stranded at third in the closest the Lady Tide would come to crossing home plate as Curwensville never threatened again.
Redbank Valley had six hits on the afternoon, two by T. L. Nelson, and of those six hits, all singles, two were in the infield.
Playing their final game for Curwensville were seniors Bumbarger, Ariel Zattoni, Brittany Wagner and Shawna Wriglesworth.
About his 2019 squad Leigey had this to say, “I was very pleased with this team. It was fun to come to practice each and every day. There was no drama with these girls, and the senior leadership was really good. They had good demeanor and I thought we were a well rounded team.”
Warning for next years opponents – the Lady Tide return eight of the nine starters.
The Lady Tide finish the 2019 season with a 14-8 record while Redbank Valley moves onto the District finals next Thursday in DuBois against Cranberry who defeated Johnsonburg 13- 7 in the other “AA” semifinal game on Wednesday.
CURWENSVILLE – 0
Abby Pentz ss 3010, Logan Sheeder 2b 3000, Bailey Bloom c 1010, Kelsey Bumbarger cr 0000, Joslynne Freyer p 3010, Lauren Tozer 3000, Mackenzie Wall 2000, Ally Hess cf 3010, Alex Zattoni dp 2000, Ariel Zattoni flex/lf/ph 1000
TOTALS – 24 0 4 0
REDBANK VALLEY – 3
Montana Hetrick p 4100, Brynn Rearick ss 4111, Brooke Holben 2b 3012, Shylie Schreckengost 3b 2000, Becca Kunselman c 3010, Teja Hageter rf 2010, Trista Bowser dp 2000, Elaina Miller 1b 3000, T. L. Nelson cf 2120, Gabby Dinger flex/lf 0000, TOTALS – 25 3 6 3
SCORE BY INNINGS R H E
CURWENSVILLE 000 000 0 0 4 2
REDBANK VALLEY 003 000 x 3 6 0
ERRORS – Wall, Hess LOB – CURWENSVILLE – 6 REDBANK VALLEY – 6 DP – CURWENSVILLE
PITCHING
CURWENSVILLE
Freyer 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 6 K, 4 BB
REDBANK VALLEY
Hetrick 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 6 K, 3 BB
WP – Hetrick LP – Freyer (14-8)
UMPIRES: Rob Murphy, Bill Overly, Colleen Shannon, Ron Walter
Final Lady Tide Scoreboard:
Date Opponent Score Record
3/22 ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC ppd. 0 – 0
3/26 @ DuBois Central Catholic 1 – 16 0 – 1
3/28 @ Brockway 12 – 1 1 – 1
4/02 @ Clearfield 1 – 9 1 – 2
4/05 WEST BRANCH ppd. 1 – 2
4/08 @ Elk County Catholic 12 – 5 2 – 2
4/10 KANE 15 – 0 3 – 2
4/12 @ Glendale ppd. 3 – 2
4/16 SHEFFIELD 18 – 0 4 – 2
4/16 SHEFFIELD 30 – 0 5 – 2
4/18 JOHNSONBURG 10 – 9 6 – 2
4/23 DUBOIS CENTRAL CATH. ppd. 6 – 2
4/25 BROCKWAY 15 – 0 7 – 2
4/27 NORTH STAR 14 – 2 8 – 2
4/27 NORTH STAR 9 – 5 9 – 2
4/29 PURCHASE LINE 15 – 0 10 – 2
4/30 (forfeit awarded from 3/26) xxx 11 – 1
4/30 DUBOIS CENTRAL CATH. 2 – 12 11 – 2
5/01 @ Glendale 3 – 13 11 – 3
5/03 MO VALLEY 4 – 10 11 – 4
5/06 ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 8 – 10 11 – 5
5/07 @ Kane 11 – 8 12 – 5
5/09 WEST BRANCH 0 – 10 12 – 6
5/13 HARMONY ppd. 12 – 6
5/14 HARMONY 11 – 1 13 – 6
5/15 @ Johnsonburg 1 – 11 13 – 7
5/20 District 9 AA Playoffs
5/20 KANE 8 – 7, 8 inn. 14 – 7
5/22 @ Redbank Valley 0 – 3 14 – 8