DUBOIS – With a smooth 5-1 victory over Karns City at Heindl Memorial Field at City Park on Wednesday evening, the Clearfield Lady Bison softball team claimed the 2019 District 9 AAA championship.
The Lady Gremlins entered the title game as the number one seed with an overall season record of 16-1 before facing the Lady Bison.
It was Clearfield’s ninth District 9 title in school history, and the first since 2007, also in AAA.
Second year Lady Bison head coach Derek Danver said afterwards, “That’s huge for us winning our first district championship since 2007. This just shows that all of the hard work the girls put in this season really paid off.”
Freshman pitcher Emma Hipps gave up a first inning unearned run to the Lady Gremlins and then settled in over the final six innings, scattering just three hits while striking out nine and walking none. Hipps, who is now 11-9 on the season, has struck out 209 hitters while issuing just 34 bases on balls in 129 innings of work from the circle.
The Lady Bison’s first run, in the top of the first, came after Morgan Cheek was hit by a pitch then moved to second on a walk to Hipps.
Olivia Bender then grounded into a fielder’s choice that wiped out Hipps at second, while a hustling Cheek raced home from second base with the game’s first tally
Commenting about his team’s first run, Danver said, “We came out in the first inning and put a run on the board that got us going. I also thought we hit the ball hard in the first, even though we picked up only one. Then in the bottom half of the first we gave up an unearned run, but after that we shut the door on Karns City.”
Mackenzie Dunn scored the Lady Gremlins’ lone run, in the first, on her single and teammate’s Garrah Milochik base hit along with a Clearfield error. And that was it, as only one runner got as far as third base over the final six innings for Karns City, which came in the bottom of the fifth frame.
Clearfield took over the game with two scores in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth.
In the top of the fourth Lauren Ressler singled to left field to start the inning which was followed by a walk to Kyra Mollura with still no one out.
A perfectly placed sacrifice bunt by Casey English had the Lady Bison in business with runners at second and third and just one out.
Next, right fielder Alexis Benton delivered a single to left center field that drove home both Ressler and Mollura to give Clearfield a 3-1 lead. One that they would never relinquish.
Two insurance runs came in the top of the fifth for the Lady Bison with a one out walk to Cheek, followed by a Lady Gremlin error that put Hipps on at first as Cheek moved to second.
Next up for Clearfield was Bender who crushed one off of the left shin of Karns City starting pitcher Logan Byers which sent the ball rolling into short left field but was still good enough to send home Cheek and Hipps with the game’s final runs.
Byers stayed in to face two more Clearfield hitters in the fifth but then gave way to relief pitcher Mackenzie Shay with two outs.
Bender and Ressler each had two hits for Clearfield with one of Ressler’s being a double.
Dunn had two hits for Karns City, with teammate Shay hitting a double.
In somewhat of a bizarre stat for Clearfield, Kyra Mollura went to the plate four times in the contest and walked all four times.
Danver closed his comments saying, “The kids were locked in today. Our offense came through in the clutch as we picked some big hits when we needed to.”
The Lady Bison, 12-9, now await the loser of the Chestnut Ridge – Bald Eagle Area District 6 championship game that is scheduled for Friday. Clearfield and the loser of that title game will play on Monday in the opening round of the PIAA State Tournament with the site and time yet to be determined.
CLEARFIELD -5
Karly Rumsky cf 4000, Morgan Cheek lf 2200, Emma Hipps p 3110, Olivia Bender c 4022, Alyssa Twigg pr 0000, Lauren Ressler 1b 3120, Kyra Mollura ss 0100, Casey English 3b 4000, Alexis Benton rf 3012, Kylee Hertlein 2b 3000, TOTALS – 26 5 6 4
KARNS CITY – 1
Emily Wolfe cf 2000, Zoe King ph 1000, Alyssa Stitt ss 3000, Mackenzie Dunn 3b 3120, Garrah Milochik dp 3010, Katy Allen 2b 3000, Taylor Ekis 1b 3010, Brittney Friters rf 3010, Ashley Fox lf 2000, Kate Neff ph 1000, Logan Byers p 1000, Mackenzie Shay p 2010, Emily Huff flex/c 0000, TOTALS – 27 1 5 0
SCORE BY INNINGS R H E
CLEARFIELD 100 220 0 5 6 3
KARNS CITY 100 000 0 1 5 1
ERRORS – Ressler, Bender, Hertlein, Fox LOB – CLEARFIELD – 9 KARNS CITY – 5
2B – Ressler, Shay SB – Hipps, Hertlein, Dunn SAC – English
HBP – Cheek (by Byers), Benton (by Shay)
PITCHING
CLEARFIELD
Hipps 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K
KARNS CITY
Byers 4 2/3 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 5 BB, 1 K, 1 HB
Shay 2 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 1 HB
WP – Hipps (11-9) LP – Byers
UMPIRES: Cory Thomas – Home plate, Ron Bacha – 1B, Jeff Anderson – 2B, Tom Moore – 3B
Lady Bison Scoreboard:
Date Opponent Score Record
3/26 BALD EAGLE AREA 2 – 17 0 – 1
3/29 HUNTINGDON ppd. 0 – 1
4/01 @ Philipsburg-Osceola ppd. 0 – 1
4/02 CURWENSVILLE 9 – 1 1 – 1
4/04 TYRONE 7 – 5 2 – 1
4/06 @ Philipsburg-Osceola 1 – 3 2 – 2
4/09 @ Penns Valley 3 – 4 2 – 3
4/10 HUNTINGDON 11 – 1 3 – 3
4/11 BRADFORD 15 – 3 4 – 3
4/12 CENTRAL ppd. 4 – 3
4/15 @ Bellefonte ppd. 4 – 3
4/16 CENTRAL 4 – 1 5 – 3
4/18 @ Bald Eagle Area 0 – 9 5 – 4
4/22 @ Glendale 2 – 6, 9 inn. 5 – 5
4/23 @ Huntingdon 9 – 4 6 – 5
4/26 PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA ppd. 6 – 5
4/29 @ Tyrone 0 – 1 6 – 6
4/30 PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA 1 – 4 6 – 7
5/02 PENNS VALLEY 4 – 1 7 – 7
5/06 @ Bellefonte 7 – 1 8 – 7
5/07 @ Central 2 – 6 8 – 8
5/08 HOLLIDAYSBURG 10 – 1 9 – 8
5/10 BELLEFONTE cancelled 9 – 8
5/13 @ Punxsutawney ppd. 9 – 8
5/14 @ Punxsutawney ppd. 9 – 8
5/15 @ Altoona 9 – 4 10 – 8
5/17 @ Punxsutawney 0 – 1, 8 inn. 10 – 9
5/22 District 9 AAA Playoffs
5/22 BROOKVILLE 12 – 0 11 – 9
5/29 Karns City @ DuBois 5 – 1 12 – 9
6/03 PIAA Tourney
6/03 vs. TBD