BROCKWAY — The Clearfield Lady Bison were the underdogs on Tuesday afternoon in the District 9 AAAA softball championship game. The 10-11 seconded seed faced off with the top-seeded, and defending champion, 15-2 Lady Dutch of St. Marys, who had defeated the Lady Bison 12-0 earlier in the season.
Like a lot of games recently, the Lady Bison offense came out firing. Ruby Singleton lined a single to left, Madi McBride singled up the middle, and Aevril Hayward singled off of the glove of Lady Dutch pitcher Avery Eckels. Eckels then induced an infield fly, a swinging strike out and a soft liner to shortstop Molly Hanslovan.
As it turned out, those were the only Lady Bison to reach base, as after three on and nobody out in the top of the first inning, Eckels retired the next 15 in a row raising St. Marys’ record to 16-2, which is what they’ll bring into their District 6/9 sub-regional game against Bellefonte on Thursday at Bald Eagle Area High School at 4:30.
Bison starter Megan Wisor was not to be outdone in the early stages of the game. Wisor matched Eckels with goose eggs through the first three innings.
St. Marys plated the a single run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Kalen Eozzo picked up her second of three hits for the game to start the inning. Gianna Surra sacrificed her to second and with two outs on the board, Eckels delivered an RBI double to give the designated home team the only run they would eventually need.
Unfortunately for the Lady Bison, the top seed poured it on in the bottom of the fifth inning by sending 13 batters to the plate and the Lady Bison were only able to record a single out as nine runners scored, invoking the 10-run mercy rule.
The Lady Flying Dutch, who had 10 hits for the game, had seven hits, received two walks, and had one batter reach on an error in the fateful fifth; an inning that seemed to plague the Lady Bison all season.
Clearfield ended their 2024 season with a 10-12 record, a one win improvement over the 2023 squad.
Donning the white, red, and black for the final time were Singleton, Sam Campolong, Alexus Green, Anna Twigg, Paige Houser, and Hailee Irwin.
Clearfield 000 00 0 3 2
St. Marys 000 19 10 10 0
CLEARFIELD — 0
CF Ruby Singleton 2010, LF Madi McBride 2010, SS Aevril Hayward 2010, RF Eve Siegel 2000, 3B Sam Campolong 2000, DP Alexus Green 2000, C Anna Twigg 2000, 2B Paige Houser 2000, 1B Haley Billotte 2000, P/flex Megan Wisor 0000, P/flex Joell Henry 0000, TOTALS 18 0 3 0.
E – Billotte, Campolong
ST. MARYS — 10
CF Addison Beimel 3111, SS Molly Hanslovan 4122, 1B Kaylen Eozzo 3230, C Gianna Surra 2112, 3B Kelsie Fledderman 3100, P Avery Eckels 2111, 2B Jianna Gerg 3100, RF Giulana Muccio 2211, LF Sophia Surra 2010, TOTALS 24 10 10 9.
2B – Eckels, Muccio, G Surra, Hanslovan, S Surra. 3B – Eozzo. SB – Beimel – 2. Sac – S Surra – 2, Beimel.
Pitching
Wisor (L): 4.1 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO. Henry 0.0 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 0 SO.
Eckels (W): 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO.
FINAL LADY BISON SCOREBOARD:
Date Opponent Score Record
3/19 @ Central ppd. 0 – 0
3/21 BELLEFONTE ppd. 0 – 0
3/22 @ Central 7 – 13 0 – 1
3/25 BELLEFONTE 3 – 17 0 – 2
3/28 TYRONE 13 – 16 0 – 3
4/02 @ Hollidaysburg ppd. 0 – 3
4/05 SOMERSET ppd. 0 – 3
4/09 HUNTINGDON 5 – 8 0 – 4
4/11 GREATER JOHNSTOWN ppd. 0 – 4
4/12 @ Forest Hills ppd. 0 – 4
4/16 @ Philipsburg-Osceola 6 – 2 1 – 4
4/18 ST. MARYS 0 – 12 1 – 5
4/19 DUBOIS ppd. 1 – 5
4/22 BELLWOOD-ANTIS 13 – 3 2 – 5
4/23 @ Penns Valley 10 – 15 2 – 6
4/24 @ Forest Hills 0 – 3 2 – 7
4/26 @ Bishop Carroll 12 – 1 3 – 7
4/30 BALD EAGLE AREA 0 – 10 3 – 8
5/01 @ Huntingdon 10 – 9, 10 inn. 4 – 8
5/03 GREATER JOHNSTOWN 14 – 0 5 – 8
5/06 SOMERSET ppd. 5 – 8
5/07 CENTRAL 7 – 6 6 – 8
5/08 SOMERSET 12 – 2 7 – 8
5/09 @ Bellefonte 5 – 11 7 – 9
5/13 @ Hollidaysburg 3 – 6 7 – 10
5/14 BRADFORD 7 – 6 8 – 10
5/15 @ Punxsutawney 1 – 4 8 – 11
5/16 DUBOIS 8 – 5 9 – 11
5/20 D9 AAAA Semifinal @ DuBois vs. Bradford 4 – 0 10 – 11
5/27 D9 AAAA Finals @ DuBois vs. St. Marys 0 – 10 10 – 12