Lady Bison Comeback Bid Falls Short in D9 AAAA Championship Game

DUBOIS — The Clearfield Lady Bison entered Memorial Day’s District 9 Championship game hoping to end a three year finals losing streak, which included two losses to St. Marys and one to this year’s opponent, the Punxsutawney Lady Chucks.

Unfortunately for Clearfield, the finals losing streak now stands at four after a 13-8 loss that ended their 2026 season with a 10-11 record. The Lady Chucks (17-3) will move on to a PIAA state playoff play-in game with Somerset on Wednesday at the Windber Sports Complex.

The game started okay for Clearfield, as Lady Bison lead off hitter Lily McBride worked Punxsy starter McKenna Gula for a walk. Three outs later, and no advancement made, the top seeded Lady Chucks came to bat in the home half of the first.

That’s when things deteriorated quickly for Clearfield.

An infield bloop base hit into “no-man’s land” by Olivia Toven started things off. Back-to-back errors off balls in the air plated the Chucks’ first run. Then a two-run double by Lindee Reed made it 3-0 with no outs. Consecutive pop outs induced by Lady Bison starter Joell Henry made it look like Clearfield would get out of the inning with no further damage. 

Unfortunately seven more batters made it to the plate, and all scored for the Chucks, the exclamation point being a three run homerun by Brinley Hallman off of reliever Megan Wisor, which blew the game wide open, making it 9-0 at the time. Two more errors on the same play two batters later made it 10-0 to end the first inning of play.

Clearfield could have easily packed it in and made their graduation and summer plans, but instead scored three runs in the third and fourth innings to make it a game at 10-6, then added two more in the sixth to make it 11-8 at the time.

In the visiting half of the third inning, Wisor, McBride, and Raigan Uncles led off the inning with walks. After an out, Henry grounded out to second base to put the Lady Bison on the scoreboard. It was Henry’s team-leading 25th RBI of the season. McBride and Uncles each scored on wild pitches before Gula, who threw 147 total pitches in the game, could finally get out of the inning.

Haley Billotte then started off the top of the fourth inning by slashing a double down the left field line. After advancing to third on another Gula wild pitch, Billotte scored on a ground out by Lila Roberts to make it 10-4. Wisor walked for a second time before a hit by McBride down the right field line put two runners on. Gula wild pitched them both into scoring position and an Uncles RBI groundout made it 10-5. An Aevril Hayward double then closed the gap to 10-6, breathing life into the Lady Bison. 

The hits by McBride and Hayward gave them each a .424 batting average and 28 hits on the season, and a tie for the team lead in both. McBride’s three runs scored for the game gave her a team leading 24 in that department, while a Hayward steal gave her 20 for the year.

Two quick outs in the bottom of the fourth inning went for naught, as consecutive walks by Henry, who had returned to the circle to start the second inning, a couple of wild pitches, and a passed ball gave the Lady Chucks their 11th run.

After a scoreless fifth inning by both teams in the fifth, the Lady Bison made it interesting once gain with a 2-spot in the top of the sixth.

After an out, McBride walked for the third time in the game, and promptly stole second on the first pitch to Uncles. A perfect bunt base hit by Uncles put runners on the corners. After an Uncles steal, Hayward lofted a fly to right for a sacrifice fly and an RBI, and Uncles scored right behind McBride when the Punxsy right fielder chucked it over everyone’s head at home. Henry then scorched a liner to center to end the inning, with the Lady Bison down three, 11-8.

The Lady Chucks answered right back in the bottom of the inning, scoring two runs with two outs when Ally Manners delivered a single to left.

Clearfield went three-up and three-down in the top of the seventh to set the final.

Score by innings:

Clearfield 003 302 0  8 5 4

Punxsutawney (10)00 102 x  13 11 2

CLEARFIELD — 8

Lily McBride CF 1310, Raigan Uncles LF 3211, Aevril Hayward SS 3012, Joell Henry P/DP/P 4001, Ellie McBride C 3000, Dalayni Kushner 3B 4000, Haley Billotte 1B 4120, Lila Roberts RF 3001, Megan Wisor DP/P/DP 1200, Mia Helsel flex/2B 0000, TOTALS 26 8 5 5.

PUNXSUTAWNEY — 13

Olivia Toven CF 4232, Brinley Hallman SS 4213, Sara Gotwald C 4020, Lindee Reed 3B 3212, Ava Snyder 2B 4000, McKenna Gula P 2000, Ally Manners 1B 2112, Maylyn Smart 4111, Alexis Covatch RF 3120, TOTALS 30 13 11 10.

E – Helsel, Uncles, Kushner, Billotte; Covatch, Snyder. 2B – Hayward, Billotte; Reed. HR – Hallman. SF – Hayward. SB – Hayward, L McBride, Uncles; Hawk.

Pitching:

Clearfield: Henry (L, 3-5) 5.2 IP, 8 H, 10 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 4 K; Wisor .1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO

Punxsutawney: Gula (W), 7 IP, 5 H, 8 R, 7 ER, 7 BB, 6 SO.

Final Lady Bison Scoreboard: