CURWENSVILLE – Softball is a team sport unlike any other in that one individual, a shut-down pitcher, can consistently dominate a game.
Two of the Pennsylvania\’s best will be in the spotlight Friday when Curwensville senior Holly Lansberry and Old Forge junior Jess Armillay walk into the Robb Field circle on the Shippensburg University campus to duel for the PIAA Class A championship.
Lansberry owns the more glittery season and career stats, including a 24-1 record and 0.19 earned run average this year, but Armillay certainly is the hottest hurler in the state playoffs, for any class, with back-to-back perfect games against Bristol last Thursday and Claysburg-Kimmel Monday in the Eastern Final.
Both teams go into the 2 p.m. game having played their share of big games. Both have handled the pressure very well.
Coach Allen Leigey\’s District 9 champion Lady Tide (25-1) is seeking its second state title in three years and is 9-2 in PIAA playoffs the last four years with wins over Leechburg 3-0, Union City 9-3 and Vincentian Academy 4-0 this month.
The Lady Blue Devils will be shooting for the fourth title by a District 2 (Scranton-Wilkes Barre area) team this decade after losing in the semifinals a year ago. Bishop O\’Hara claimed the gold medals in 2001, while Blue Ridge earned crowns in 2004 and 2006.
Old Forge, 117-24 the last five years and 193-47 in 10 seasons under coach Pat Revello, has won 18 games in a row since losing 11-1 to Dunmore on April 9. The Lady Blue Devils\’ other defeat was in their opener against Valley View. They avenged that 8-7 setback with a 10-2 win in late April and then defeated Valley View 4-0 for the Lackawanna League Division II championship.
Armillay, who has pitched in every game, was the key to Old Forge (18-2) overcoming its 1-2 start.
She allowed 22 earned runs in her first 20 innings. She has given up 21 earned runs in her last 116 innings.
Not overpowering, the Lady Blue Devil instead relies on great location with her mix of riseballs, drops and changeups.
She began her playoff run by blanking Valley View for her second no-hitter of the season.
In the D-2 tourney, Armillay hurled a one-hitter with nine strikeouts in a 9-1 win over Lackawanna Trail and followed up by holding Blue Ridge to five hits over eight innings for a 3-2 victory.
Northeast Bradford (18-4) got seven hits off of her in the first round of the PIAA Playoffs, but Old Forge advanced with a 4-3 win as Armillay struck out 10.
Sensational is the only way to describe her last two performances.
Armillay fanned 24 batters in the perfect games, nine against 21-3 Bristol and 15 against 22-4 Claysburg-Kimmel.
Old Forge needed her brilliant pitching to move on, for the Lady Blue Devils had only two hits in the 1-0 win over Bristol and just one hit off Claysburg-Kimmel freshman standout Ronette Clarr in a 2-0 squeaker.
Armillay\’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly accounted for the lone run of the Bristol game. The two runs in the Eastern Final scored on a wild pitch and a passed ball.
Junior shortstop and leadoff batter Chrissy Belko tops the Lady Blue Devils with a .384 average. She has 21 extra base hits, 12 of them home runs, and has driven in a team-high 26 runs. She has scored 26 times.
Right behind is sophomore catcher Andi Alsalahat at .376 with 17 RBIs.
Four Lady Blue Devils are just under .300, Armillay at .296 with 10 doubles and 14 RBIs, sophomore third baseman Lindsay Regan at .295, senior first baseman Sara Fife at .295 with five homers and 13 RBIs and senior right fielder Nicole Giacometti at .290.
Rounding out the Old Forge lineup will be sophomore designated player Dana Bilski at .270, senior center fielder Allyson Marianelli at .230 with 12 RBIs and junior second baseman Aleca Semenza at .219 and 15 RBIs. Semenza has hit at a .375 pace since May 7.
Sophomore left fielder Nicole Marianelli is the flex player.
Lansberry takes impressive credentials into the final game of her brilliant 74-10 career highlighted by 860 strikeouts.
In 144-2/3 innings this season, the hard-throwing right-hander with six different pitches has surrendered just 36 hits and four earned runs while whiffing 288 batters and walking only 10. She has hit five and given up nine total runs.
Twenty of her victories have been shutouts. Eight have been no-hitters. Nine have been one-hitters.
In six district and state playoffs games, Lansberry has worked 42 innings with five shutouts, 67 strikeouts and no walks. Only one of Union City\’s three runs was earned.
Armillay, who sports a 45-9 career record with 364 strikeouts and a 2.37 ERA, will have to contend with a .383 hitting team led by a quintet of .400 hitters in catcher Ashley Demchak (.512), third baseman Jenessa Stiles (.459), shortstop Shannon McDonald (.446), Lansberry (.424) and first baseman Stacey Johnson (.417).
Right fielder Erin Bressler (.329), left fielder Sara Clark (.290), center fielder Tess Bloom (.259) and either second baseman Jenae Stiles (.283) or designated player Molly Demchak (.600 in 20 at-bats) will be fill out the lineup. Demchak, a freshman, has been utilized in the playoffs with Jenae Stiles becoming the flex player.
The Lady Tide\’s only underclassmen regulars are juniors Johnson, Bloom and Clark.
Lansberry, Demchak, McDonald and Bloom were starters in 2007 when Curwensville defeated Upper Dauphin 7-3 to become the school\’s first team to wear PIAA gold medals.
