CURWENSVILLE – With a one out, bases loaded walk to freshman Mackenzie Wall in the bottom of the eighth inning the Curwensville Lady Tide advanced to the District 9 “AA” semifinals, 8-7, over the Kane Lady Wolves.
The Lady Tide defeated the Lady Wolves twice during the regular season, 15-0 and 11-8.
Curwensville head coach Allen Leigey spoke about his team and getting the win, “When we were up 5-1 after two innings, give Kane credit, they didn’t fold and battled back to actually lead 7-6 in the top of the eight inning. They kept chipping away at us but our girls stayed focused and got the job done. We did make a lot of our own breaks today because we hung together and battled from start to finish.”
Kane scored first with a run in the top half of the second inning but the Lady Tide responded like a veteran squad, scoring five in the bottom of the second inning to take a 5-1 margin into the third.
The Lady Tide only picked up three singles in the second, one each by Abby Pentz, Lauren Tozer and Maddi Butler, but Curwensville was gifted two walks and two dropped fly balls along with another error that enabled the Lady Tide to pull ahead after two.
Not giving in, the Lady Wolves added two runs in their half of the fifth inning only to see Curwensville get one back in the bottom of the fifth keeping the Lady Tide in front 6-3 heading into the sixth inning.
Ally Hess led off with a single for the Tide in the fifth and later scored on a triple by Butler.
But back came the Lady Wolves with a run in the sixth and two more in the seventh to send the battle into extra innings, all knotted at six each.
Kane, the number five seed, took the lead in the top half of the eighth inning with a run, making it 7-6 over the fourth seeded Lady Tide, with an upset in the making.
As Leigey mentioned, his squad battled from start to finish and the bottom of the eighth inning showed exactly what he was talking about.
Down that one run, Pentz reached on an error, then later stole second with Logan Sheeder then getting on with a base on balls.
With no outs catcher Bailey Bloom singled to center that sent home Pentz to tie the game 7-7.
Kane picked up a strikeout to keep the Lady Tide runners at first and second, but then Tozer singled up the middle that now gave Curwensville the bases loaded and still just one out.
Then Wall, with a whole bunch of pressure, worked a three-two count to ball four on a high pitch with Wall just pulling back on her swing to get the walk-off walk and the win for the Lady Tide.
Butler, Pentz, Tozer and Hess all had two hits for the Lady Tide with one of Tozer’s hits being a triple.
Kane picked up two hits from its center fielder Maddi Stahli while Emma Ely had a double in the losing effort that ended the Lady Wolves season at 7-7.
Leigey then spoke about two players, both freshmen, commenting, “Freyer (Joslynne) struggled at times today from the circle but she worked hard all day and picked up 11 strikeouts while walking five and hitting three. She went deep into the count a lot today which didn’t help matters but found away to get the job done. And another freshman, Maddi Butler, our right fielder, had a really good day with two hits and making a nice catch in foul territory down the right field line which was a big defensive play for us.”
Curwensville, now 14-7 on the year, travels to Redbank Valley on Wednesday at 4 pm to play in the semifinals.
Redbank Valley (10-5) is the number one seed in the “AA” bracket and received a bye in the quarterfinals.
In the other semifinal game on Wednesday, also at 4 pm, Johnsonburg, the number two seed at 11-6, will entertain Cranberry, the three seed, now at 11-5, who defeated Moniteau 9-3 in Monday’s other quarterfinal game.
Listen to the Lady Tide-Lady Bulldogs game on WOKW-FM, 102.9, with the pre-game show starting at 3:50 pm.
KANE – 7
Emma Ely ss 5112, Hailey Slater 3b 3000, Ella Marconi 1b 3000, Katlyn Young c 3111, Saddie Walter pr/rf 1100, Kennedy Himes dp 3000, Maddi Stahli cf 4121, Rachel Haight lf 2100, Alyssa Oakes rf 1000, Jenny Crowley ph 0100, Moria Stanisch rf 1000, Mia Smith 2b 3111, Rachael Danielson flex/p 0000
TOTALS – 29 7 5 5
CURWENSVILLE – 8
Abby Pentz ss 4220, Logan Sheeder 2b 4000, Alex Zattoni pr 0100, Bailey Bloom c 4011, Bella Guthrie cr 0000, Joslynne Freyer p 5000, Lauren Tozer 1b 3020, Mackenzie Wall 3b 3101, Ally Hess cf 4220, Kelsey Bumbarger dp 2100, Alyssa Bakaysa ph 1000, Maddi Butler rf 3122, Ariel Zattoni flex/lf 0000
TOTALS – 33 8 9 4
SCORE BY INNINGS R H E
KANE 010 021 21 7 5 4
CURWENSVILLE 050 010 02 8 9 1
Winning run scored with one out in bottom half of eighth inning.
ERRORS – Stahli, Oakes, Marconi, Smith, Ariel Zattoni LOB – KANE – 6 CURWENSVILLE – 9
2B – Ely 3B – Tozer, Butler SB – Pentz HBP – Young, Haight, Smith (all by Freyer) DP – NONE
PITCHING
KANE
Danielson 7 1/3 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 3 ER, 8 K, 9 BB
CURWENSVILLE
Freyer 8 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 11 K, 5 BB, 3 HB
WP – Freyer (14-7) LP – Danielson
UMPIRES: Doug Metheney, Neil McIsacc, Cory Thomas
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
