Curwensville Will Open D-9 Playoffs at Home Against A-C Valley

CURWENSVILLE – The brackets for the District 9 Class A Softball Tournament were filled Sunday afternoon and Curwensville Area High School head coach Allen Leigey likes where his team is sitting for Monday’s opener.  The Lady Tide have been seeded seventh and will host tenth seeded A-C Valley at 4:30 at Riverside Stadium.

“I’m pleased with where we fell in the bottom bracket,” Leigey mentioned.  “I don’t mind being away from (top seeded) Clarion and (#4) ECC.  We’ll have to beat some good teams to stay alive, but letting them battle each other before we could see them won’t hurt.”

The top four teams in the Tournament received byes in the first round.  The winner of the Curwensville-A-C Valley game will travel to second seeded Smethport on Wednesday.   Clarion awaits the winner of #9 DCC at #8 Otto-Eldred.  The Lady Crusaders will face the winner of #12 Ridgway at #5 Brockway.  Third seeded Coudersport will take on the winner of #11 Johnsonburg at #6 Port Allegheny.

The Lady Tide has steadily become a good hitting team on the season.  As a team they batted .335 with Taylor Goodman and Molly Demchak leading the team at .439 and .421 respectively.  Others hitting over the .300 mark include catcher Tiffany Carter at .368, shortstop Cheyenne Pentz at .367 and left fielder Madi Peterman at .339.

Since moving into the lead-off spot, Goodman has exploded at the plate to lead the team in homers and triples with three each while also collecting five doubles to score 26 times and drive in 14 runs.  Carter and Demchak lead the team with 18 RBIs each while Carter has ripped six doubles and a pair of homeruns.

Freshman Tierra Shope has handled the pitching duties all season and has led the Tide to an 11-7 record.  Shope has struck out 76 batters on the season and walked 59 while hitting 10.  She has given up 116 hits thus far, and of the 86 runs who have scored, 58 were earned.  Shope has one no-hitter under her belt with an ERA of 3.60 in 110 innings pitched.

“It’s nice to get a home game to start the play-offs,” said Leigey.  “We’re 8-2 at home and we’ll hopefully use the home field advantage before we have to go on the road.”

The Lady Falcons of A-C Valley and Curwensville have had no common opponents this season.  The only close relationship to compare would be the fact that Clarion has defeated the Falcons twice, and Clarion knocked off Brockway 4-1 in the first game of the year.  Curwensville split with the Lady Rovers.  Both teams won their games by one run. 

Coaches of the District 9 Northern Allegany League Small School Division Southern Tier also selected the 2011 All-Star squad.  The Lady Tide posted three “Star” positions in junior third baseman Molly Demchak and sophomores Taylor Goodman at second and catcher Tiffany Carter. 

“Having three All-Stars in the League is a pretty big accomplishment, and the possibility of five was very real,” said Leigey.  “No other team had more than two players on the list, and it shows the kind of positive progress we’ve made this season.”

DuBois Central Catholic shortstop Laurresa Gulvas was named the Player-of-the-Year in the league while teammate Katlyn Yabernetsky was honored for her outfield play.  Elk County Catholic filled two spots with pitcher Taylor Schlimm  and outfielder Jessie Ginther.  Brockway’s Alex Wright was named as a second pitcher with Ridgway’s Ashley Viglione grabbing the final outfield position.  The rest of the field finds Hannah Vile of Sheffield at first base and Justice Myers grabbing the designated player spot.