Lady Raiders break open close game for 11-6 win
Waynesburg Central pitcher Jordan Moore hugs catcher Emily Luckey (12) after the Lady Raiders won their WPIAL Class AA first-round softball playoff game at Hempfield Tuesday afternoon.
Waynesburg Central pitcher Jordan Moore fires a strike against Freeport Tuesday during a WPIAL Class AA first-round softball playoff game at Hempfield. She went the distance in the Lady Raiders' victory.
Waynesburg Central pitcher Jordan Moore (8) hits the ball as Freeport catcher Kristie Radvan reaches out from behind the plate during Tuesday's WPIAL Class AA first round softball playoff game at Hempfield.
GREENSBURG — Waynesburg Central broke open a close game by scoring seven runs in the fifth and sixth innings on Tuesday, then held on for an 11-6 win over Freeport in the first round of the WPIAL Class AA softball playoffs at Hempfield Area High School.
“I was counting the outs in the last inning,” said Waynesburg coach Jim Armstrong. “They couldn’t come too soon.”
With two starters out of the lineup, Freeport coach Sam Ross said those absences were felt when the Lady Yellow Jackets stranded five runners in scoring position over the first four innings.
“You don’t want to leave anything out there,” Ross said of the missed opportunities.
Waynesburg Central (13-8) jumped to a 4-0 lead helped by a pair of Freeport errors in the second and third innings.
Catcher Emily Luckey drove in three of the runs when she singled in Tiffany Ross in the second, and singled to drive in Taylor Staley and winning pitcher Jordan Moore in the third. Ross scored the fourth run when she dashed home from third on a throw to first on a dropped third strike.
Freeport (10-5) struck for three runs in the fifth when Alexis Roenigk doubled and scored on a one-out hit by Kristie Radvan. A two-out error kept the inning alive and Alyssa Obringer’s second double drove in Radvan and Alyssa Ravotti to cut the lead to one.
Armstrong told his team to “take the momentum back” in the bottom of the inning, and the Lady Raiders responded with two runs as Moore doubled and scored on a one-out error and Felicia Spitznogle singled with two outs to drive in Brittany Herrod.
Waynesburg added five runs in the sixth when Staley tripled in Jenna Henry, Tiffany Ross singled to drive in Staley, Ross and Herrod scored on an infield error and Hannah Gibbons singled to drive in Shelby Hoy.
There was no quit in Freeport, however, as Radvan homered to lead off the seventh and Taylor Hetrick later singled to drive in Ravotti and Obringer before Moore got a strikeout to end the game.
“Errors have been our Achilles heel all year,” Ross said.
“But I’m proud of my girls. I told them to make the routine plays and we bobbled the ball a little bit.”
“This is one of the best teams I’ve ever taken to the playoffs,” Armstrong said. “They took the momentum back and I’m really proud of them.”