Valley too strong for Lady Raiders
KENNEDY TOWNSHIP – To say that the cards were stacked against the Waynesburg Central softball team on Thursday at Fairhaven Park in the semifinal round of the WPIAL Class AA playoffs would be an under statement. The fifth-seeded Lady Raiders were against a team with a spotless record through 19 games, a team that has posted 13 shutouts this year including their two previous postseason games and a team in Valley that has only let up a total of seven runs on the 2010 campaign.
Waynesburg fought and crawled its way through the game, but they just couldn’t muster enough offense as the Lady Vikings prevailed 4-1 and advanced to the finals.
Despite the loss, the Lady Raiders season is far from over as the top four teams in Class AA advance to the PIAA postseason. Waynesburg will find out whom it will play in the following weeks, and has its sights set on making an impact in the state tournament.
“I told the girls that we have nothing to hang our heads about,” Waynesburg coach Lars Johnson said. “After losing our first two games of the season, we went on a 16-2 run and I couldn’t be more proud of how we came together as a team. We played hard to the last out, and today we didn’t have a lot of balls rolling our way.”
The Lady Raiders’ Emily Bosworth knew she had to throw a flawless game if Waynesburg (16-4) had any hope of pulling up the upset, and despite allowing four hits through the first three frames; she blanked Valley (20-0) on the scoreboard.
However, in the fourth inning, the Lady Vikings finally cracked the scoreboard and took a 2-0 edge in the pitchers duel.
Valley garnered three consecutive hits off Bosworth, the last of those being a RBI base knock by Carly Bonk to give the Lady Vikings the first run of the contest. The next batter, Amanda Mascara, launched a ball to left field for a sacrifice fly for the second run.
Valley tallied a run in the fifth, via a RBI two-bagger by Katrina George that scored Kelsey Bonk. George’s double was the only extra base hit of the game, and gave the Vikings a 3-0 lead.
“Our bottom of the line-up was great today,” Valley coach Carol Perroz said. “They have really been working hard and came up today with a lot of good shots. We just believed in ourselves. Anytime in the playoffs, to get a couple of runs together early on is huge. They were able to get some runners on and we knew we had to score a couple of runs to relax our pitcher and defense. It takes a total team effort.”
The Lady Raiders manufactured a run in the bottom of the fifth, as Rebecca Simpson reached base with a single, then came to third on a fielders choice and sacrifice bunt. Simpson crossed home plate when Kaylie Barger belted a RBI groundout to cut the deficit to 3-1.
The run would be the only scoring the Lady Raiders could manage, despite having at least a base runner in every inning against Valley’s star pitcher Caitlin Nealer.
Nealer threw a complete game with eight strikeouts and two free passes.
“Our strategy offensively was to get runs early and jump on them,” Johnson said. “We got runners on, but just couldn’t find the gaps. We wanted to score early and often, and we knew the often part was going to be hard. Hats off to them, they are a good team with an excellent pitcher. Caitlin is the most professional pitcher I have seen. She kept the ball down, and was effective with changing her speeds in the strike zone.”
Valley added an insurance run in the seventh when Nealer slapped an RBI marker.
“We still have some ball left to play,” Johnson said. “The big prize is obviously the state title, and that is something we set our sights on. People can forget about winning the WPIALs, but not a lot of people will forget about a team winning the state title. I think we are a type of team that can make some noise in these games.”