Sto-Rox downs Beth-Center
CALIFORNIA – This time, Goliath took a page out of the opposition’s playbook and felled David. With, you guessed it, a Stone.
Six-foot-two Megan Stone struck out 10 hitters and allowed only two infield singles over the final four innings as Sto-Rox won its third straight WPIAL title Thursday with a 10-1 rout of Beth-Center in the Class A final at California University of Pa.’s Lilley Field.
The championship was the Lady Vikings’ seventh overall and puts them in elite company along with Baldwin (1989-91, ’93-96) and Swissvale (’79-82) as the only teams to win at least three straight WPIAL titles.
For Beth-Center, the loss snapped a 13-game winning streak and denied the school a happy ending in its first-ever title-game appearance. The Lady Bulldogs had knocked off the No. 2 and 3 seeds en route to Thursday’s final, but they faltered down the stretch against top-seeded Sto-Rox.
“When you’re not strong offensively like you’d expect to be and you don’t play good defense, things like this will happen,” said Lady Bulldogs coach Frank Mazeppa.
Sto-Rox (19-2) took advantage of six Beth-Center errors to score seven unearned runs, or about six more than Stone usually needs. After allowing four hits and her first earned run of the playoffs through the first three innings, Stone settled into a groove and retired 11 straight at one point.
“We scouted Beth-Center and saw the 10 hits they got off (Chartiers-Houston’s) Jen Alderson were on balls thrown right down the middle of the plate. The first four hits they got today off Megan came after she hung her drop pitch out over the plate,” said Lady Vikings coach Bill Palermo.
“She was trying to guide it instead of just rearing back and letting it go. Once she started putting it where she wanted it, she settled in. And after she got one of their girls out on a changeup, she had them really thinking.”
Beth-Center (17-6) may have had the three-time defending champions thinking a little themselves through the first four innings. With the help of two hits and an error, Sto-Rox took a 2-0 second-inning lead, but the Lady Bulldogs sliced the gap in half an inning later.
Leslie Kurjanowicz tripled into right-centerfield to lead off the bottom of the third inning, and Mazzaferri followed with the second of her two singles to make it 2-1. That was it, however, as Stone shut down the Lady Bulldogs from then on.
“She (Stone) stayed in control of the tempo,” Mazeppa said. “You have to give her a lot of credit. She started mixing things up on us. We came out swinging hot bats like I expected us too. Then, it sort of dropped off. It seemed like we should have been getting on her more after the third inning, but for some reason we didn’t.”
Sto-Rox, meanwhile, began drawing a bead on Mazzaferri and broke the game open with eight runs over the final three innings, including four in the top of the seventh after batting around. Three errors in the inning helped the cause as well.
The Lady Vikings’ Stephanie Elk had three hits and scored three runs, while Christina Magliocco had a pair of singles and three RBIs. Michelle Kushner added two hits and three runs scored, while Amanda Bressler chipped in a two-run double.
Mazzaferri paced the Beth-Center offense with a pair of singles, and Jamie Brady, Alisha Holt and Julie Bakewell also had hits.
Beth-Center’s season continues Monday with a meeting against the District 6 champion, either Penns Valley or Northern Cambria, while Sto-Rox will take on the District 10 champion, either Cranberry or Cambria Springs.
“For some reason, it seemed we had a little jitters early,” Mazeppa said. “But despite the loss, I think we’ve proved ourselves. Sometimes a loss like this will bring you back to where you’re supposed to be. You’ll see a different team Monday. I know we’ll bounce back.”