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Beth-Center foiled by Chartiers-Houston again, 2-1

By Dave Stofcheck 3 min read

CALIFORNIA – A rough start and a heartbreaking end won’t define Beth-Center’s 2005 season. What transpired in between may be a better gauge.

Monday’s 2-1 loss to Chartiers-Houston in the PIAA Class A semifinals brought the Lady Bulldogs’ magic carpet ride to a halt, one game short of an appearance in the state title game. But had anyone told the team three months it would go as far as it did, it’s possible no one would have bought it.

“Every year we talk about how this is going to be our year and that we’re going all the way,” said senior right-hander Chelsea Stotka. “This year, when we went down to Florida and we didn’t do well, I thought we’d be lucky to win our section and I really didn’t even know if we’d make the playoffs.

“But we ended up having a really good year. I think we impressed some people along the way.”

Indeed. A perennial playoff team, Beth-Center advanced further than any Lady Bulldogs’ team before it.

Beth-Center overcame a poor start and its first section loss in four years to win another section title, advance to the WPIAL semifinals and rally to win two PIAA playoff games before seeing its season end at California University of Pa.’s Lilley Field.

One thing the Lady Bulldogs couldn’t overcome was Chartiers-Houston. The Lady Buccaneers knocked B-C out of the WPIAL playoffs with a 1-0 win in the semifinals, and used a pair of unearned runs Monday night to end the Lady Bulldogs season for the third straight year.

“They’re (Beth-Center) always right there with everybody else,” said C-H coach Trisha Alderson. “We played them in the WPIAL semifinals, and I knew we would probably meet them again.”

Stotka pitched well enough to win, scattering seven hits while striking out five without a walk. But Chartiers-Houston took advantage of some shoddy B-C defense to score unearned runs in each of the first two innings, and the Lady Buccaneers’ Danielle Claassen made the lead stand up.

Claassen allowed just three hits, struck out three and walked three. She also stranded seven runners, six of which made it into scoring position.

“It has always been a tight game when we have played them,” said Beth-Center coach Frank Mazeppa. “We just didn’t get any hits at the right time.”

Two hits sandwiched around an error gave Chartiers-Houston (21-1) a 1-0 first-inning lead. The WPIAL-champion Lady Bucs made it 2-0 an inning later when Jaci Timko’s triple brought in Samantha Hall, who had reached on a two-out throwing error.

Beth-Center (18-8) cut the lead in half in the top of the fourth inning. Amanda Bolin doubled to lead off the inning, and with one out, moved to third on Tonya Carroll’s single. After Kaylin Sizemore grounded out, Stotka’s grounder to short was mishandled, allowing Bolin to score.

“Nobody likes to finish this way, but we had a great season,” Mazeppa said.

“The kids did a really great job.”

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