May 24, 2006 By Dave Stofcheck 3 min read

CALIFORNIA – Usually reliable on defense, West Greene saw its wheels come off Tuesday, committing five errors. That was more than enough to get Beth-Center rolling.

The Lady Bulldogs took advantage of the mistakes, scoring six unearned runs, and Geri Whitman tossed a two-hitter, as Beth-Center blanked West Greene, 7-0, in the WPIAL Class A quarterfinals at California University of Pa.’s Lilly Field.

Beth-Center (14-4) will be making its third consecutive trip to the semifinals and fourth in the past five years. The Lady Bulldogs will face Vincentian Thursday at 5 p.m. at Lilly Field. Vincentian earned a spot in the semifinals with a 4-1 victory over Leechburg Monday.

A year ago, Beth-Center defeated Vincentian, 1-0, in the WPIAL Class A consolation game to earn a berth in the PIAA playoffs.

Against West Greene Tuesday, the Lady Bulldogs scored a pair of unearned first-inning runs off the Lady Pioneers’ Rebecca Burns and never looked back.

Tyffini Balog’s RBI-single made it 3-0 in the top of the fourth inning, and B-C put the game away with four runs in the top of the seventh after West Greene committed three errors.

“We didn’t expect this,” said Beth-Center coach Frank Mazeppa. “We saw West Greene play Our Lady of Sacred Heart and I think they made just one error. It looked like they were pretty solid in the field.”

Amanda Bolin paced Beth-Center at the plate with three hits in four at bats. Bolin also drove in two runs and scored a pair.

Leland Sullivan and Amanda Higinbotham added two hits apiece, while Courtney Kurowski reached base three times and scored twice.

Whitman allowed just two singles, Sarah Veltre’s solid rip to centerfield with two outs in the bottom of third inning and Maggie Fike’s infield single with two outs in the fifth.

“We hit some balls hard but they were right at people,” said West Greene coach Bill Simms. “A couple of times we tried to make something happen, but when you get down 2-0 in the first inning on a couple of unearned runs, it takes a lot of steam out of you.”

Burns allowed nine hits, struck out six and walked three.

Whitman fanned nine batters, including four straight at one point, and walked two.

With two outs in the top of the first inning, Kurowski walked and Bolin moved her to third base with a single to right-centerfield. After Tonya Carroll walked to load the bases, Sullivan’s ground ball to shortstop was thrown away allowing a pair of runs to score.

With one out in the top of the seventh inning, Higinbotham singled and moved to second base when Whitman’s groundball was mishandled. Kurowski then grounded to shortstop, and everybody was safe when West Greene third baseman Kalya Burns took the throw for an attempted force out but didn’t have her feet on the bag.

Bolin then smacked a two-run single off Rebecca Burns’ glove that ricocheted past Rachel Burns at shortstop and into left field. Kurowski and Bolin scored Beth-Center’s final two runs when Carroll’s grounder was thrown away.

“We beat Jefferson-Morgan in the first round and it took us 10 innings to score one run,” Mazeppa said. “My assistant coaches and I thought it was important for us to score early (against West Greene). We are a better hitting club than we showed against J-M.”