Lady Rockets breeze to 10-0 win over Western Beaver
KENNEDY TWP. — After a chaotic week off for the Jefferson-Morgan softball team, the Lady Rockets pulled together and routed Western Beaver, 10-0, in six innings at Fairhaven Park in WPIAL Class A first round action Tuesday afternoon.
“It was a very stressful week for us last week,” J-M coach Tony Barbetta said. “We had a player’s grandmother pass away, a couple of the kids got into a minor car accident, a couple of nagging injuries and my second basemen’s dad is battling cancer. We were just glad to get onto the field and win in the playoffs. It’s very hard to win in the postseason in any round.”
The third-seeded Lady Rockets (12-2) extended their winning streak to eight games and won only their second first-round contest since 2000.
J-M will now play sixth-seed Sewickley Academy on Monday with a time and location to be determined. The Lady Panthers defeated Union, 8-2, in the opening round.
The Lady Rockets, who played their regular season finale on April 30, pounded out 10 hits and took advantage of four errors by the Lady Golden Beavers (6-5).
Madison Ludrosky was in control of the game from the outset, tossing six innings of one-hit ball with 14 strikeouts and no walks. Western Beaver only had two base runners in the game.
The senior pitcher struck out eight of the first nine batters she faced and worked the outside of the plate perfectly in the shutout.
“The key in the playoffs is always pitching,” Barbetta said. “Madison is throwing well right now and she was dominant today. She mixed her speeds and worked on both sides of the plate. We like to pitch to the outside because we have a lot of good gloves on the right side.”
After a scoreless first inning, J-M collected five runs in the second with two outs.
With the bases loaded, Reagan Rush laced a two-run single to crack the scoreboard at Lind Field.
Camryn Dugan was the next batter up and after battling back from a 0-2 count, the junior second basemen roped a 3-2 pitch to right-center field for a three-run homer.
“I knew once I made contact with the ball it was going to go far,” Dugan said. “Out of the box I didn’t think it had enough height to be a home run, but it just kind of kept on going and went over the fence. I just wanted to make contact to the ball and I was thinking double.”
After hitting six home runs a year ago, the three-run blast was Dugan’s first of the season.
“I think it was a big hit and that inning really relaxed us,” Dugan said. “That was my first home run of the season and it feels good to have it in the playoffs. I had a couple last year and I know I’m capable of hitting the deep ball.”
The Lady Rockets added three more runs in the third, courtesy of a two-run double by Brooke Diamond and a RBI sacrifice bunt by Autumn Tedrow. Diamond had a team-high three hits.
Morgan Simkovic crushed a RBI double in the fourth that scored Rush to make it 9-0.
After a scoreless fifth inning, J-M invoked the 10-run mercy rule when Anna Mattish drew a one-out walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a RBI single by Kayla Yorko.
“We got a lot of girls some playing time today and our offense got us going,” Barbetta said. “We hit the ball to a lot of gaps and we were aggressive at the plate early in the count. We didn’t run like we usually do, but it feels good to get those extra base hits.”