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Lady Mikes hang tough in 6-0 loss

By Jonathan Guth jguth@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read

ALLISON PARK — Carmichaels entered as the No. 15 seed, but the Lady Mikes hung tough with the defending WPIAL Class AA champions and No. 2 seed Deer Lakes in Wednesday’s first round playoff match-up at Hampton Community Field on the campus of Hampton High School.

Carmichaels was trailing by a 1-0 margin heading into the fifth inning, but the Lady Lancers responded with a five-run inning en route to a 6-0 victory.

“We gave a good effort but you can’t win ball games when you don’t score any runs,” Carmichaels coach Dave Briggs said. “We made some mistakes in the fifth inning, but other than that, it was a very close game.”

Deer Lakes (16-4) scored its five runs on five hits in the aforementioned fifth inning to pull away from the Lady Mikes (11-9).

“It definitely makes a difference when you have a good lead,” Deer Lakes coach Craig Taliani said. “You can’t hit a five-run home run so we were glad to get that cushion there in the fifth. Carmichaels is a good team that is well coached and they have been in the playoffs before, so we knew that they weren’t going to give up and it was going to be a tough game.”

The Lady Lancers’ Sarah Blinn led off with a single, and after one out, Shae Robson and Maria Taliani singled to load the bases. Danielle Huffman’s sacrifice fly scored Blinn and Maureen Hutchinson’s RBI single plated Robson for a 3-0 lead.

Katelynn Blair walked to load the bases and Stephanie Drapela’s three-run triple scored Taliana, Hutchinson and Blair for a 6-0 advantage for Deer Lakes.

Drapela was 2-for-3 and knocked in Hutchinson with an RBI single in the second for the Lady Lancers’ first run. Hutchinson reached base on a lead-off triple.

Robson picked up the pitching win after allowing no runs on four hits in seven innings. She had five strikeouts and two walks in throwing 96 pitches. Robson, a junior, wasn’t the team’s No. 1 pitcher in last season’s WPIAL Championship year, but she did get some experience in the circle.

“Shae pitched for us a little last year and gained some experience,” coach Taliani said. “She did pick up four or five wins for us.”

Carmichaels started off well when Megan Walker led off the game with a single and moved to second on an error. Walker moved to third on Laura Walker’s ground out, but was tagged out at home when trying to score on Natalie McNett’s fly ball to right field.

Megan Walker had three of the Lady Mikes’ four hits. Emma Lowry had the other hit, a single in the seventh.

Carmichaels had an opportunity to score in the third when Gina Ranieri walked, moved to second on Shelbee McCann’s bunt, but had to be held at third on Megan Walker’s single. Robson was able to buckle down and get Laura Walker to ground out.

“We needed that one clutch hit early in the game,” Briggs said. “I thought the effort was definitely there, but there were plays that we should have made that helped them out. There were a few questionable calls that went against us.”

The Lady Mikes had runners on first and third in the seventh, but Robson was able to get a strikeout to end the game.

Lowry led off with a single, stole second and moved to third on a ball that got away from the catcher when Ranieri walked.

Laura Walker took the loss for Carmichaels. She allowed six runs on 10 hits in six innings. She didn’t record a strikeout and walked one batter while throwing 90 pitches.

“I thought Laura pitched well and did a good job,” Briggs said. “We were in the game except for that one inning.”

Deer Lakes plays the winner of today’s game at West Allegheny between Laurel and Bentworth that is scheduled for 2 p.m. The game was to be play Wednesday but was postponed.

“We played Bentworth, like Carmichaels, last year in South Carolina, and they are a tough team,” Taliani said. “Union is a team on the rise and have really been on a tear this year, so we need to be ready for both teams.”

Carmichaels loses three seniors in Lowry, Emily Lewis and Jourine Crutchman, but has the majority of the team returning next season.

“We are a young team and very excited to be going back down to Class A,” Briggs said. “Single A has a lot of good teams, too, but not as many. If you look at the brackets this year, it didn’t matter where we were going to play, it was going to be a tough game.”

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