Apr 20, 2017 By Adam Brewer for The 5 min read

ROGERSVILLE — In a back-and-forth contest, Waynesburg Central rallied with four runs in the top of the seventh and held off West Greene in the bottom half of the inning for a 7-6 win Wednesday afternoon at Rice Energy Park in non-section softball action.

“We had to believe in each other and be ready for the moment,” Waynesburg coach Jim Armstrong said. “This is probably the best team win I have ever been involved with in my coaching years. We are a good hitting team and we showed so much heart today.”

With the victory, Waynesburg snaps West Greene’s 27-game regular season winning streak. West Greene’s last regular season loss was last year to Moore Catholic, New York.

Trailing 5-3 in the top of the seventh, the Lady Raiders (8-2) collected three straight hits, and the final one in the string of base hits was an RBI single by Tara Staley.

“It means the world to us to pull this one off,” Staley said. “We have worked so hard and to pull out a win against such a great team in West Greene means a lot. We got our bats going in the seventh and we never hung our heads.”

After a foul out to the catcher, Waynesburg’s Bailee Shimek came up to the plate and delivered a towering, three-run homer to give the visitors the lead back.

“We are a good hitting team,” Staley said. “We had to get the bats going. Our dugout was so loud in that inning. My ears hurt and I probably won’t have a voice tomorrow. As soon as Bailee made contact with that pitch I knew it was over the fence. It was a great hit.”

The Lady Pioneers tried to regroup in the bottom half of the seventh when McKenna Lampe started the inning with a double.

Madison Lampe hit a ball to the left-center field wall, and Hannah Kalsey made the play-of-the game to rob the Lady Pioneers of extra bases. McKenna advanced to third on the play after tagging up, and scored on a RBI groundout by Madison Renner.

“That was a helluva of a catch,” West Greene coach Billy Simms said. “It was probably one of the best high school catches you are going to see. I know (Bailee) Shimek’s home run was the game winner, but you have to give credit to (Hannah) Kalsey for that catch. If she doesn’t make that catch, Madison (Lampe) is on either second or third with no outs and we are down by one run.”

An infield error extended the game, but Waynesburg’s pitcher Emma Ricciutti was able to induce a slow grounder to second for the game’s final out.

“The top of their lineup was great,” Simms said. “This was a great softball game to be involved in and I’m so glad that we are able to renew our rivalry with Waynesburg. Both teams know each other and this is what a county rivalry should be like. The last out is always the toughest one to get. Give Waynesburg a lot of credit.”

Ricciutti picked up the win in the circle for the Lady Raiders and came on in relief of Kortney Yuhas in the fourth inning.

Jade Renner suffered the loss for the Lady Pioneers (12-1), going five innings and allowing four runs on six hits with two strikeouts and no walks. Madison Renner started the game, but was pulled in the third frame with the bases loaded and no outs.

Waynesburg cracked the scoreboard first in the contest when Staley’s RBI groundout scored Jordan Sibert and Rachel Elsenheimer crossed home plate on a wild pitch.

West Greene countered in their first inning at the plate, as leadoff hitter McKenna Lampe drove the first pitch she saw for a solo homer to cut the deficit in half.

Madison Lampe walked in the next at-bat and would later score on an infield error to deadlock things at 2-2.

The Lady Pioneers took a 3-2 lead in the third after another solo shot by McKenna Lampe.

With the bases loaded in the fourth for the Lady Raiders, Shimek recorded a sacrifice fly to knot things up at 3-3. Jade Renner was able to get out of the frame with no further damage after a fly out to center and a strikeout.

Leixe Mooney started the bottom of the fourth with a free pass and worked her way to third after a sacrifice bunt and groundout. Mooney would later score off of an errant throw to third base to make it 4-3.

West Greene extended its lead to 5-3 in the fifth after a solo home run by Madison Lampe.

The Lady Raiders’ top four hitters were clutch in the non-section triumph, going 7-for-15 at the plate with six runs scored. Staley led Waynesburg with three hits.

“Everyone contributed today,” Armstrong said. “I give a lot of credit to my assistant coaches and all of their work. We knew we weren’t going to shut them out and if we wanted to win we would have to out-slug them. We made enough pitches and made enough defensive plays. This is a huge boost for us for the rest of our section schedule.”

Both teams will be back to their respective sections today, as Waynesburg visits Southmoreland and West Greene ventures out to Avella.

“They got the better of us today and sometimes that’s how the ball bounces,” Simms said. “We are going to learn a lot from this loss and build off of it. Our goal was to never go undefeated and put up zeros every game. We wanted to face some tough non-section teams and Waynesburg is a quality program. This will help us in the long run.”

Herald-Standard sports writer Jonathan Guth contributed to this story.