Sinn nearly perfect in Lady Mikes’ 5-2 win
Carmichaels’ Kylie Sinn goes into her windup against Charleroi during a Section 3-AA game at Carmichaels on April 4 last year. The cononavirus pandemic wiped out the Seton Hill recruit’s senior season. (Photo by Ed Thompson)
Ed Thompson
Carmichaels first baseman Gina Ranieri looks a ground ball into her glove during a Section 3-AA victory over Charleroi on April 3.
Ed Thompson
The Lady Mikes’ Kylie Sinn belts the ball to left field in the fourth inning of Thursday’s Section 3-AA game against Charleroi at Carmichaels.
CARMICHAELS — Carmichaels pitcher Kylie Sinn was near perfect Thursday afternoon.
Sinn retired the first 15 batters she faced, escaped a three-hit sixth inning and then completed the game with a scoreless seventh to lead the Lady Mikes to a 5-2 victory over visiting Charleroi in Section 3-AA play.
Sinn’s complete game included six strikeouts and no walks, with 59 of her 76 pitches were strikes.
“Kylie has pitched well in every game so far this season,” Carmichaels coach Dave Briggs said. “She has kept us in a lot of games. We played really good defense behind her and she was in the strike zone the whole game. She was able to mix up her speeds and really elevated the ball late in counts to get strikeouts or pop outs.”
The Lady Mikes (3-1, 4-1) scored the opening five runs to rebound from a 3-0 loss to Frazier earlier in the week. Carmichaels travels to non-section foe West Greene on Friday and then resume section play at Chartiers-Houston on Monday.
“These next two games are big for us,” said Briggs. “It comes down to our offense. We have to score some runs because we are not going hold those offenses down in games. Those are some potent offenses and you can’t afford to give them any runs either.”
Kylie Quigley was tagged with the loss for the Lady Cougars (0-3, 2-3), but threw a solid game, allowing five hits over six innings with seven strikeouts and two walks on 106 pitches.
“It’s been our M.O. this year to have one bad inning defensively and today that cost us the game,” Charleroi coach Trey Tilghman said. “Kylie pitched really good in the game and got a lot of strikeouts. Her location was good and she threw her change-up for a strike.”
After both squads were held scoreless in the opening two innings, Carmichaels broke through with three runs in the third frame.
Emily Menhart started out the inning with a walk and later scored on a wild pitch. Emma Holaren pounded a sacrifice fly that scored Emily Conklin, who finished with two hits in the win. Sinn scored the third run on another wild pitch.
Emma Hyatt reached first base after the ball was not held on the third strike in the fourth inning and then crossed home plate on an RBI hit by Conklin.
Holaren had an RBI single in the fifth inning that scored Sinn to push the lead to 5-0.
“We didn’t get a lot of big hits today, but I really like our base running and our fundamentals out there today,” Briggs said. “We have been harping on that these last couple of days. We were able to manufactured some runs and played smart.”
Charleroi broke up the perfect game in the sixth when Sam Mavilla drove the first pitch she saw to center field for a single. The Lady Cougars trimmed the deficit to 5-2 after an RBI ground out by Taylor Boyd and an RBI single by Cierra Gazi later in the inning.
“We just had a slow start with the bats today,” Tilghman said. “You can’t wait till the sixth inning to hit. We were swinging at bad pitches and were constantly working behind in the count. I think we hit the ball hard in that sixth, but it was a little too late.”
Sinn was able to get out of the sixth with a ground out to third base.
After Carmichaels went down in order in the bottom of the sixth, Sinn retired the next three batters in the seventh via a ground out to second, a strikeout and a foul out to first.
Both teams combined for eight hits and neither squad had an extra-base hit.
Charleroi hosts Beth-Center on Monday.