One bad inning costly in EF loss to Beaver
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Elizabeth Forward’s Anna Resnik rounds third base and heads for home on her way to scoring the Lady Warriors’ first run during the first inning of Thursday’s PIAA Class AAAA playoff game against Beaver at Norwin High School. Resnik had two hits but the Lady Bobcats won, 5-3.
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Elizabeth Forward second baseman Grace Smith tosses the ball to first base for the out after fielding a grounder during the fourth inning of Thursday’s PIAA Class AAAA playoff game against Beaver at Norwin High School.
Elizabeth Forward's Brooke Markland smacks a single to right field against Beaver during the fifth inning of Thursday's PIAA Class AAAA playoff game at Norwin High School.
Elizabeth Forward's Kailey Larcinese pitches against Beaver during Thursday's PIAA Class AAAA playoff game at Norwin High School.
Beaver's Payton List pitches with Elizabeth Forward's Kailey Larcinese on second base during the fourth inning of Thursday's PIAA Class AAAA playoff game at Norwin High School.
IRWIN — Elizabeth Forward played six solid innings of softball on Thursday.
One bad frame by the Lady Warriors proved costly, though, and undefeated Beaver seized the opportunity to rally from a three-run deficit for a 5-3 victory in their PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinal game at Norwin High School.
The Lady Bobcats (19-0) advance to Monday’s semifinals while the Lady Warriors end their season with an 18-4 record.
Beaver scored all their runs in the fifth inning with the help of a spurt of wildness from EF ace pitcher Kailey Larcinese. The senior right-hander only gave up three hits but two came in the fifth, including a game-tying, two-run double by her pitching counterpart Payton List and an RBI single by Emilee Hohenshel that put the Lady Bobcats ahead to stay.
After walking two of the first three hitters in the first inning, Larcinese settled down and by the end of the fourth inning had retired 11 of her last 12 batters.
With Elizabeth Forward ahead 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth, Larcinese suddenly lost her control. She walked lead-off batter Bailey Nicol, then after getting Jordan Nicol to fly out, she walked Chloe List, hit Hanna Crowe with a pitch and walked Mackenzie Boyd to force in Beaver’s first run.
Payton List and Hohenshel followed with their clutch hits to make it 4-3, and Kayla Cornell added a sacrifice fly to cap the rally.
“Kailey just kind of lost it there, couldn’t hold onto the ball,” Lady Warriors coach Harry Rutherford said. “She said it was slipping on her. You get one bad inning where the pitcher’s not on, it’s going to hurt when we had to just throw balls right down the middle of the plate.”
Freshman Shelby Telegdy moved over from third base to relieve Larcinese after the fifth and pitched a scoreless sixth.
“Maybe if I had made the change a little earlier,” Rutherford pondered. “We were watching the pitch count. Maybe Shelby could’ve held them down. Who knows? She didn’t warm up enough for me to put her right in the middle of the inning and have her come in with the bases loaded and throw that on a freshman.
“We had to get Kailey get us out of the inning then we brought in Shelby after that. She’s the senior so you let her try to get out of it. They forced her to put the ball in the middle of the plate. They hit it hard. They deserve everything they got.”
Elizabeth Forward manufactured runs in the first, fourth and fifth.
Anna Renik led off the game with a single to right, went to the second on a wild pitch and raced home on Grace Smith’s two-out single to center to give EF a 1-0 lead.
Telegdy singled to lead off the second and Lauren Vay walked one out later as EF looked to add to its lead but List retired the next two hitters.
In the fourth, Larcinese drew a lead-off walk and went to second as Telegdy reached on an infield error. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch and Larcinese trotted home on Mackenzie Kearns’ single to left.
Brooke Markland singled to right to start the Lady Warriors’ fifth. She advanced to second and third on ground outs by Bri Sersevic and Smith before scoring on Larcinese’s hard single to center.
After the Lady Bobcats surged ahead, EF built a two-out threat in the top of the sixth with Kearns drawing a walk and Resnik lacing a single to left. List got a strikeout to end the threat, then retired the Lady Warriors in order in the seventh to end it.
List allowed two earned runs on seven hits with three walks and 11 strikeouts in earning the win.
Larcinese was charged with five earned runs on three hits, five walks and a hit batter with two strikeouts.
Rutherford wasn’t down on Larcinese.
“She had a great season,” he said. “The team’s had a great season. So I’m not disappointed with that.”
Telegdy walked two but threw hard in her one inning.
“She pitched almost all of our JV games,” Rutherford pointed out. “She pitched one varsity game in Florida and she pitched one varsity game during the season.
“We’re not going to lose much between Kailey leaving and Shelby coming in. She’s a hard thrower. She actually maybe has a little more movement on her ball than Kailey does. Kailey’s specialty is the rise. Shelby is more of a drop and a curveball pitcher and placing the fastball where she needs to. She’s in the upper 50s (mph).”
It was the last game for EF seniors Larcinese, Resnik, Sersevic and Kearns, who helped lead the Lady Warriors to a WPIAL championship and an appearance in the PIAA final in 2019.
“The seniors have done an outstanding job,” Rutherford said. “This group of seniors, they’ve contributed so much over the last four years to me, you can’t complain one bit.
“There was a group of five that came in. They all earned a starting position as freshmen. One ended up being a D-1 volleyball player and left the softball program but the other four continued with us and really sparked us all through. It’s unfortunate they lost last season (to the COVID-19 pandemic) but they came back this season willing to play and wanting to play and gave it everything.”