May 16, 2025 By Bill Hughes 3 min read

WASHINGTON – Brownsville played its first playoff softball game since 2012 on Thursday afternoon and early on it appeared the 10th-seeded Lady Falcons might be on their way to winning and advancing to the WPIAL Class 2A quarterfinals.

But unfortunately for the Lady Falcons (11-6), seventh-seeded Seton-LaSalle (11-5) made just enough plays late to hand Brownsville a heartbreaking 2-1 loss.

“I was excited,” head coach Jane Bock said about Brownsville’s return to the playoffs. “It has been 12 years, and I have enjoyed every minute (of the season).

“We came out strong but just left too many people on base.”

The Lady Falcons, with a throng of fans who made the 45-minute drive there to support them, recorded five hits over the first three innings, but they were only able to score a single run.

“We didn’t have some of the hitters to come through when we needed them to,” Bock said. “We just couldn’t put it together to score more on offense.”

Brownsville opened the scoring in the top of the third inning.

With one out, Alexa Pellick singled to right center before advancing to second on a passed ball and then moving to third on a wild pitch.

Two batters later, Lyla Gill put the ball into play towards short, and it played awkwardly off of the turf to bring in Pellick.

Brownsville’s junior ace Ava Clark, a West Liberty recruit, was on a roll early and it appeared the one run may have been all she would need.

She was perfect through three innings, including nine strikeouts, before the Rebels were able to tie the game in the bottom of the fourth.

Gianna Ferrieri led off the inning with a triple and scored one batter later when Kamyia Morris hit a sacrifice fly to center field.

The game remained deadlocked at 1-1 until the bottom of the sixth when Morris singled in Ferrieri with what proved to be the game-winning run.

Layla Chapman closed out the Falcons in the top of the seventh to earn the complete game win, retiring 13 of the last 14 hitters she faced. Her lone blemish during the run was a fifth-inning walk to Pellick.

Brownsville outhit Seton-LaSalle, five to four.

Thursday’s game was the seventh this year when the Lady Falcons mustered two runs or less behind Clark.

“Ava has carried us and been the nucleus of our team,” said Bock. “She gets the job down on the mound.

“We have struggled this year trying to put runs up on the board, but she keeps us in every game.”

Clark finished with 10 strikeouts.

Despite the loss, Bock would not let it take away from the season.

“It was a goal of ours (to make the playoffs) and we finally had the talent,” she said. “We had some younger players to put things together.”

This postseason will likely not be a one-and-done event for the Lady Falcons.

“We have seven starters coming back and only lose three seniors,” Bock said of Pellick, Mia O’Hern, and Sarah Sawka. “We have had a good group of girls this year and an enjoyable season.

“We didn’t accomplish our goal today, but there is always next season.”