DUBOIS — For the second straight year, the Curwensville softball team met Cranberry for the District 9 Class 2A Championship, and unfortunately for the Lady Tide the result was the same.
The top-seeded Lady Berries collected 11 hits in Thursday’s title tilt and got a solid performance in the circle from freshman Gracee Hess to knock off Curwensville 8-2 at Heindl Field. Cranberry won last year’s contest 7-6.
“We were swinging at bad pitches, high pitches, early on,” Curwensville head coach Allen Leigey said. “I think it was just nerves, but we told them (Hess) was going to try to get ahead of you and try to suck you in to a high pitch. And we bought into that. Early on we weren’t hitting anything.
“But they were just better than us. They were just better. They were better in the circle, they were better defensively and they hit the ball.”
Hess scattered six hits in her seven innings of work — only two through the first five. She struck out 10 batters and did not issue a walk.
Sydney Simcox and Briah Peoples had the Lady Tide hits in the third and fifth innings.
Cranberry got on the board in the first after Keelie Schneider hit a two-out triple down the fight field line off Addison Siple and Rylee Coe followed with a base hit to plate her.
The Lady Berries added three runs in the third, fueled by three straight hits to open the inning.
Hess led off with a single and scored on a Reyna Watson triple before Avery Coe’s infield single gave Cranberry runners on the corners with nobody out.
Watson scored when she and Avery Coe executed a double steal, while Rylee Coe’s one-out single added another run.
Siple shut down the Lady Berries in the fourth and fifth innings and her offense got the Lady Tide back in the game in the sixth.
Addison Butler led off with a single, but was erased from the base paths when Addison Warren reached on a fielder’s choice. The ball was nearly misplayed in the middle infield, but Cranberry was able to get a handle on it and get the force at second.
That proved to be a big out as Siple followed with a base hit in front of Natalie Wischuck, who blasted the ball off the wall in right-center. Wishchuck knocked in Warren and Siple on the play and wound up on third with a slide into a full split to stay on the bag before getting tagged.
Unfortunately for the Lady Tide, a double play took them out of the inning when Ava Olosky’s pop fly behind third base was caught by Cranberry shortstop Avery Coe, who fell backwards when making the play. Wishchuck tried to score on the play when Coe fell, but she was gunned down at the plate.
“Natalie trucked that ball to get us back in it, but then she made a mistake when she saw the girl fall on her keister and decided to run,” Leigey said. “The girl threw a dart to the catcher.”
With Curwensville back in the game, the Cranberry offense responded, scoring four times in the home half of the sixth to regain all the momentum.
Haylie Gregory had an RBI groundout for the first run, while the rest of the damage was done with two outs. Avery Coe picked up an RBI single and Keelie Schneider belted her second triple of the game, knocking in two to make it 8-2.
“Cranberry hit the ball very well,” Leigey said. “They were spot on when it came to hitting AK (Siple). And she was throwing pretty good pitches.”
Hess quickly got the first two outs in the top of the seventh before Peoples kept the Lady Tide alive with the second of her two singles on the day.
But Hess struck out the next batter to end it.
Curwensville slipped to 16-6 with the loss, but the Lady Tide’s season will continue.
The District 9 runners-up will play District 10 champ Saegertown Monday at 1 p.m. at Allegheny College in the first round of the PIAA playoffs.
“At least we got in (to PIAAs),” Leigey said. “That’s the big thing. We wanted to get into the fray. And that’s what I told them, ‘you never know what might happen.’ You just play your best and maybe yo get to the next round. A lot can happen.”
Curwensville—2
Butler c 3010, Warren 2b 3100, Siple p 2110, Wischuck rf 3012, Olosky cf 3000, Hainsey 3b 3000, Simcox lf 3010, Peoples ss 3020, McCartney dp 3000, Witherite (flex) 1b 0000. Totals: 26-2-6-2.
Cranberry—8
Watson cf 3210, A. Coe ss 4221, Schneider 3b 3122, R. Coe 2b 4022, Scarbrough 1b 3000, Shumaker rf 3110, Wenner c 2000, Morrow ph 1110, Gregory lf 3012, Hess p 3110. Totals: 29-8-11-7.
Score by Innings
Curwensville 000 002 0—2 6 0
Cranberry 103 004 x—8 11 0
LOB—Curwensville 4, Cranberry 5. DP—Cranberry. 3B—Wischuck, Schneider 2, Watson. HBP—Siple (by Hess). SB—A. Coe 2, Watson, Gregory.
Pitching
Curwensville: Siple—7 IP, 11 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 9 SO.
Cranberry: Hess—7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 10 SO.
WP—Hess. LP—Siple (15-5).
Time—1:40.
