ORWIGSBURG — It was a jam-packed day worth of action in Orwigsburg on Friday evening with three District 11 playoff matchups taking place at Blue Mountain’s Patton Field.
Once the dust settled, Pine Grove, Williams Valley, and Schuylkill Haven all advanced to their respective classifications’ championship games next week.
Pine Grove overcomes slow start to beat Palisades 13-3
The Colonial League’s Palisades Pirates made much of Friday afternoon’s matinee a competitive matchup, leading the defending Class 3A champions twice, including 3-1 after three innings.
Palisades struck first in the second inning as senior Fiona Kelleher blasted a lead-off home run to put the Pirates ahead 1-0, a rare home run allowed by Jamie Dinger.
Dinger finished the game with three innings pitched, allowing one run on three hits. Chelcy Clark came in to relieve Dinger in the fourth, striking out three over three innings.
Pine Grove tied the game in the bottom of the second, but the Pirates struck right back, scoring a pair of runs in the third on two hits and capitalizing on a Pine Grove fielding error.
The Cardinals cut the deficit to 3-2 in the fourth on an RBI double from Khloe Jessman, who continued her phenomenal postseason performance. The talented freshman was 4-for-4 in the win with two RBI.
“She’s going to be a great player,” Pine Grove coach Ryan Leffler said. “I’m happy to have her for three more years…She’s been locked in. Just proud of her.”
In the fifth inning, the Cardinals’ offense broke out with nine runs, thanks in part to back-to-back home runs from Lily Flynn and Khloe Jessman before Callee Leffler tacked on a two-run home run of her own later in the inning. The home run was Leffler’s fourth home run in as many games and her 15th overall of the season.
“The girls didn’t panic,” Leffler said about his team’s win. “They’ve been here before, they knew what they needed to do, and they did a good job adjusting late in the game there, and we put a couple runs up there.”
In the sixth, Jamie Dinger got in on the party with a solo blast before Meadow Umbenhauer officially sunk the Pirates with a game-ending RBI single to run rule Palisades 13-3.
Pine Grove will face No. 2 seed Northern Lehigh in the Class 3A championship game next Wednesday.
Williams Valley cruises past Mahanoy Area 14-1
In the second game of the triple-header at Blue Mountain, Williams Valley jumped out to an immediate 11-0 lead over Mahanoy Area and never looked back en route to a 14-1 win in five innings.
“During our losing streak there, we were getting behind and always playing catch-up,” Williams Valley’s Ryan Underkoffler said after his team’s win. “I told them if we put the pressure on the other team and get up early, we’re going to be in much better shape instead of playing from behind all the time.”
After a walk and a hit-by-pitch started the inning for the Vikings at the plate, Quin Smeltz blasted a mammoth home run over the original fence at Patton Field to give the Vikings a 3-0 lead.
From there, the Vikings continued to tack on with RBI doubles from Kamri Koppenhaver, Ella Kobularik, and Olivia Hand before Smeltz picked up her second hit of the inning with an RBI single.
The Golden Bears got on the board in the third inning on a Hailey Mroczka triple, but managed just three other base runners in the loss as Liv Hand dealt in the circle, striking out 10 in five innings.
Williams Valley will take on Schuylkill Haven in the Class 2A championship game next Tuesday.
Schuylkill Haven outlasts Minersville 8-5
Schuylkill Haven and Minersville went toe-to-toe in an exciting, action-packed nightcap on Friday evening, with the Hurricanes advancing to the Class 2A championship game with an 8-5 victory.
Minersville took the first lead in the game, scoring at the top of the first inning as Sara McGrath scored Rilynn Brennan on an RBI double.
McGrath was 3-for-4 in the loss for the Battlin’ Miners with one RBI.
In the bottom of the inning, Danica Snyder drove in one run on an RBI double while Braelynn Strencoski picked up an RBI on a safety squeeze in the bottom of the second.
The Battlin’ Miners tied the game in the third on a fielder’s choice, but Schuylkill Haven took control in the bottom of the inning with a pair of runs, including one off the bat of Lexi Mull on an RBI double.
Mull led the Hurricanes with a 3-for-4 day at the plate and two RBI.
Hurricanes’ starting pitcher Alli Scherer helped her own case in the fourth inning on an RBI double that just missed leaving the park before Kaitlyn Russo followed it up immediately with an RBI double of her own, extending the Hurricanes’ lead to 6-2.
Russo was 3-for-4 in the win with an RBI, and Scherer was 2-for-4 at the plate while pitching a complete game in the circle, striking out seven.
The Battlin’ Miners struck back in the fifth inning with a pair of runs as Bella Cruz recorded a two-RBI triple to make it a 6-4 game.
The Hurricanes added runs in the fifth and the sixth to lead 8-4 heading into the seventh before Cruz added a third RBI to her box score in the seventh with a double, giving the semifinal matchup its final 8-5 score.
Schuylkill Haven coach Garry Adams credits his team’s love of the game and youth as a reason for their success.
“They don’t realize how good of competition that they’re facing with everything,” he said in reference to his team’s youth. “They go up, and they’re playing for the love of the game, the love of the team, and the love of their school.”
The Hurricanes will look for that to carry them into next Tuesday’s Class 2A championship game against Williams Valley.