Lady Mikes advance to state tournament with 3-2 win over Lady Blue Devils
Holly Tonini
Carmichaels鈥� Maddi Ewart slides safely home as the ball eludes Leechburg catcher Kristen Knapp on Friday during their WPIAL Class A third-place consolation game at California University of Pa.蘑菇视频 Lilley Field. Ewart蘑菇视频 run proved to be the game winner in the Lady Mikes 3-2 victory which earned them a spot in the PIAA tournament.
Holly Tonini
Carmichaels鈥� Natalie McKett (left) and Laura Walker celebrate their 3-2 victory over Leechburg during Friday蘑菇视频 WPIAL Class A third-place consolation game at California University of Pa.蘑菇视频 Lilley Field. The win qualified the Lady Mikes for the PIAA tournament.
Holly Tonini
Carmichaels鈥� Kylie Sinn slides safely into third before the tag by Leechburg蘑菇视频 Brooke Blumer during their WPIAL Class A third-place consolation game at California University of Pa.蘑菇视频 Lilley Field on Friday.
CALIFORNIA 鈥� Carmichaels jumped out to an early lead and held on for a 3-2 victory over Leechburg to advance to the state tournament in Class A softball action last Friday at California University of Pennsylvania蘑菇视频 Lilley Field.
The Lady Mikes (18-5) jumped to a 3-0 advantage after two innings but the Lady Blue Devils (14-4) battled back for two runs in the fifth before Carmichaels freshman starting pitcher Kylie Sinn got the final six outs.
鈥淚t is a seven-inning game and I was trying to tell the girls that,鈥� Carmichaels coach Dave Briggs said. 鈥淚t was really important for us to get off to a good start today.鈥�
The Lady Mikes, who suffered a 6-2 setback to Monessen on Tuesday in the WPIAL semifinals, meet the District 9 champion on June 5 with the opponent, site and time to be determined.
鈥淚 think the day off yesterday really helped us,鈥� Briggs said in reference to Thursday蘑菇视频 games being rained out. 鈥淚f we would have played yesterday, I don鈥檛 know what would have happened. We took the extra day and regrouped.鈥�
Leechburg led off the sixth with Lexie Young reaching base on a single up the middle and moving to second on starting pitcher蘑菇视频 Morgan Pierce bunt single.
Sinn got the next two batters to strike out swinging and a pop up to second base to work her way out of the jam.
鈥淚 really didn鈥檛 stress or worry because I knew I had my teammates behind me,鈥� Sinn said. 鈥淭he last game was a little difficult because I wasn鈥檛 hitting my spots real well and getting many calls.
鈥淚 really worked on my pitches the last two days and we were really ready for this game. We are all so excited to go to the state tournament. We want to try and go all the way to the state finals.鈥�
The Lady Blue Devils had the tying run in scoring position in the seventh when Keira Jones led off the inning with an infield single and moved to second on Kristen Knapp蘑菇视频 sacrifice bunt, but Sinn got the next batter to strikeout swinging and the final batter to fly out to right field.
Sinn allowed two earned runs on nine hits in seven innings. She had eight strikeouts and didn鈥檛 walk a batter.
鈥淜ylie (Sinn) got ahead in the count more today than she did on Tuesday,鈥� Briggs said. 鈥淲e have a pretty good defense behind her and we usually make the plays behind her.鈥�
The Lady Mikes scored two runs on two hits to open the scoring in the bottom of the first inning.
Laura Walker walked, stole second and scored on Natalie McNett蘑菇视频 RBI single to right field for a 1-0 advantage. McNett stole second and scored on Gina Ranieri蘑菇视频 run-scoring single to right field.
The Lady Mikes stole eight bases with Walker, Sinn and Madison Ewart swiping two bags. McNett and Shelbee McCann each had a steal.
鈥淲e like to run a lot and are usually pretty aggressive on the base paths so that was nothing new for us,鈥� Briggs said. 鈥淲e were able to take advantage of that today.鈥�
Carmichaels added one run on one hit in the second when Ewart reached on an infield single, stole second, moved to third on an error and scored on Sinn蘑菇视频 fielder蘑菇视频 choice for a 3-0 lead.
The Lady Blue Devils got on the scoreboard with two runs on three hits in the fifth when Aubry Skeel singled to lead off the inning and teammate Ashley Weaver came in as a pinch runner. Weaver moved to third on Jones鈥� double to left-center field.
Weaver scored on Knapp蘑菇视频 RBI ground out and Jones came home on Kasey Klapheke蘑菇视频 RBI single to left field. Klapheke was picked off at first base when Megan Walker fired to Ranieri to end the inning with the Lady Mikes holding a 3-2 advantage.
Pierce took the loss but held Carmichaels鈥� offense to five hits, and just one following the third inning. Morgan Faddis doubled in the third for the Lady Mikes鈥� only extra-base hit. Pierce allowed three runs (two earned) with five strikeouts and two walks.
鈥淪he (Pierce) is a good pitcher who is crafty and mixes her speeds really well,鈥� Briggs said. 鈥淚 have seen her pitch a few times and she is pretty impressive.鈥�