DUBOIS, Pa. – Kylee Lingenfelter and her Punxsutawney teammates won the school’s fourth straight District 9 title and second in a row in Class 4A in a breeze, 10-0 in five innings, over St. Marys Friday afternoon at the Heindl Memorial Field in DuBois.
All 15 outs recorded by Punxsutawney were courtesy of Lingenfelter strikeouts, and the Lady Chucks offense used an eight-run second inning to put the game away early.
“No,” Lingenfelter said when asked if she had ever recorded every out in a game by strikeout before. “I knew I had it going on, and I think it was more nerve-wracking than a no-hitter. You just want to keep pushing and you don’t want to mess it up.”
Lingenfelter, who is headed to Penn State next year, gave up one hit – a bloop double to left in the second that ended up with St. Marys having its leadoff hitter at third following an error on the play, before striking out the side to strand the runner. She had done the same thing in the second after her error – on a tough popped up bunt that went in and out of her glove behind the circle – followed by a stolen base allowed St. Marys a runner at second. But those were the only two runners the Lady Dutch had in the game, and Lingenfelter retired the final 12 batters she faced mixing a mid-to-high 60s fastball with offspeed pitches that reached into the 30s.
“I prepared a lot for this game,” Lingenfelter said. “I knew the changeup could be effective to throw the batters off a little.”
Watch Lingenfelter’s complete post-game interview.
Punxsutawney manager Alan Pifer wasn’t surprised at all by his senior’s performance.
“I’m so used to it,” Pifer said. “I’m probably spoiled by Kylee’s performances. It has become the norm. Today, she was pumped up. This is an arch-rival of ours. She was throwing as hard today as she has thrown and mixing her pitches up and that sort of things. She was just dominate.”
While Lingenfelter was her usual solid self, the Punxsutawney offense also made a strong appearance banging out nine hits and drawing five walks in the 10-run effort.
“Sometimes our offense and is there and sometimes it is not,” Pifer said. “Today it was there.
“When these girls are right and in the right mindset, we are one of the better hitting teams around. That pitcher (St. Marys’ Maura Fledderman) did a pretty niche job on us at our place (a 10-inning Punxsutawney win in the regular season). We knew she was tough. We scouted them the other night when they played Clearfield (in the semifinals). We kind of had an idea of what we wanted to do and how to attack her. I can’t say it worked to perfection, but it worked very well. We did put the bat on the ball and put pressure on their defense.”
Freshman Sarah Weaver was one of the catalysts for the Lady Chucks. She was 2-for-2 in the game with a walk and two RBIs.
Pifer credited Weaver’s first at-bat leading off the bottom of the first inning when she drew a walk with setting the tone for the day for Punxsutawney even though the Lady Chucks didn’t score in the first inning.
“Sarah Weaver, I think, set the tone in that first at-bat fouling off all those pitches,” Pifer said. “I think she was down in the count 1-2 and battled back to draw a walk and then her next time up, she got us on the board with a two-RBI single.”
The two-run single Pifer referenced accounted for the first two runs of the game for the Lady Chucks and came in the eight-run second after Punxsy had loaded the bases with no outs thanks to a bloop double by another freshman Kendal Johnston, a walk to Abby Gigliotti and an infield bunt single by Riley Presloid.
Weaver then again got down in the count before battling back and lining a single to center.
That single broke open the floodgates for Punxsutawney, as following a walk to Grace Aikens, Lingenfelter helped her own cause with a two-run double to left-center, and St. Marys changed pitchers replacing Maura Fledderman with Brianna Grotzinger – although the Lady Dutch later went back to Fledderman.
Madison Stonebraker greeted Grotzinger by drawing a walk, and following a Toya Jones RBI groundout, Holly Hartman, the 10th batter to bat in the inning, hit a ball through the glove of the shortstop for another run. Johnston then capped off the inning with her second double of the inning, this time a two-run two-bagger, to make it 8-0.
“The team really did well in backing me up,” Lingenfelter said. “We were able to put some runs on the board for me, so that helped me settle in a little bit more and relax some.”
Punxsutawney added two more runs in the third when Weaver had an infield single with one out and scored on a base hit by Aikens that included an error on the centerfielder and allowed Aikens to go to second. Lingenfelter followed with a single, and pinch runner Jessica Lisa, running for Aikens, scored on a grounder by Stonebraker that saw Stonebraker reached on another error.
Punxsutawney will now face the second-place team out of the WPIAL, either Elizabeth Forward or Belle Vernon, in the opening round of the PIAA playoffs Monday, June 4, at a site and time to be determined. The WPIAL title game is May 30 at Seton Hill University.
NOTES – This is the first 4A title won on the field by the Lady Chucks, as last year no other team entered the District 9 tournament in 4A in the first year of the new six-classification system.
PUNXSUTAWNEY 10, ST. MARYS 0, 5 INNINGS
Score by Innings
St. Marys 000 00 – 0
Punxsy 082 0x – 10
ST. MARYS – 0
Maddie LeGrys rf 2000, Britney Shaw 2000, Micayla Bothun 2000, Sydney Eckert 1b 2000, Sophie Buttery 1b 0000, Maddie Bowes 2b 2010, Brianna Grotzinger dp/p 1000, Mckenzie Gillen 1000, Maura Fledderman p 2000, Allison “Pete” Schlimm c 1000, Emily Vollmer ph 1000, Bekka Bauer ss 1000, Lauren Eckert lf 0000. Totals 17-0-1-0.
PUNXSUTAWNEY – 10
Sarah Weaver cf 2222, Kylee Shoemaker ph 1000, Grace Aikens 2120, Jessica Lisa pr 0100, Kylee Lingenfelter p 3022, Elliott Ferrent cr/ph 1100, Madison Stonbraker 2001, Alli Meko cr 0100, Toya Jones 3001, Holly Hartman 3100, Kendal Johnston dp 2122, Mia Lingenfelter ph 0000, Abby Gigliotti lf 1100, Mya Phillips ph 1000, Riley Presloid ss 2110. 23-10-9-8.
LOB: St. Marys 2. Punxsutawney 6. Errors: St. Marys 4. Punxsutawney 2. 2B: Bowes, Kylee Lingenfelter, Johnston (2). SB: LeGrys.
PITCHING
St. Marys
Maura Fledderman 3 ⅓ IP, 9 R, 6 ER, 7 H, 4 BB, 3 K
Brianna Grotzinger ⅔ IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 K
Totals: 4 IP, 10 R, 6 ER, 8 H, 5 BB, 3 K
*Fledderman was removed from the game with one out in the second and returned to the game to start the third
Punxsutawney
Kylee Lingenfelter 5 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 15 K
Winning pitcher: Kylee Lingenfelter
Losing pitcher: Maura Fledderman
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