CURWENSVILLE, Pa. (D9Sports) – Curwensville walked away, quite literally, with an 8-7 win over Kane in the District 9 Class 2A quarterfinals Monday afternoon in Curwensville.
(Photo of Curwensville’s Mackenzie Wall. Photo by Jared Bakaysa of JB Graphics. See more of Bakaysa’s work here)
Freshman Mackenzie Wall drew a bases-loaded, full-count walk with the score tied at seven to give the fourth-seeded Lady Tide the victory over the fifth-seeded Lady Wolves.
“I was really scared,” Wall said of her last at-bat. “I was ready to swing, I held back, came through and did not swing, and I’m proud of myself for that.”
Curwensville entered the bottom of the eighth trailing Kane 7-6 after Kane scored on a Mia Smith bunt that brought home Rachel Haight in the top of the inning.
But Abby Pentz kicked off the bottom of the eighth hitting a fly ball and reaching first on an error. Logan Sheeder walked and Bailey Bloom hit a ground ball to center field which drove in Pentz to tie the game 7-7.
“I just told myself I needed to make contact,” Bloom said. “I struck out the last time so I just wanted to hit the ball and it ended up going up the middle to tie the game.”
Watch a postgame interview with Wall and Bloom.
Bloom finished the night going 1-for-4 with the game-tying RBI.
Following the Bloom hit, Alexandria Zattoni pinch ran for Sheeder at second base, and Bella Giuffre singled to advance Zattoni to third and Bloom to second setting up Wall to hit with the bases loaded.
Kane forced extra innings with two runs in the top of the seventh.
Emma Ely doubled to drive in Smith to make the score 6-5 and Katlyn Young grounded out to drive in Ely to tie the game 6-6.
The Lady Wolves scored six of their seven runs in their final four at bats after trailing 5-1 going to the fifth.
Curwensville scored its five runs in the second to take a 5-1 lead with Wall, Ally Hess, Kelsi Bumbarger, Maddie Butler and Pentz scoring for the Lady Tide.
Kane, which took an early 1-0 lead in the second inning on a run-scoring double by Madie Stahi, fought back with a pair of runs in the fifth when Stahi and Jenny Crowley scored to make it 5-3. Crowley came home on a wild pitch.
Curwensville extended the lead to 6-3 with a run in the bottom of the fifth when Butler drove home Hess with a single.
The Lady Wolves got another run off a wild pitch in the sixth inning with Young scoring to make it 6-4.
Butler led the Lady Tide offense going 2-for-3 with a run scored and two RBIs while Hess had a single with two runs scored. Pentz had a single and pair of runs scored with Lauren Tozer hitting a triple in the fourth inning.
Ely paced the Lady Wolves offense driving in two runs while going 2-for-5 with a double and run scored. Stahi also doubled and went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI while Smith went 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI.
Joslynne Freyer earned her first career playoff win with 11 strikeouts while giving up seven runs, five earned, on six hits, five walks and three hit batters in eight innings of work.
Rachel Danielson struck out eight in the loss for Kane. She gave up the eight runs, three earned, on seven hits and nine walks in 7 ⅓ innings in the circle.
Curwensville will face the top seed, Redbank Valley, on the road Wednesday, May 22.
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