Canon-Mac wins PIAA softball title in dramatic fashion
STATE COLLEGE – It took 12 innings and nearly three hours, but the Canon-McMillan softball team won its first-ever PIAA Class AAAA title with a 4-3 victory over Neshaminy this afternoon at Penn State University’s Nittany Lion Softball Park.
Freshman shortstop Linda Rush drove a 1-0 pitch to left center to score Maddie Engel, who started the inning at second base because of the international tiebreaker rule that kicks in after nine innings.
Senior pitcher Alayna Astuto was spectacular, striking out 18 and allowing four hits. She had a no-hitter through nine innings and wound up throwing 161 pitches, 120 of them for strikes.
Canon-McMillan finished the season at 25-1 after winning a second consecutive WPIAL title.
The teams traded runs in the 10th and 11th, Canon-Mac scoring twice without so much as a hit, before Rush put the Big Macs ahead for good.
The game ended 2 hours, 50 minutes after it started when pinch-hitter Nikki Wild popped out to Engel at first base, triggering a wild celebration in the infield.