Jun 8, 2013 5 min read

CHURCHILL – On the Canon-McMillan High School softball team’s lineup card, Kirsten Rush is listed as the designated player. In baseball, she would be called the designated hitter.

By any name, it’s a position that limits Rush to sitting in the dugout and watching nine of her teammates play the field each inning. Every 25 minutes or so, Rush gets to grab her bat and step in the batter’s box.

And if you’re only going to get three or four chances per game to make an impact, then you might as well take advantage of ’em, right?

Rush, a freshman, did just that Friday afternoon, hitting a two-run homer and a double, and scoring two runs, as Canon-McMillan defeated North Allegheny, 5-0, in the PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinals at Woodland Hills High School.

Senior pitcher Alayna Astuto threw a four-hit shutout, her third shutout of the postseason.

The win sends Canon-McMillan (23-1) to Monday’s state semifinal against Pennsbury (24-3), the third-place team out of District 1. The game will be played at Carlisle High School with a 4 p.m. start.

Against North Allegheny (18-6), the Big Macs took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, then escaped a full-blown jam unscathed when the Tigers loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the first but failed to score. It was NA’s only scoring threat in this rematch of the WPIAL final that was won by Canon-McMillan, 5-2.

Rush then smacked her two-run homer in the top of the second, putting C-M on its way to the state semifinals for the second consecutive year.

“Somebody always seems to be picking us up. I’m very lucky to have that lineup,” C-M coach Michele Moeller said.

On this day, it was Rush, batting out of the No. 8 spot in the lineup, who carried the day. She was 2-for-4 and scored the Big Macs’ fourth run after hitting a leadoff double off the fence in left field. Her big game was a pleasant development for the Big Macs because Rush had been hitless since going 1-for-3 in C-M’s first postseason game.

“She had been struggling in the playoffs, so this was a breakout game for her,” Moeller said. “Some of those struggles can be attributed to youth. You start pressing the deeper you go in the playoffs without getting a hit. She was more patient at the plate today.”

Rush looked like anything but a freshman on this day. Her home run came by taking a pitch on the outside part of the plate from NA’s Sami Beining and driving it the opposite way, over the fence in right field.

“I was actually very surprised it was a home run,” Rush said about her fourth homer of the season. “I just wanted to get the ball in play. She was pitching me outside, so I hit it that way. … Not playing the field, sometimes when we’re facing a fast pitcher, I worry about it taking me an at-bat before I get comfortable.”

After scoring the only run it would need in the top of the first inning on Yaszmin Kotar’s leadoff triple and Maddie Engel’s sacrifice fly, Canon-Mac found itself in a sticky situation. NA loaded the bases on three consecutive one-out singles off Astuto. But Mary Funderlich popped out to shortstop Linda Rush and designated player Casey Ginocchi struck out.

“It was definitely big to get out of that inning,” Moeller said. “We’ve had a few of those tight situations early in games, but Alayna has been able to get out of them.”

Astuto pitched one-hit ball over the final six innings. Starting with Funderlich’s popout, she retired 15 of the next 16 NA hitters. After the first inning, the Tigers had only two baserunners, and one of those was erased in the seventh inning when second baseman Ally Bellaire turned an unassisted double play. With Ginocchi on first base with a leadoff walk, Rachel Pecanis hit a low liner that Bellaire snared. Ginocchi, who was unsure if the batted ball was going to hit the ground, was easily caught off first base and tagged out by Bellaire.

C-M made it 4-0 in the sixth. Kirsten Rush’s double opened the inning and she moved to third base on Bellaire’s sacrifice bunt. Kotar followed with a sacrifice fly to right field.

Right fielder Abby McCartney punctuated the win by leading off the seventh with a line-drive home run to center field.

The Big Macs had 13 hits, including at least one in every inning. Catcher Giorgiana Zeremenko was 3-for-3 with two doubles and a walk, and McCartney was 3-for-4. Kotar and Engel each had two hits.

The five runs were more than enough support for Astuto, who struck out six and walked only two.

“I go into every game expecting the opponent to score,” Moeller admitted. “Let’s not kid around; we’re in the part of the playoffs in which you play teams that can hit the ball. But in every game, Alayna’s pitching has been very good and our defense has been making plays.”