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Carmichaels settles for silver again

5 min read
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CALIFORNIA – There are 30 less-successful Class A softball teams in the WPIAL that would have gladly traded places with the players from Carmichaels.

After all, having a chance to play for a WPIAL championship is every player’s goal at the start of the season, and the Mikes were making their second appearance in the title game in as many years.

However, Carmichaels senior shortstop Morgan Berardi summed up the championship day experience for the Mikes in only two words.

“It stinks,” she said succinctly.

That’s because for the second year in a row, Carmichaels had to settle for second place and silver medals.

After losing a tension-filled extra-innings game to Chartiers-Houston in the finals last year, Carmichaels fell behind by eight runs Thursday to Neshannock, then battled back to make the game interesting in the late innings before eventually losing, 10-4, at California University’s Lilley Field.

“It’s bittersweet,” said Carmichaels coach Dave Briggs who, like Berardi, admitted that silver is not his favorite color or metal.

“A lot of people dream of getting to this game and never get here. For this team to get here twice, that’s an accomplishment. But we wanted to win.”

That chance for victory slipped away quickly as Neshannock (18-2) scored six runs in the second inning and two more in the third to forge a commanding 8-0 lead. The Lancers, who won the state championship in Class AA last year and dropped down a classification this spring with the core of that title team returning, unleashed a 16-hit attack. Neshannock had at least one hit in every inning against a Carmichaels team that had outscored its first three playoff opponents by a 34-0 margin.

“That’s a good team, and we knew that,” Briggs said. “They’re hard to defend. They hit the ball everywhere. I thought we played well defensively, but their hits were legitimate.”

Carmichaels (21-3) will not have much time to regroup as the Mikes begin play Monday in the PIAA tournament against Saegertown (17-3), the District 10 champion, at a site and time to be determined. Briggs said his team can draw inspiration from Neshannock, which lost in the WPIAL semifinals last year before winning the state title.

“I think we’re going to regroup,” Briggs said. “We said let’s do what they did. They were the third-place team and made a run. I think we have a run inside of us.”

Carmichaels made a late run on Neshannock. Trailing 9-2, Carmichaels scored two runs in the sixth inning on Erica Burns’ line-drive double to right centerfield. The Mikes then loaded the bases with two outs, with the help of a heads-up play by Caroline Cree.

As Cree struck out swinging, seemingly ending the inning, Neshannock catcher Marissa Kirkwood scooped the pitch from Maidson Shaffer on the short-hop. Kirkwood thought the ball did not hit the dirt and rolled it back to the pitcher’s circle as Cree alertly ran to first base, reaching safely on a dropped third strike.

“We had talked about that kind of play because the same thing happened in a College World Series game last week,” Briggs pointed out. “The batter ran all the way around the bases and the other team ran off the field.”

After a walk to Berardi loaded the bases, Carmichaels was suddenly one hit into the gap away from making it a two-run game. But Shaffer, as she did all game, thwarted Carmichaels in a key situation, getting Regina Menhart to ground out to end the inning.

Carmichaels had only five hits, including Cree’s run-scoring double in the fifth, but had many scoring opportunities. The Mikes stranded nine baserunners.

Shaffer, a hard-throwing sophomore, struck out 12, walked four and hit a batter.

“They only had two well-hit balls,” Neshannock coach Tracy Kimmel said. “The others were what I like to call garbage hits. They took advantage of them, though. Give Carmichaels credit, they kept coming back.”

The Mikes had trouble catching up to Shaffer’s fastball. Burns was the only Carmichaels batter who did not strike out.

“We’ve seen pitchers like her, but it took us a couple of times through the order to get adjusted,” Berardi said. “We left too many runners on base. We needed to take advantage of our chances.”

Shaffer (2-for-4) also did much damage with her bat. She had the key hit in the second inning, a two-run triple. She also made it 7-0 in the third with a run-scoring double. Neshannock junior first baseman Alexandra Fisher was 3-for-3, and freshman second baseman Marissa DeMatteo was 3-for-5 with a double, triple and two RBI.

“My silver medal from last year has been hanging in the kitchen at home,” Berardi said. “I guess I’ll have to look at this one, too.”

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