May 12, 2015 5 min read

CALIFORNIA – After throwing 126 pitches, facing 33 batters and battling with a changeup that would not cooperate, Canon-McMillan senior pitcher Tara Fowler did not want to step back into the circle for extra innings.

When she walked to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning and the potential winning run in scoring position, Fowler wanted a hit. Any kind of hit would do.

Fowler drove a ball to right field to score Brittney Crawford from second base, sending Canon-McMillan to the WPIAL Class AAAA quarterfinals with a 6-5 come-from-behind victory over Latrobe Tuesday at Lilley Field.

“I was pretty nervous. I just wanted to hit a single, something, anything,” Fowler said. “I was expecting an outside pitch, which I got. I just stuck my bat out. I didn’t really finish my swing, but it worked.”

It is the fifth consecutive season that the seventh-seeded Big Macs (13-4) have reached the quarterfinals. They will face second-seeded North Allegheny Monday at a site and time to be determined. Latrobe’s season ends with a 9-8 record.

Fowler was the winning pitcher, striking out five batters and overcoming a first inning in which she allowed three runs. She went 2-for-4 with a run. The finish was much different than the beginning of the game.

Latrobe pitcher Meredith Carr drew a one-out walk in the top of the first inning before Karley Kotvatch and Jenna Adams followed with back-to-back RBI doubles. Adams scored on an error to give the Wildcats a 3-0 lead.

“I was really stressed in the beginning, but I knew we could get back into it once we started hitting,” Fowler said. “The sun was a big issue. I couldn’t even see the plate.”

Fowler turned to her curveball and screwball, striking out a batter to end the second, third and sixth innings. The Wildcats added a run in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Kovatch, but they stranded nine runners, including four in scoring position.

“We started chasing some pitches we shouldn’t have,” Latrobe coach Alexa Bryson said. “We let some good ones go by and we popped a few up. Not many teams will make mistakes with a routine fly-ball out. “

The Big Macs’ defense, which committed four errors, came up big for Fowler. After Latrobe led off the sixth inning with a double by Jess Tatone, who advanced to third on a wild pitch, the Wildcats hit a line drove to Kirsten Rush at third base, who promptly tagged Tatone.

With a runner on second base in the top of the seventh inning, Latrobe attempted to bunt the runner to third, but Rush collected the ball and tossed it to shortstop Linda Rush, who tagged Jenna Raccor for an out.

The offense showed the same resiliency. Linda Rush led off the bottom of the first with a solo home run over the wall in right field. Freshman first baseman Katelyn Greaves hit a two-run single in the bottom of the fourth inning to draw C-M to within one run and Kirsten Rush had a two-run double in the fifth to give the Big Macs their first lead of the game.

“They actually stayed, they battled and continued together,” Canon-McMillan coach Michele Moeller said. “That’s great to see and that’s what I love to watch. It was ups and downs. For the bottom of the order to start coming around on a day like today is great. Overall, I was proud.”

The Wildcats tied the score, 5-5, in the top of the sixth. After Kirsten Rush got the lead runner out at third base, Alexus Fearer singled and Carr drove in the tying run with a single to right field.

The Big Macs went hitless in the bottom of the inning and their defense saved a potential run in the seventh to set the stage for Fowler’s heroics. Crawford led off the bottom of the seventh with an infield single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt before Fowler came to the plate.

“Tara really turned it on after those first few innings,” Moeller said. “I don’t know if it’s because we’ve been resting her, but she really turned it up. … To go out with a big hit and end it, she probably just didn’t want to pitch again.”

That’s the truth.

“Yes. I did not want it to go to extra innings,” Fowler chuckled. “I was really hoping I would get a hit.”

It was not a home run like Linda Rush’s in the 2013 PIAA championship game or Olivia Lorusso’s two-run single to cap a seventh-inning comeback against Latrobe in the WPIAL semifinals last year, but it’s a hit that adds confidence to a young Canon-McMillan team that will need every bit of momentum against North Allegheny (17-1) in the quarterfinals.

“We are not the same team. Yes, I still have Linda (Rush), I still have (Abby) McCartney, but this is a young team,” Moeller said. “Boy, they showed a lot of guts starting the way they did and not giving up. Battling back is something I’ve been looking for.”