West Greene edged 3-2 in state softball title game
West Greene coach Bill Simms tells Bailey Bennington he is sorry he couldn’t get the Pioneers the trophy while presenting her with a medal after a 3-2 loss to Williams Valley in the PIAA Class A championship Thursday at Penn State.
West Greene pitcher Madison Renner walks off the field as Williams Valley players celebrate a 3-2 win in the PIAA Class A championship Thursday.
West Greene’s Madison Renner high-fives Kaitlyn Rizor after Rizor caught a pop-up in the first inning of Thursday’s game.
West Greene’s Madison Renner watches in anticipation as McKenna Lampe slides safely into home during the third inning of the PIAA Class A championship Thursday.
West Greene pitcher Madison Renner leads teammates off the field after the Pioneers lost to Williams Valley in the PIAA Class A championship.
West Greene coach Bill Simms sends Jessica Orndoff to run home during the third inning of Thursday’s game.
West Greene’s Madison Lampe and McKenna Lampe wipe tears from their eyes after being defeated by Williams Valley in the PIAA Class A championship game Thursday.
West Greene’s McKenna Lampe hits a double in the third inning of the PIAA Class A championship Thursday.
West Greene’s Shelby Morris forces Williams Valley’s Caitlyn Pinchorski out at home in the bottom of the third inning Thursday at the PIAA Class A championship.
STATE COLLEGE – West Greene’s dream softball season fell one victory shy of a state championship.
Caitlyn Pinchorski scored from second base on Rayanne Hawk’s two-out single to right field in the bottom of the seventh inning to give Williams Valley a 3-2 victory over West Greene in the PIAA Class A championship game Thursday morning at Penn State’s Beard Field.
The loss snapped a 23-game winning streak by West Greene (26-2).
The Pioneers erased an early two-run deficit before the District 11 champion Vikings (26-2) took advantage of a two-out walk in the seventh. Pinchorski drew the walk and stole her second, and Williams Valley’s fifth, base of the game. Hawk then sliced a shot to right field. Mackenzie Carpenter, the Pioneers’ right fielder who had thrown out a batter at first base earlier in the inning, raced back and toward the foul line. She reached up to make a leaping, lunging catch but the ball glanced off the end of her glove as Pinchorski scored the game-winning run.
“That ball had some carry to it,” West Greene coach Bill Simms said. “Mackenzie has been great for us. She got the second out of the inning by making a great play. She just couldn’t get to the one at the end.”
Hawk said she didn’t think the hit had enough distance or loft to be a game-winner.
“When it came off the bat, I thought it was an easy out,” she admitted. “I could see that it was slicing toward the foul line. I wasn’t sure if it was caught or not, that’s why I kept running to third base.”
It was the sixth hit of the game for Williams Valley and just the Vikings’ second since the third inning. West Greene pitcher Madison Renner did not have a strikeout but she frustrated Williams Valley’s hitters, who scored 52 runs in their first three state tournament games, including 39 in a first-round rout.
“West Greene is a great team. They did some things to us that usually don’t happen,” Williams Valley coach Lee Reiser. “We didn’t hit.”
After West Greene fell behind 2-0 in the second inning, Renner began changing speeds and it changed the Pioneers’ luck.
“Her changeup had us off balance,” Reiser said. “We were swinging at changeups that we shouldn’t have swung at. We told the kids about it but they kept saying, ‘But Coach, it looks like a beach ball.'”
West Greene tied the score at 2-2 in the top of the third inning. Linzee Stover drew a one-out walk from Williams Valley pitcher Tianna Yanoscak but was erased on a force play at second base. Jessica Orndoff then pinch-ran for Carpenter and scored when McKenna Lampe hit the first of her two doubles over the head of Hawk in center field.
Lampe tried to stretch the hit into a triple and the relay throw from Pinchorski, the Williams Valley shortstop, sailed wide of third base for an error, allowing Lampe to continue to home plate and tie the score at 2-2.
It was a daring baserunning move but one that paid off this time. In the sixth inning, it backfired on the Pioneers.
Lampe, who had two of West Greene’s four hits, doubled again over Hawk’s head to the wall in left centerfield. This time, the relay from Hawk to Pinchorski to third baseman Kenna Ferron was on target and in time to get Lampe for the first out of the inning.
“I trust McKenna,” Simms said. “I would go to Australia and back with her. There’s no looking back. That’s our style. We win aggressively or we lose aggressively.”
Renner had a two-out hit later in the inning but was left stranded.
“That relay play was the key to the game,” Reiser said. “Catie had (Orndoff) at the plate the first time but saw Lampe going to third base and threw it where it was unreachable. The second time … Catie has the best arm of any player I’ve coached. She was gunned at a showcase throwing 92 mph from the field.”
Williams Valley had taken a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning by stringing together three consecutive singles and mixing them with two stolen bases and West Greene’s lone error. But West Greene gradually gained the momentum with its two-run top of the third then working out of a jam in the bottom of the inning. Williams Valley loaded the bases with one out on a single by Pinchorski and two walks, but Renner induced a ground ball to Madison Lampe at third base that led to a forceout at home plate. A fly out to Carpenter in foul territory ended the threat.
“Their defense was great,” Hawk said of the Pioneers. “We hit a lot of balls right at ’em, but they made every play.”
West Greene, however, couldn’t muster enough offense against Yanoscak, who walked two and struck out seven.
“We weren’t here to play for second place,” said Simms, who had only one senior on the roster. “I told the kids that we not going to be happy with just getting here and settling for second. But we have a stable full of kids coming back.”