May 23, 2016 3 min read

HARMONY – North Allegheny came well-armed for its game against Canon-McMillan.

Madi Beining allowed only three hits and North Allegheny scored all the runs it needed in the first inning to take a 2-0 victory from Canon-McMillan in the quarterfinals of the WPIAL Class AAAA softball playoffs at Seneca Valley High School Monday.

North Allegheny, the fourth-seed, moved its record to 19-2 and advanced to the semifinals against Hempfield, an 11-3 winner over Penn Trafford.

Canon-McMillan, co-champions of Section 4, finishes the season with a 16-4 record.

“This team has been a pleasure to be with all season,” said C-M head coach Michele Moeller. “I thought maybe we could get this one but we needed to hit and we didn’t put them together at the right time.”

In a game that took only 1:19 to play, North Allegheny pushed a run across in the bottom of the first inning. Kristen Chomos led off the inning with a single and moved to second on an error by shortstop Linda Rush on a grounder hit by left fielder Anna Pilotto. Catcher Liz Scherer then laced a double down the right field line to score Chomos.

“Canon-McMillan is a very good team and this year is no exception,” said NA head coach Rich Meister. “It was important to score first, so much so that I was going to bunt my No. 3 hitter if I had to move a runner over. That’s how important it was.”

The Tigers made it 2-0 in the bottom of the third when Chomos led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Pilotto. Scherer moved Chomos to third with a single and shortstop Rachel Martindale lifted a fly ball down the left field line. It curved into foul territory, where Kayla Hopkins caught it for an out. Chomos trotted home on the sacrifice fly.

“It’s hard to tell her not to catch that ball because you never know what can happen,” said Moeller. “You still have runners on base and you can’t give away an out. But we didn’t score and that was the story of this game.”

Canon-McMillan had two opportunities to score early but couldn’t get the key hit. In the first, Linda Rush drew a one-out walk and was sacrificed to second by second baseman Brittney Crawford. But Beining got first baseman Katelyn Greaves to ground out.

In the second, Kirsten Rush doubled to right-center field and was sacrificed to third. But Beining struck out right fielder Ashley Buggey and pitcher Abbi Michelucci to end the threat.

“We needed to get that runner home to make it closer,” said Moeller. “Rush did well against (Beining) last year.

“It came down to a couple of overthrows and some miscues we had. … We expect to score and we didn’t.”