Rough first inning sinks C-H’s season
CALIFORNIA – Nobody had to remind Chartiers-Houston softball coach Tricia Alderson that the Bucs were the underdogs.
After two, 10-run losses to South Side Beaver earlier in the season, one knocking the Bucs out of the WPIAL playoffs in the semifinals, Alderson knew what the Rams do best.
“We knew they were going to hit the ball,” Alderson said. “They don’t strike out. They score a lot of runs.”
The only thing that has changed is the eagerness for South Side Beaver to light up the scoreboard as much, and as early, as possible.
Searching for its first appearance in a PIAA championship game, South Side Beaver didn’t waste any time as the first five hitters it sent to the plate – three reaching base on first-pitch singles – recorded a hit and came around to score. Scoring five runs before the Bucs had an at-bat diminished any chance of an upset as South Side Beaver defeated Chartiers-Houston, 7-2, in Monday’s PIAA Class AA semifinal game at California University’s Lilley Field.
The plan for Chartiers-Houston (18-5) was to keep the game close and low-scoring, similar to the strategy it used in its first-round win over District 9 champion Moniteau (1-0) and a back-and-forth victory over Frazier (4-3) in the quarterfinals. This time, the plan went array from the beginning.
The hitting began for the Rams with back-to-back singles that led to a Sydney Payne RBI double off the left-field wall to open the scoring. South Side Beaver’s Hunter Hand then ripped a two-run single to left field, and a bloop single from Dani-Jo Miller over second baseman Lauren Lober scored the fifth run of the inning.
“They came out hitting the ball and scored five runs,” Alderson said. “That was the difference of the game. The first inning killed us.”
The only bright spot, other than being finally out of the dreaded first inning, were the struggles in the circle for Rams pitcher McKenna Smith, who had stymied the Bucs’ offense before.
Smith, after allowing a leadoff single to C-H’s Kayla Alderson, had three illegal pitches that advanced Alderson to second, third and eventually home to trim the Rams’ lead to 5-1.
“It was just a distraction,” South Side Beaver coach Amy Pieto said about pulling Smith only one batter into the second inning because of crow hops prior to throwing pitches.
“She had to work through that. We figured afterwards that we would just make a (pitching) change.”
The change was a good one for South Side Beaver (20-3) as Regan Hozak took over the pitching duties and limited the Bucs for the remainder of the game.
After working out of bases-loaded jam in the second inning, Hozak went five more strong innings to earn the win. She allowed only five hits and one C-H run – an RBI double by Kaci Alderson that scored Kasey Scears in the bottom of the fifth inning – while striking out five.
“We tried to not take anything for granted and wipe the slate clean,” Smith said about their third meeting with C-H and making the pitching change. “We felt really confident in giving her the nod to take over.”
Each of the C-H runs were answered, including a double by Hand that rolled to the right-centerfield fence and scored Capri Sollinger-Knisley to give SSB a 6-1 lead after four innings.
Mackenzie Freeman doubled to deep center field to score Rachael Pieto from first base and extend the lead back to five runs, 7-2, in the seventh inning.
It was the first time South Side Beaver’s big inning against C-H came at the beginning of the game. The Rams scored seven runs in the final inning of their first matchup and did not score until the third inning in the WPIAL playoff game.
Seven of the Rams’ 13 hits came before the first three outs were recorded. Every Rams batter had at least one hit. Hozak, Hand, Freeman and Miller each had two hits.
“The girls are all good hitters from the top to the bottom of our lineup,” Pieto said. “We just stress to hit, hit, hit. The first inning really gets the butterflies out and you don’t have to worry as much. When we jumped ahead right away, that made things a lot easier.”
Karlyn Bayer, who was credited with seven innings pitched for C-H despite coming into the game with the Bucs already trailing 3-0, allowed only three earned runs.
Kaitlyn Dittrich gave up four runs without recording an out.
Scears led the C-H offense with two hits, both singles.
“We had some opportunities but couldn’t get a clutch hit when we needed to chip away at the lead early in the game,” Alderson said. “During those two weeks between the WPIAL playoffs and PIAA playoffs that we just had to practice, we stayed positive and tried to keep the kids loose. We told them it was a new season and anything can happen from that point on. It was just about being confident. We have been confident. We were confident coming in to today. Five runs in that first inning were just too much to overcome.”