May 16, 2017 3 min read

WEXFORD – Before the pitch was thrown Monday evening, McGuffey High School softball coach Jason Kern told his team three things were going to happen.

“Something good was going to happen,” Kern said. “Something bad was going to happen. Something unexpected was going to happen.”

After almost not making it to North Allegheny for the Highlanders’ WPIAL first-round playoff game because of bus complications, Kern thought the bad and the unexpected on that list might have already been checked off before the game even started.

However, after McGuffey scored two runs in top of the seventh inning to tie the score at 4-4, Burrell was going to make sure the bus problems were trumped. DeLaney Markle reached for Burrell on an error, which was followed by two singles to load the bases, setting up Brittany Dunn’s bloop single over a drawn-in infield that give the Buccaneers a 5-4 victory over McGuffey in A WPIAL Class AAA first-round game.

Burrell (8-7) advances to the WPIAL quarterfinals where it will face No. 1 seed Ellwood City Wednesday.

“The ending was indicative of how our season went,” Kern said. “The whole season we made minor mistakes.”

Burrell was able to get away with four mistakes in the field as McGuffey (7-12) failed to take advantage of having runners in scoring position.

“We had errors at the wrong time and a few too many walks, but we withstood the storm,” Burrell coach Brian Eshbaugh said.

The storm would have come a lot earlier for the Highlanders if it wasn’t for the plays Burrell did end up making in the field, including a two-out catch from third baseman Kelly Nitowksi to rob McGuffey’s Megan Gray of a hit and strand Highlander runners at second and third in the second inning, keeping the score at 1-1.

“We just hit the ball right at players,” Kern said. “We hit it hard. We didn’t strike out that much, but a good team like Burrell is going to make plays. They made plays. We didn’t make as many plays as they did.”

Burrell took the lead on a two-run single to center field from Dunn. That lead was extended in the fifth inning when Alaina York was brought home after her one-out triple to give Burrell a 4-2 lead.

“We were getting on base,” Eshbaugh said. “A lot of the times we just weren’t getting them in but the top of our lineup has been producing all year.”

That production came directly from Dunn, who led Burrell by going 3-for-4 with three RBI. She also earned a complete-game win in the circle.

York also had a three-hit day, falling a home run shy of hitting for the cycle.

McGuffey starting pitcher Ella Brookman limited the Buccaneers’ damage and collected two hits of her own.

“We had the top of the lineup coming up in the seventh inning,” Kern said about the rally that began with freshman Megan Gray. “They never quit and I love that about these girls. We replaced six starters from a year ago. We knew we were going to have a lot of young kids. We have a bright future.”