PT clinches playoff spot, ends long losing streak against C-M
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Peters Township’s Haley Cecere slides uncontested into home plate Tuesday against Canon-McMillan.
Peters Township’s Kate Hondru celebrates after leading her team to a win against Canon-McMillan.
Peters Township’s Kate Hondru hits a three run home run against Canon-McMillan in the first inning.
Canon- McMillan’s Katelyn Greaves is hitting .474 with five home runs and 19 RBI this season.
Holly Tonini/ Observer-Reporter
Peters Township’s Morgan Byers (20) takes a “we’re #1” selfie with her teammates after clinching first place in the divison against Canon-McMillan
Canon-McMillan’s Erica Haught is safe at second against Peters Township’s Hayley Cecere
Observer-Reporter
The pandemic that canceled spring sports left Canon-McMillan’s softball team on the outside looking in on a potential championship season.
Peters Township’s Hayley Cecere gets the out against Canon-McMillan’s Chela Carr
McMURRAY – The whispers in the dugout of the Peters Township High School softball team became louder as the game progressed at Peterswood Park Tuesday afternoon.
With the Indians needing one of three things to happen – a Bethel Park loss, a Mt. Lebanon loss or for them to take care of business by defeating visiting Canon-McMillan – the likelihood of Peters Township clinching a WPIAL playoff berth was promising.
That was until the fifth inning, when those in the Peters Township dugout found out about Bethel Park upsetting section champion Baldwin and Mt. Lebanon using the mercy rule to defeat Upper St. Clair. The only way for the Indians to make the playoffs was to erase a two-run deficit against a team they hadn’t beaten in nearly six years.
Peters Township did exactly that as the Indians scored four runs in the bottom half of the fifth inning, had Jill Yeates turn a stellar double play to protect the lead and added three insurance runs to defeat Canon-McMillan, 10-7, in a Class 6A Section 1 game.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
From left, Peters Township’s Jill Yeates, Madison Morgan, Haley Cecere and Kate Hondru celebrate after defeating rival Canon-McMillan Tuesday to qualify for the Class 6A softball playoffs.
Peters Township (7-5, 9-8) returns to the playoffs after a one-year absence.
The win ended a 12-game losing streak against Canon-McMillan, which had outscored PT 121-25 during the streak.
“I don’t like to count on anybody losing,” said Peters Township second-year coach Nicole Davis. “I wanted to keep the fate in our hands. We had to perform and that’s what we did.”
Trailing 5-3 in the fifth inning, PT’s Victoria Boehme hit a two-out, two-run single to tie the score. Two batters later, Chloe Paugh, the No. 8 hitter for the Indians, blooped a single into right centerfield to give them a 7-5 lead.
“It was stressful,” Paugh said. “You just have to try to not get rattled and relax. I’ve been working with a hitting instructor and my coach to keep my weight back. It felt pretty amazing that it worked out for me today.”
The Peters Township lead was threatened quickly as Grace Higgins scored on a single by Katelyn Greaves up the middle to cut the deficit to one, 7-6, in the sixth inning. The Big Macs proceeded to load the bases but failed to score the game-tying and go-ahead runs when Yeates, PT’s junior second baseman, turned a double play after ranging to her right, stabbing a sharply hit line drive and ending the inning after throwing behind the runner at first base for a double play.
“That was huge,” Yeates said. “It was probably one of the most important plays. When (Canon-McMillan) gets on a roll they just go. If they started scoring, who knows when they would have stopped. Not letting them score again and getting those final two outs (in that inning) was huge.”
The struggles to score in the sixth represented an entire day of frustration for Canon-McMillan (8-4, 9-6) when it had runners in scoring position. The Big Macs had 11 runners reach at least second base and fail to score.
“If I knew I would fix it,” C-M coach Michelle Moeller said of the Big Macs’ four-game losing streak entering the playoffs, C-M’s longest since 2010.
“You go out there, do the best you can at every position and use everybody to try and manufacture what you need. We are doing what what we can by trying to mix it around. I’m trying to find the right mix. We have to find a way to just make better plays and not leave runners on base. If I had something that would fix it right now I would.”
When the Big Macs finally came through with runners in scoring position in the fifth, on a pinch-hit, two-run single by Hailey Freeman to give them a two-run lead, Moeller knew they were far from being safe.
“There is no score that’s safe enough,” she said. “Did I think we have it in the bag? No way. Never. Not in a million years.”
Erica Haught and Higgins led Canon-McMillan with three hits apiece.
Paugh paced Peters Township by going 3-for-3 with two RBI. Kate Hondru, the Indians’ starting pitcher, helped her cause with a three-run homer and a double in the sixth inning. She later scored with Lindsey Thomas on a single by Haley Cecere that extended the PT lead. The Indians then added another run to lead 10-6 on a C-M error.
“There wasn’t a team in our section that has swept us this year, and that’s huge knowing that you can beat any team heading into the playoffs,” Davis said. “But it’s a whole other ball game. Nothing that we’ve done up to this point matters. You have to show up because a low seed can beat a high seed at any time. It’s a beautiful thing. I love it.”