Pioneers manage to settle down in time to beat Canevin
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
West Greene pitcher Jade Renner, center, celebraters with teammates after the Pioneers beat Bishop Canevin in the WPIAL Class A quarterfinals Monday at Trinity Middle School.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
West Greene’s Kiley Meek beats the tag of Bishop Canevin’s Taylor Lokaitis during Monday’s game.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
West Greene’s Madison Lampe gets a hit against Bishop Canevin in Monday’s game.
West Greene didn’t play its best game Monday afternoon, head softball coach Bill Simms said, but the Pioneers did enough to beat Bishop Canevin, 5-2, in the WPIAL Class 1A quarterfinals at Trinity High School.
“You get a win,” Simms said. “Sometimes, they aren’t as ugly or pretty or whatever as other ones are, but at the end of the day, when you get to advance, that’s the necessary part of the tournament.”
In the circle, junior Jade Renner battled a cold but allowed just two unearned runs in a complete game, nine-strikeout effort. For Bishop Canevin, Alysha Cutri took the loss, allowing six runs, three earned, over six.
The Pioneers drew first blood in the bottom of the second, when Jersey Wise scored on a wild pitch. The Crusaders answered, however, with two unearned runs in the top of the third. Shortstop Taylor Lokaitis doubled in two runs to put Bishop Canevin in front.
Early on, it was evident that Bishop Canevin wasn’t intimidated by the defending state champions, and despite the slim lead not holding up, head coach Karen Seitz-LaFianza was proud of how her team performed.
“It’s always good to see where the best is and how far we need to go to get there,” she said. “We’ve kind of been building to this all year; we’ve gotten better and better as the year’s gone along. So it’s nice to play our best game the last game of the year. It just so happened to be against (West Greene). If it’s anybody else, I think we win.”
After falling behind, West Greene responded like champions. The Pioneers got the lead right back in the bottom half. Kaitlyn Rizor drove in both Lampe sisters, Madison and McKenna, with a single to put the reigning state champs back in front. West Greene added two more runs two batters later, when an error by Bishop Canevin right fielder Erin Jameson made it 5-2. West Greene added insurance in the fifth when a Renner single scored Rizor, who tripled earlier in the inning. Rizor finished the day going 2-for-3 with a triple, two RBI and a run scored. West Greene’s starting pitcher helped herself at the plate, going 2-for-3 with an RBI. Back in the circle, Renner shut down Canevin over the next two innings to seal the win.
Despite her statline, Renner said she didn’t have her best stuff Monday.
“The pitch I was really working today was my changeup instead of my fastball,” she said. “My other pitches were not working at all. It was a little different today.”
In addition to fighting a cold, Simms said his starting pitcher also was dealing with a banged-up ankle.
“We were worried about her coming out,” Simms said. “She (hurt her ankle) the other day in a scrimmage, but she came out of the gates smoking today. Her riser today was tough, and she hit a little bit of her spots, so I thought she kept them off balance pretty good.”
The Pioneers will look to move on to their fifth straight WPIAL title game when they face county rival Jefferson-Morgan for the third time. Though West Greene beat the Rockets a combined 23-0 in two regular season meetings, Renner knows the postseason isn’t the same animal.
“Playoffs are all about will,” she said. “If you really want to get it, you will win the game. If you really want to win, you’ll do it. So we just have to outwill the other team.”