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Errors derail Chartiers-Houston comeback

4 min read

WEXFORD – For Chartiers-Houston to beat the defending WPIAL champs Tuesday night, a lot would have had to go right.

The fact that Union scored three runs on consecutive two-out errors at one point is a good indicator that not a lot did for the Bucs.

Chartiers-Houston battled, turning a 7-2 deficit into a two-run game, but the pair of errors in the bottom of the fourth put the Bucs behind by five.

Union ended up scoring twice more in that inning and added another in the sixth to come away with a 13-5 win and move one win away from defending its WPIAL Class A championship.

For Chartiers Houston (13-6) coach Tricia Alderson, the two errors were “huge.”

I mean, we’re in a 7-5 game, and, we give them five runs,” Alderson said. “That was tough. We needed to shut the door there and keep it a two-run game and put a little bit more pressure on them.”

For Char-Houston’s fantastic freshman Lauren Rush, who went 4-for-4 with a home run, three runs, two RBI, two doubles and a walk, the mistakes turned the tide back in Union’s direction.

“We had, really, all the momentum coming into that,” Rush said, “and the errors, it does put you down.”

Union’s (16-3) Mia Preuhs set down a lot of Chartiers-Houston batters.

Sixteeen of Preuhs’s 21 outs were strikeouts.

She didn’t know the exact total until after the game.

“Oh, my, that’s a lot,” she said.

It was a lot, but Chartiers-Houston didn’t always make it easy of Preuhs.

It was the fourth-seeded Bucs who took it to the No. 1 seed early. Chartiers-Houston scored first in its first at-bat. Ella Richey singled on the game’s first pitch and Rush doubled on the game’s second. Both runners came in to score on wild pitches by Preuhs.

Union answered in its first inning. It scored its first run on an RBI triple by Addie Nogay, which scored Allie Ross. The Scotties tied the game when, with Olivia Benedict batting, Nogay and courtesy runner Maddie Settle executed a double steal, scoring Nogay. Benedict ended up driving in Settle with a single. Tori May then drove in two with a triple.

In all, the Scotties sent nine to the plate in a five-run first inning.

Union added on in the second. Preuhs helped herself with an RBI single, driving in Olivia Williams. Mallory Gorgacz then walked with the bases loaded, scoring Nogay.

Chartiers-Houston began to claw back. First, Emily Swarrow drove in Rush with a single to make it 7-3 in the third. Then, Rush made it 7-5 with a two-run shot in the fourth.

“It was low and outside,” Rush said, “and normally, I don’t do as well with that pitch, but today I was ready for it.”

But Union broke it open with five in the fourth. The first run came when, with the bases loaded and two outs, Swarrow made an error on a ball hit by Piper Jendrysik, scoring courtesy runner Kenzie Siddall. Two more came in one batter later on an error by third baseman Kaileigh Walton, and Union tacked on two more in the inning to virtually put the game away.

Union scored another in the sixth, and will be taking on Carmichaels May 31 or June 1 at California’s Lilley Field for the WPIAL championship.

Chartiers-Houston’s season isn’t over yet. The Bucs will play in a third-place consolation game for seeding and move onward to the state tournament from there.

Not playing in the WPIAL title game will sting, but Alderson knows things are looking up for the program.

She hopes the semifinal experience will help this young team – there’s only one senior – grow.

“We were a little bit deer-in-the-headlights at the beginning of the game, and it showed,” Alderson said. “None of them have been in a WPIAL semifinal game, so it showed, but hopefully that’s going to help us the rest of this year and into the following year.”

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