Freshmen deliver for West Greene
By Kaci Alderson
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
McMURRAY – Capitalizing on opportunities and standout performances by two freshmen allowed fifth-seeded West Greene to down fourth-seeded and previously undefeated Frazier 13-5 in the WPIAL Class A softball quarterfinals Tuesday at Peterswood Park.
The Pioneers (13-7) advance to the semifinal round where they will take on No. 1-seeded Union (19-1), 3 p.m. Wednesday at Montour High School. Union is the two-time defending WPIAL champion.
Mistakes by Frazier (13-1) in the top of the first inning gave West Greene a 2-0 lead before freshman Madelyn Roberts came to the plate. Roberts recorded the first Pioneers hit of the game, a two-run single, and increased the lead to 4-0.
“Roberts got us that hit in the first that gave us a little breathing room and got us on the scoreboard early. That was huge for us,” said West Greene head coach Bill Simms.
Frazier scored one run in the second inning and one in the fourth to bring the Commodores to within two at 4-2.
West Greene’s offense fizzled after the first inning and generated only one hit – a Roberts infield single in the third – from the second to fifth innings. An error and Payton Gilbert’s two-run single in the sixth extended the Pioneers’ lead to 7-2.
Frazier wasted no time responding by bringing the score back to within two, at 7-5, in the bottom half of the sixth on a Grace Polkabla single and Emi Bednar’s two-RBI double.
The momentum was shifting onto Frazier’s side until Simms made the change from starting pitcher Gilbert to freshman Sammi Zimmerman. Coming into the game in the sixth with the tying run at the plate was no small task, but Zimmerman delivered. She slammed the door on the Commodores’ offense with no runs allowed in 1 2/3 innings, striking out two.
West Greene tacked on six insurance runs in the top of the seventh on three singles and two errors to make it 13-5.
“The end score is not going to look like much but she (Zimmerman) had a lot of pressure on her when she came in and I thought she threw the ball well,” said Simms.
Zimmerman is only a freshman but had a mature answer about what her approach was while in the circle.
“Coming in was a little nerve-wracking but I knew how to pitch strikes and let my fielders work,” Zimmerman said. “Payton is great at pitching and she is a junior so I look up to her. I look at how she doesn’t freak out when there are runners on base and use that to help.”
Simms gave props to the freshmen pair.
“It’s exciting to have young players exceed any expectations of them. We don’t look at them as freshmen,” said Simms. “Tricia Alderson (head coach of Chartiers-Houston) once told me, ‘If you can’t win with them as freshmen, you’re never gonna win with them.’ We expect that out of those kids.”