Wildcats Outpace Meadville 14-0

AdminJune 1, 2017Last Updated: June 2, 2017

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ERIE – The Central Mountain softball team continued its strong postseason run with a dominating 14-0 win over Meadville in a PIAA sub-regional game at Penn State Behrend on Thursday.

The win earned the Lady Wildcats a first round PIAA matchup next Monday at 230 p.m. The game will be played at University Park, the opponent Albert Gallatin (19-4), the third place finisher from the WPIAL.

Central Mountain, now 14-7, played a complete game in dispatching the Bulldogs. The Lady ‘Cats scored in each of the first four innings, the game ending on the 10-run rule after five.

“I’m really happy the way the girls played today after a 3 1/2 hour bus ride,” said CM head coach Ben Trew, “It would have been easy to come out here and be a little lackadaisical. They did a really nice job of being consistent throughout the game.”

Meanwhile junior right-hander Cait Brush was masterful in the circle. She spaced four singles, struck out six and walked none. Her defense played perfect ball, including a spectacular 1-4-6 double-play on a Meadville sacrifice bunt try in the second inning. Brush took the bunt, threw to Josie Dershem for the out at first; Dershem fired a strike to Skylar Smith at second who tagged a base runner caught off the bag.

The CM offense was outstanding, piling up 15 hits. Nine different players had hits, led by Smith’s 3-for-3 performance, all singles, with two RBIs. Maegan Miller had a double, triple and three runs batted in; Dershem with two doubles and three RBIs.

“when we called for a bunt, we were getting the ball down,” said Trew of his offense, “We came up with a bunch of key hits when we needed them, There wasn’t much we could do better on that today.”

Morgan Wetzel contributed two singles and MacKenzie Peters came off the bench with two singles. Cassidy Brush had a single and two runs driven. Jenn Skow had a single as did Jenn Carlson and Autumn Dershem.

“I’m really happy we could get our bench involved in the game,” Trew said of his reserves that he worked into the lineup to offer some key playing time in a playoff environment. “Like MaKenzie Peter, she went 2-for-2 for us today and unfortunately she hasn’t had a lot of opportunity for playing time this season. This speaks well of the kind of talent we have on this team.”

Meadville, the District 10 champ, finished at 7-13.