Old Forge Ends Bucktail’s Record-Breaking Season

BLOOMSBURG – The Bucktail softball team’s record-breaking season is in the books, one sports fans will be talking about for a long time. It didn’t end the way the Lady Bucks would have hoped on Monday, a 12-1 loss to Old Forge, but Bucktail went down swinging, the effort warmly applauded by the huge western Clinton County crowd in attendance.

Bucktail finished its best year ever with a 19-3 mark, a share of the Mid-Penn Conference crown, its first-ever District 4 title and first-ever appearance in the PIAA state tournament. Not shabby for a program from one of the smallest schools fielding softball in the state, not shabby for a team which will return all 14 of its players next year.

2019 was a season that began in late March and ended in early June, this from a team that captured the imagination of county softball fans as the schedule unfolded. Monday’s game saw a sea of red, Lady Buck supporters ringing the field, from behind home plate, down the right field line, the huge Bucktail throng extending beyond and around the right field fence. And after the game ended, the Buck team took a run down the line, applauded by their fans as they went.

Head coach Mike Poorman offered up some positive thoughts on the year, noting expectations were high but the team matched and exceeded its goals with last week’s District 4 title win. He said the Lady Bucks will only benefit from the state playoff game experience. He said the program has “things to work on for next year, some things to clean up” but was upbeat on the season just ended and what the future holds.

Coach Poorman acknowledged that Old Forge was a solid team playing a larger school schedule. He said the Blue Devils’ 9-12 record coming in did not do them justice. He noted a late season defensive shift paid dividends for the team. The Wilkes-Barre area squad was 3-12 well into May when their coach Pat Revelo decided to go with a five-infielder, two-outfielder defense. Things clicked at that point as Old Forge, with its win Monday, has moved to 10-12 on the year, seven wins in a row.

The Blue Devils’ defense was positioned so well its infield turned several double plays. Winning pitcher Corianne Holzman pitched to contact and her defense, despite committing three errors, made several outstanding defensive plays to keep Bucktail’s usually high-powered offense in check. Holzman scattered six hits in striking out four and walking two.

Tessa Cowfer had a double for Bucktail and Jordan Burrows and Myka Poorman each had two singles; also in with a single was Emily Cross.

Meanwhile Old Forge put up 11 hits and took advantage of nine total walks issued by Emma and Myka Poorman; the sisters did combine for seven strikeouts. The Blue Devils used two doubles, a single and a walk to score three in the top of the first, and opened things up with four more in the fourth, batting around and benefitting from four walks.

OF 3 0 0 4 0 2 3 = 12-11-3
B 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 = 1-6-2