High drama in Farwell as Lady Bucks sweep 2A power Muncy; now 15-2

By Bees O’Brien

FARWELL, PA- Alexis Lowery cemented her name in Bucktail sports lore forever on Thursday afternoon. Lowery made a spectacular diving catch to seal the Lady Bucks’ 10-inning thriller against Muncy. It will forever be known as “The Catch,” as the buzz throughout the second game against the Lady Indians continued to reference the right fielder’s amazing play.

Prior to that, the Lady Bucks were in the midst of finishing a marathon matchup that began on April 11. That game was called due to darkness locked at 1-1 after 9 innings and was scheduled to be finished by way of International Tiebreaker when the Lady Indians made their trip to Bucktail.

Bucktail, still acting as the visiting team would bat first. Lily Francis would be on second base to start the inning with Alexis Lowery at the plate. Lowery would sacrifice bunt Francis over to third before she would score on a Raileigh Isaacs laser shot to first base that was unable to be fielded. This allowed Francis to score and give Bucktail the 2-1 lead.

The Lady Bucks were far from done. Jordan Burrows would drill a single that would score Isaacs and give the Lady Bucks the 3-1 heading into the bottom of the tenth inning.

Muncy would eventually score their free runner from second to close within 1 run of Bucktail. With nobody on and two outs, Muncy freshman catcher Taylor Shannon would hit a shot to right centerfield and Lowery would dart in, dive and make the catch to give Bucktail the 3-2 victory.

If that wasn’t enough fun, these two teams would do battle again in their originally scheduled contest.

Bucktail would pound out 8 hits against stellar pitcher Nolah Moyer and use some last inning heroics to shock Muncy yet again.

Moyer, who struck out 20 Lady Bucks in the previous game through 10 innings of work, was impressive. Bucktail bats were even more impressive however. Moyer recorded just 4 strikeouts over 6 innings of work as Bucktail continued to pound line drives. The same strategy they used to rock Pennsylvania 1A player of the year Faith Persing for 8 hits the night before.

The Lady Bucks got some huge plays on defense from shortstop Jordan Burrows, catcher Haley Burrows and some great fly ball plays from Isaacs, Kayla Probert and Lowery.

“I worked hard with the girls on defense, hitting them balls, hard balls and it really showed today.” Head Coach Mike Poorman said after the game.

Meanwhile Bucktail’s offense started game number two on fire. A double from Haley Burrows and a walk from Mak Wagner led to both of them scoring on an Emma Poorman single, thanks to a Muncy throwing error.

The Lady Indians would cross a run in the third inning, but that dangerous Bucktail offense would show up in the bottom half of the third.

Wagner would rip a one-out triple and Poorman would follow that up with an infield single. Bucktail’s Lily Francis would produce the craftiest of at bats of the entire season with a deliberate check swing infield single. During the mass confusion both Wagner and Poorman would score to give Bucktail the 4-1 lead.

Nothing is ever safe against Muncy, however. The Lady Indians rallied to score a pair of runs in the fourth inning to shrink Bucktail’s lead to 4-3. It would be Nolah Moyer’s turn in the top of the seventh.

Moyer would poke her second single of the night, eventually advance to third base before scoring on a passed ball to tie things up at 4-4. Wagner would bear down and get Bucktail out of the inning, but her heroics weren’t done yet.

Bucktail speedster Haley Burrows would ignite the Lady Bucks with a double. Wagner would follow with a double of her own, which would score Burrows giving Bucktail the 5-4 walk-off victory.

Mak Wagner had an amazing all-around effort for Bucktail. She worked the circle for four hard innings and held one of the best 2A offensive teams in check. Wagner also was a monster at the plate going 3 for 3, scoring a pair of runs and her game-winning RBI. She was just a home run shy of hitting for the cycle. Lily Francis continued to hit well going 2 for 3 with 2 RBI’s. Emma Poorman added a single and 2 runs batted in.

Now sitting at 15-2 overall, Bucktail has leapfrogged Cowanesque Valley and holds the number 3 seed once again in the District 4 1A playoffs. They will travel to 3A Warrior Run on Tuesday before concluding their 2022 regular season on the road at 2A Williamson out of the NTL.