Area teams ready to open playoffs this week

By Bees O’Brien

FARWELL- Clinton County will be buzzing this week, as they’re set to send three teams to district playoffs.

Central Mountain will be sending both their baseball squad and their softball team, while Bucktail’s Lady Bucks will begin to aim at a third straight district crown.

Central Mountain softball begins on May 21 at 2pm in the PIAA District 6 5A title game against Hollidaysburg. The game between the Lady Wildcats and Lady Golden Tigers will be held at Mount Aloysius College and the two squads have met this season with Central Mountain owning a 12-2 home win over Hollidaysburg.

CM enters the meeting at 14-1 and Hollidaysburg boasts a 3-17 record. The two teams met a season ago in the district title game, with Central Mountain coming away victorious, 2-1 in 9 innings.

The winner of this game will move on to play the winners of the District 8 and District 9 winners.

Central Mountain baseball is ready to make some noise within district play. The top seeded 14-1 Wildcats received a bye to the PIAA District IV/VI 5A title game and will face either Shikellamy (6-12) out of District IV or Hollidaysburg (14-5-1) out of District VI.

The Wildcats will have to wait until May 27 to hit the field. The 5A Championship is slated to be played at Bald Eagle Area with a 4pm start time.

Once again Bucktail (10-7) will be looking at an old rival in Montgomery (14-3). The Lady Bucks drew the four seed and will take on the top seeded Lady Red Raiders on May 21 at 4:30 pm. The winner will meet Sullivan County (12-5) or Northeast Bradford (10-7). The Lady Griffins and Lady Panthers meet prior to the Bucktail and Montgomery game at 3pm. Both games will be held at Elm Park in Williamsport.

If Bucktail wants another gold medal, they’ll need to defeat a Chris Glen led team that has downed the Lady Bucks 17-7 and 3-2.

Bucktail will be riding the arm of freshman Carrie Ditty and Montgomery will counter with Ava Hartman in what promises to be another thrilling playoff battle between the two programs.

Bucktail’s offense will be key. The Lady Bucks need to jump on the Lady Raiders right out of the gate. Bucktail’s first five batters have been lethal, but look for the bottom of their order, mainly Ditty, Angel Kmetz and Rebekah Conway to be big factors. The trio has been playing hard at the plate to close out the season, including a combined 8 hits in the Lewisburg and Millville victories.

If head coach Mike Poorman can get the bottom of his order hitting well, it will lead to big things for the likes of Makenna Stone, Lola English, Eva Sockman, Kendall Wagner and Matti Mason.