Lady ‘Cats Ready for D6-9 Action

CM hosts DuBois Wednesday in AAAA Semi-Final

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – In late April the Central Mountain softball team wasn’t looking so hot.

Ranked number one in the preseason by national ranking service MaxPreps, the Lady Wildcats stumbled through the first half of the season, going 6-4 and bottoming out in two losses at the team’s annual Thunder on the Mountain tourney.

But that was April and this is May and the Lady ‘Cats look primed to do well in the postseason. A year ago Central Mountain didn’t really pick it up until the season’s second half and that team won a District 6 title and advanced to the PIAA quarterfinals.

Can the current edition emulate the 2014 late season success? We’ll find out starting Wednesday at 4 p.m. when coach Dave Peters’ team hosts a District 6-9 Quad-A semifinal against DuBois.

Central Mountain comes into the game with a 10-game winning streak, good enough for a 16-4 regular season finish. Little is known about DuBois. Partial records show the Beavers at 8-2 overall, 5-2 in the Central Penn Conference. They are led again by twins Cheyenne McKee and Sierra McKee, shortstop and catcher respectively.

DuBois finished as runner-up at the CM Thunder tourney, beating Hemfield 8-7 in 11 innings before falling to Mifflin County by a 7-1 score in the tourney final. Central Mountain meanwhile lost to Mifflin County by a 7-2 score and was drubbed by Hemfield by a 9-0 score; the Lady Wildcats have not lost since.

Mifflin County (14-5) and State College (13-8) will meet in the second district semifinal on Wednesday. Those two squads split two regular season meetings. Central Mountain owns a 6-5 win over State College. The Lady Little Lions have been hot of late, winning 11 of their last 12, including a 10-0 quarterfinal win over Altoona on Monday.

Wednesday’s semifinal winners will meet next Wednesday, May 27 on the Penn State campus for the district title.