Lady Wildcats Too Much for Hollidaysburg, 11-1

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – Good hitting, good fielding and good pitching usually make for a winning combination and what better time to do all three than a first round District 6/9 playoff game?

The Central Mountain softball team put it all together Thursday in routing visiting Hollidaysburg by an 11-1 count, the game ending on the 10-run rule in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Golden Tigers hung around for a while, the game 2-1 Central Mountain after three and a half innings. But the home team put up a 5-spot in the fourth and added four more in the bottom of the fifth.

The game perhaps fittingly ended on a line drive 2-run single from Riley Houser who, to that point, had been the only Wildcat without a base hit. Central Mountain piled up 14 hits in all, including five doubles sprayed all over the field.

Five Lady ‘Cats had two hits each: Alyssa Fisher, Caitlyn Watson, Morgan Wetzel, Autumn Dershem and Alexa Shultz; Wetzel and Shultz each with a double. Also contributing doubles were Kylie Wagner, Madalyn Bechdel and Madi Knepp.

Knepp was steady in the circle as Central Mountain won its third in a row to move to 10-9 on the year. She went the distance, giving up four hits, striking out two and allowing no walks, pitching to contact. And her defense was stellar, committing just one error. Fisher made two spectacular back-to-back diving plays at second base, one preventing a ground ball from getting through, followed by a diving grab of a line drive up the middle.

Coach Fred Caldwell offered words of praise for his defense, noting Fisher’s effort came when it was still a 2-1 ball game. The coach called the win “a great all-around effort,” stating everyone contributed.

The win puts Central Mountain in the District 6/9 Class 5A championship game scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 22, at St. Francis of Loretto. The opponent will be District 9 representative DuBois (11-8). CM owns a 14-0 win over the Lady Beavers, a late April conquest in the consolation game of the Thunder on the Mountain tournament. Coach Caldwell said his team was “very fortunate” in that game. He said, “Dubois is a better team than that and we’ll have to play better to defeat them.”