District 4 1A softball playoff field extremely stacked

By Bees O’Brien

FARWELL, PA- There’s no question that the PIAA District 4 1A playoffs are loaded. There are five teams that can legitimately walk away with the championship or a state playoff berth.

The top five teams Northeast Bradford (13-2), Bucktail (17-2), Montgomery (15-4), Canton (16-4) and Cowanesque Valley (16-4) all have realistic shots at reaching the finals and grabbing one of the district’s two state playoff berths. Top two teams earn the right to go on to the PIAA 1A State Playoffs.

Then there’s some sleepers. Millville ((9-9) will be looking to pull off another shocker. Sullivan County (9-7)was the least likely to make the post season in this field.

So let’s break down the bracket and the quarterfinal matchups.

1 Seed Northeast Bradford (13-2)- The Lady Panthers secured the number one spot in the field despite playing just 15 games. The lack of games could be the only thing that haunts NEB. They reached the finals last season and will receive a bye to the semifinals and await one of two opponents they know very well. Scouting report on NEB is they have very hittable pitching, but an excellent defense led by their catcher.

5 Seed Cowanesque Valley (16-4) at 5 Seed Canton (16-4) On Tuesday 4:30 p.m. – CV dropped a 5-4 meeting to the Lady Warriors earlier this season and followed that up with a 9-5 loss to Canton. Canton is probably the scariest team in the upper half of the bracket. Canton has defeated Northeast Bradford 7-3 and Montgomery 1-0 and they have a huge win over 3A title contender NP-Liberty. Only Bucktail has scored more runs in D4 than Canton and Cowanesque Valley, so this one could see a lot of runs. This is literally a toss-up in the quarterfinals with the winner advancing to Elm Park to meet NTL rival Northeast Bradford.

6 Seed Millville (9-9) at 3 Seed Montgomery (15-4) On Tuesday 4:30 p.m. – Make no mistake about it. The District 4 title still comes through Montgomery. The Lady Raiders dropped a couple late games to Canton and Central Columbia, but those two programs are legit. Faith Persing in the circle is enough to intimidate most teams.

Montgomery also possesses a terrific defense and a more than capable offense. Millville is no stranger to playing as the underdogs. The Lady Quakers shocked the field with their 15-3 victory at Bucktail in the 2021 quarterfinals.

Millville pitcher Carlee Charles is more than capable of having a good outing at Montgomery. She has over 100 career strikeouts. Montgomery downed Millville 17-0 in their only meeting this season. The winner will face Bucktail or Sullivan County at Elm Park on Thursday at 3 p.m.

7 Seed Sullivan County (9-7) at 2 Seed Bucktail (17-2) On Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.- Despite having four more wins than top seeded Northeast Bradford and just as many losses, the Lady Bucks find themselves as a two seed and paired up with a possible semifinal matchup against Montgomery. Bucktail is gleaming with confidence heading into the playoffs after proving to themselves that they can compete with Montgomery, but the focus here will be on a revamped and resurging Sullivan County team. The Lady Griffins began their 2022 season 1-6 before turning things around and a surge over the past two weeks of regular season had them playoff bound.

Pitcher Lorena Marquardt was dynamite for the Lady Griffins in their playoff clinching victory over St. John Neumann. Marquardt struck out 23 batters in 13 innings of work to sweep the double header against the Lady Knights and end a fantastic late season run. Now Marquardt and the rest of the Lady Griffins have to stare at a long road trip to Bucktail. The Lady Bucks beat Sullivan 10-0 earlier this season in Farwell. Emma Poorman tossed a five-inning no hitter in that contest against Sullivan County. No team in the entire District 4, all six classifications have scored as many runs as the Lady Bucks.

Mak Wagner leads the offense with an unheard of .609 batting average. Haley Burrows is smacking balls at a .475 average, Emma Poorman is batting .463 and Bucktail’s all-time hits leader Jordan Burrows is hitting .426. Bucktail’s defense and pitching from Wagner and Poorman have greatly improved from a season ago. The Lady Bucks are fast on the base paths too. Haley Burrows leads the team with 31 stolen bases and 39 runs with Wagner following closely behind with 28 stolen bases and 33 runs. Don’t sleep on their middle and bottom half of their order neither. Matti Mason, Alexis Lowery, Lily Francis, Raileigh Isaacs and Kayla Probert can all do damage as well. The winner of this contest will face the Millville vs. Montgomery winner Thursday at Elm Park at 3 p.m.