Bucktail cruises past Sullivan County 11-0 in quarterfinals

By Bees O’Brien

FARWELL, PA- The Lady Bucks on Tuesday made sure that they weren’t taking an early playoff exit this season. Their 2021 season ended in Farwell a year ago following a 15-3 upset loss to Millville. This time Bucktail pounded out nine hits, used a huge five run first inning and cruised past Sullivan County 11-0 in 5 innings.

The clock struck midnight on the Cinderella Lady Griffins in the bottom of the first inning. Sullivan County had finished an impressive regular season, winning 8 of their last 9 games following a terrible 1-6 start to make the playoffs.

“They’re definitely improved from our first meeting.” Bucktail head coach Mike Poorman said of the Lady Griffins. “They got beat 15-0 against Millville the first time and only lost 9-8 the last game they played them.”

Jordan Burrows and Haley Burrows began the Lady Bucks’ first at bat with walks. Mak Wagner would knock them in with a single. Emma Poorman would eventually walk and score in an inning where Sullivan Pitcher Lorena Marquardt struggled to find a rhythm. Marquardt would walk four batters and hit two more, which would result in Bucktail grabbing the 5-0 lead after one inning.

Sullivan’s improvements were shown. They fell 10-0 in the first meeting with Bucktail, but were held hitless. Marquardt and Kaitlyn Wettlauffer each would connect on singles for Sullivan County’s only two hits in the contest.

Marquardt’s second inning hit off Poorman would start a Lady Griffin rally that was quickly fizzled out with a tremendous Bucktail double play that started with Mak Wagner fielding an Kayla Fowler ground ball, pitching to Haley Burrows who would toss it to Matti Mason to get Bucktail (18-2) out of the jam.

Haley Burrows began the second inning with a walk. Wagner would drive in Burrows with her third RBI of the game on a single. Both Wagner and Poorman would score following more control issues from Marquardt. The Lady Bucks extended their lead to 7-0 heading into the third inning.

Sullivan County (9-8) continued to get base runners on due to walks, but the Bucktail pitching and defense would hold through the third inning.

Kayla Probert’s infield single would start another rally in the fourth inning. Jordan Burrows would reach base on an error at shortstop and Haley Burrows’ 2 RBI double would score both Probert and Jordan Burrows. Haley would then reach third base on a throwing error to give the Lady Bucks a 9-0 lead.

Poorman would score Haley Burrows from third on an RBI single and she would eventually score on a Matti Mason RBI single to set the score at 11-0.

Wagner would come into the circle in relief of Poorman and would silence Sullivan’s final two at bats to set the final.

Wagner collected two singles on the day. Poorman went 1 for 1 with an RBI and 3 runs scored. Matti Mason, Alexis Lowery and Kayla Probert all had singles as well for Bucktail.

Bucktail will now meet Montgomery in Elm Park on Thursday. The game in Williamsport is set to begin at 3 p.m. Montgomery owns two victories over Bucktail this season, 11-1 and 7-3. This is a more confident Lady Bucks squad this time around and maybe the neutral site will give Bucktail that edge.

Haley Burrows who went 2 for 2, scored 3 runs and knocked in a pair of RBIs had just two words to say upon hearing who her squad’s semifinal opponents would be.

“I’m Excited.”

So are the rest of the Lady Bucks players, their fans and the entire community.