Armstrong ousts Lady Wildcats from PIAA tourney, 13-5

LORETTO, PA – The Armstrong High School River Hawks showed why they’re the WPIAL champions on Thursday afternoon, pounding out 12 hits on the way to a 13-4 win over Central Mountain in the quarterfinal round of the PIAA Class 5A softball playoffs.

The loss ended the Lady Wildcat season with an outstanding 21-3 mark and the Heartland Conference and Districts 6/9 titles.

But Thursday was not CM’s day. The River Hawks put the Lady ‘Cats in a hole early with five runs in the top of the first, the big blow a grand slam homerun from Jess Qugh, and never looked back.

The Lady ‘Cats did answer back with two runs in the bottom of the first on an Allison Lininger double and a Madison Hardy 2-run home and put up three runs on four hits in the bottom of the seventh to set the final at 13-5.

Lininger had a double and a single, Caitlyn Watson had two singles, as did Madisyn Wian. Hardy had her homerun and drove in three runs overall and Katelyn had a single.

Central Mountain was listed as number eight in the state among all softball teams by MaxPreps prior to their Thursday loss.

A     5 0 0 0 4 2 2 = 13- 12- 1

CM 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 =   5 –  8 – 3