A (not-so) great eight sinks PT
CALIFORNIA – Plenty of highlights marked the Peters Township softball team’s WPIAL Class AAAA consolation-round game Wednesday against Hempfield.
Unfortunately for the Indians, so did several lowlights, eight errors in all.
The eight errors outweighed the team’s eight hits and a late comeback wasn’t enough, as Peters Township saw its season come to a close with a 9-5 loss at California University’s Lilley Field.
“I can’t be more proud of the girls,” Peters Township coach Bob Bowers said. “It didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but it’s tough to win with eight errors.”
Six of those errors came during Hempfield’s six-run fourth inning, which turned a 2-1 Peters Township lead into a 7-2 deficit.
They came in all shapes and sizes, too: dropped fly balls, missed grounders and wild throws.
“Eight errors … I wouldn’t be happy with that,” Hempfield coach Bob Kalp said.
Few would.
But the seventh-seeded Indians did make a game of it by scoring three runs over the final two innings.
The first run came across on center fielder Kellyn Perich’s lined shot up the middle, and right fielder Viktoria Heiser crushed a double to right center and scored on a two-run single from third baseman Hannah Berardino, who had two hits.
“When we’re errorless, we’re tough to beat,” Bowers said. “Carly (Konopka) pitched a good game. Behind her we didn’t do our jobs. It’s a team effort. They held their heads high and kept battling. We gave them a run at the end there. I’m sure they were a little nervous that inning.”
They were.
Very nervous, actually.
But the errors created too much of a cushion for Hempfield, the fourth seed in Class AAAA.
“I’m not going to complain,” Kalp said. “They help us out, give us six runs, that’s the ballgame right there. We don’t get that big six-spot, then those runs that they’re scoring in the sixth and the seventh, it really tightens up. Things can get real dicey.”
Things got dicey not long after Peters Township Lindsay McKnight deposited a 1-2 fastball over the fence for a 2-1 Indians lead.
Four of the first six batters reached on errors. Pinch-hitter Kasey Kolick and left fielder Kelsie Hendrick knocked in runs. Shortstop Justyne Falbo, who added a solo homer in the bottom of the first, had a sacrifice fly.
Hempfield tacked on two more in the fifth, one on an error and another on a fielder’s choice, before Peters Township mounted its rally.
For a group that includes two seniors, a junior and six sophomores among its starting nine, the late surge was just enough of a positive sign moving forward.
“It’s pretty exciting looking forward to next year,” Bowers said.
Hope Pehrson was the winning pitcher, allowing five runs on eight hits and striking out seven. … Hempfield will play the winner of Canon-McMillan-North Allegheny, tonight’s WPIAL Class AAAA final, in the first round of the PIAA playoffs Monday. … Peters Township made seven errors in a 7-4 loss to North Allegheny in the WPIAL semifinals.