Apr 30, 2015 5 min read

HOOKSTOWN – South Side Beaver’s softball team walked off Burgettstown’s field April 18 with a nagging feeling of regret. The Rams were not aggressive at the plate and saw the few opportunities they generated slip away.

It added up to a devastating loss in section play, but the Rams vowed to not let it happen again in the second meeting.

With the Section 1-AA title at stake, South Side Beaver left its home field Thursday evening satisfied, and this time its offense lived up to its reputation.

The Rams scored three runs in the first inning, sophomore shortstop Hunter Hand hit two home runs with five RBI and Burgettstown stranded nine runners on base as South Side Beaver captured a share of the section title with a 12-2 six-inning victory.

The Rams (9-1, 11-1) tied Burgettstown (9-1, 16-2), which clinched at least a share of the section title Tuesday, for first place and snapped the Blue Devils’ 15-game winning streak.

Hand had everything to do with the victory. Her two-run homer over the fence in left-centerfield gave SSB an early 2-0 lead. She added an RBI double in the third inning and hit another two-run homer in the sixth to help the Rams close to within one run of the 10-run rule.

“We came out strong today and last time we didn’t come out hitting,” Hand said. “We wanted to hit today. This time we came out fired up. Last time we didn’t hit at all.”

The Rams did not waste time getting to Burgettstown pitcher Kate Tarr, who allowed eight runs in just more than four innings, striking out four and walking two. Cheyenne Selk led off the bottom of the first with a walk, Capri Sollinger reached on a fielder’s choice and Hand hit the sixth pitch she faced over the wall.

The Rams added another run on a fielder’s choice by junior Lacey Weible, who was 1-for-3 with three RBI. The Blue Devils, who have been strong defensively, committed two errors in the first inning, four in the game and had several other defensive lapses.

“We had more than a few hiccups. I think about seven or eight errors,” Burgettstown head coach Mark Deer said. “We didn’t play defensively at all. Defense let us down big time today. We have to play better defensively and we had to pitch better. We didn’t do either one of those.”

That was the only offense Rams sophomore pitcher McKenna Smith would need. After gaining a three-run lead, Smith struck out four consecutive batters, finished with 10 strikeouts and allowed only six hits.

Burgettstown scored one run in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Darien Transue and added its second run in the fifth when Cheyenne Winters’ single scored Casey Carnes, who was 2-for-2 and reached base in all four of her plate appearances.

“McKenna thrives on adversity. She likes to be deep in the count when she’s batting and she likes to be deep in the count when she’s pitching,” SSB first-year head coach Amy Pieto said. “She’s a very good pitcher, very composed and she’s a hard worker.”

The Blue Devils stranded 10 runners, including two in the first, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. They got behind in the count throughout the game, swinging at Smith’s rising fastball high in the zone and chasing breaking balls.

“We didn’t take advantage of opportunities offensively,” Deer said. “We did have runners on. I don’t know how many we left on, but it was too many. I had a talk with them about pitch selection, but they didn’t listen. They just didn’t adjust. They didn’t do the things they were taught to do.”

The Rams increased their lead to 6-0 in the third with three consecutive RBI doubles on three pitches by Hand, Smith and junior Toni Yacoviello. They added one run in the fourth, two in the fifth on a triple by freshman Regan Hozak when a line drive snuck past Carnes in center field and Hand’s second home run gave SSB an 11-2 advantage.

Three batters later, Weibel’s run-scoring double ended the game. All but two of the Rams’ hitters had at least one hit and their 3-4-5 hitters were a combined 9-for-11 with nine runs and six RBI.

It was a discouraging performance by Burgettstown, which could have claimed the section title outright with a victory, but Deer’s message to his players was simple.

“We can’t let one game define our season. We’ve had a tremendous season so far and we are looking forward to the playoffs,” Deer said. Who knows, we might end up seeing them again. We have to be ready to play.”