New-look Canon-Mac wins in 8th
Canon-McMillan’s Brittney Crawford is congratulated by teammate Kayla Hopkins after Crawford hit the game-winning single that scored Lauren Naylor in the eighth inning against Beaver Wednesday.
Canon-McMillan’s Abi Michelucci pitches in the first inning against Beaver on Wednesday. Michelucci left the game in sixth inning after she was hit in the head by a throw from home plate to second base on a stolen base attempt.
Canon-McMillan’s Ashley Buggey is tagged out by Beaver’s Jennifer Kondracki in the sixth inning of Wednesday’s game. The Bobcats led 3-2 in the fifth inning before the Big Macs rallied to force extra innings and improve to 2-0 on the season.
Canon-McMillan’s MaKenzie Hollie heads to home plate for the Big Macs in the fourth inning against Beaver Wednesday.
Canon-McMillan’s Ashley Buggey catches a pop fly in the fourth inning against Beaver.
CANONSBURG – This is not like the Canon-McMillan softball teams of years past that had an entire batting order capable of hitting a game-winning home run.
All Big Macs head coach Michele Moeller asks for is strong defense and quality pitching. Only a few players are expected to deliver the power that was lost in the lineup.
One of those players is junior second baseman Brittney Crawford, but the three-year starter didn’t need to hit a ball over the fence Wednesday.
A line-drive single did the trick.
Crawford hit a two-out, walk-off single to right field in the eighth inning to send the Big Macs to a 5-4 win against Beaver in a non-section game at North Strabane Intermediate School.
“Our team isn’t completely different from last season,” Moeller said. “We’re going to hit the ball, but it’s not like our state championship team where all nine hitters could power the ball out. We don’t need everyone to, but we need a few of them and we need our inexperienced girls to step up.”
Unlike in previous years, when Canon-McMillan (2-0) had feared hitters throughout the order, it’s counting on a few unproven players to deliver big hits. It was sophomore MaKenzie Hollie who filled the void against the Bobcats (2-2).
Hollie took advantage of her chance to be the Big Macs’ designated hitter, scoring in the fourth inning after hitting a one-out double to left-centerfield. She gave C-M a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth on a sacrifice fly. Hollie went 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI.
Beaver led 3-2 entering the fifth before Crawford reached on an error and came around to score on the Bobcats’ second error of the inning, a dropped throw at first base. Senior shortstop Linda Rush, who went 2-for-3 with an RBI, scored on Hollie’s fly ball to left that gave the Big Macs the lead.
Beaver, which used a strong defense to win the WPIAL Class AAA title in 2014, committed four errors that led to four unearned runs.
“It was a good test, but we have to take care of the ball,” Beaver head coach Butch Rousseau said. “We aren’t making the easy outs we should be making. I’m pretty sure they had three unearned runs and we can’t be giving away runs like that.”
Canon-McMillan’s defense was sound, but its one error proved costly. Bobcats first baseman Ashley Koncracki reached on a dropped fly ball in left field to start the top of the sixth inning and scored two batters later on a sacrifice fly by center fielder Paige Ziggas to tie the score 4-4.
C-M sophomore pitcher Abbi Michelucci, who made her first career varsity start, struck out four and allowed three earned runs. She left the game with two outs in the sixth after she was hit in the head by a throw from home plate to second base on a stolen base attempt.
Senior Kaylee Gohring, who earned her second win in as many days, struck out the final batter to end the sixth and stranded a runner at second base. Her defense helped with double plays in the seventh and eighth innings.
“We call Kaylee our thrower and Abby is our spot hitter,” Moeller said. “They are both expecting I might have to make a change in the game. They know what to expect, and I’ve tried to tell them that I don’t expect them to strikeout everyone out.”
The Big Macs had a runner thrown out at third in the bottom of the sixth on an inning-ending double play and could not take advantage of a lead-off single by Rush in the seventh.
It was Crawford who slapped an outside breaking ball to right field in the eighth, driving in pinch-runner Lauren Naylor for the winning run.
“We’re relying more on everyone, in general,” Crawford said. “It’s a team effort. It’s definitely come around. We have come together a lot more as a team. We’re a lot closer.”
After sitting the Bobcats down in order in the first inning, Beaver took the 1-0 lead on an RBI double by Ziggas and Beaver pitcher Casey Farkasovsky, who struck out four and walked five, hit a two-run homer to left-centerfield for a three-run lead.
Slowly, the Big Macs climbed back into the game thanks to three hits and two runs from the bottom-half of their order.
“Are we missing the bats we lost? Yeah, we’re not going to be as strong right away,” Moeller said. “They’re still hitting the ball hard. I don’t think we had too much of a weak spot in our lineup last year, and we may have a few spots a little weaker for hitting this year, but we’ll see. We’re getting better.”