One run enough as Monessen ousts defending champs
Tori Cooper runs for third as Jefferson-Morgan's Morgan Simkovic readies to toss the ball for a force out during Monday's game.
Monessen’s Dana Vatakis pitches during the first inning of the game against Jefferson-Morgan. Monessen won, 1-0.
CANONSBURG – When facing a quality pitcher such as Monessen’s Dana Vatakis, mistakes are typically magnified.
Unfortunately for defending WPIAL Class A softball champion Jefferson-Morgan, the Rockets made two.
Vatakis handled the rest, as Monessen edged Jefferson-Morgan, 1-0, Monday in the opening round of the playoffs at Canon-McMillan.
Vatakis, a Robert Morris recruit, cruised through the first five innings without allowing a hit and finished with a three-hitter and 12 strikeouts as the Greyhounds (14-5) advanced to the quarterfinals for the second consecutive year after having not won a playoff game prior to 2015.
Monessen will play Serra Catholic, a 7-5 winner over Jeannette, in the quarterfinals at a site, date and time to be determined.
“She’s been pretty on all year,” said Monessen head coach Bo Teets, whose team had beaten Jefferson-Morgan, 5-4, in a non-section game early in the season.
“I can only think of a few innings she hasn’t pitched extremely well. Today, she was just on from the first pitch to the last.”
But while Vatakis was mowing down the Rockets (10-8), Camryn Dugan was matching her, if not pitch for pitch, then at least location for location.
Dugan’s offspeed mix kept Monessen in check for most of the game until Gabby Simpson dropped a blooper over the first-base bag into right field for a one-out single in the third inning. It was one of just four hits for the Greyhounds.
Following a strikeout, Vatakis walked to give the Greyhounds runners at first and second with two outs.
To that point, Dugan had done an excellent job of getting Monessen’s batters to roll over on her pitches, with shortstop Maddie Simkovic having a hand in five of the Greyhounds’ first six outs.
But Destiny Habeck pulled a first-pitch offering down the third-base line and the throw went wide to allow Simpson to score from second for a 1-0 Monessen lead.
“I’m glad we played as well as we did. That’s a good pitcher. And Dugan did a good job,” said Jefferson-Morgan head coach Tony Barbetta. “We have to play defense and we have to make that throw. And the throw wasn’t that bad. Just catch the ball and we get out of the inning. We can’t just play a perfect game, but we almost have to.”
The Rockets almost made up for that mistake in the final two innings.
With one out in the sixth, No. 9 hitter Maddie VanDivner slapped a bunt to second base, beating the throw to break up the no-hitter for Vatakis.
After a strikeout, Simkovic lined a single into center field and VanDivner was thrown out at third for the final out of the inning on a relay from Janae Evans to shortstop Maddie Guzzie to Kelsey Bachinski.
“(VanDivner) came around second base and never looked at me,” said Barbetta. “I’m going to hold her there.”
Compounding the mistake was the fact No. 3 batter Kayla Yorko led off the top of the seventh inning with a solid hit to center that skipped to the fence for a double. It would have tied the score, and likely given Jefferson-Morgan the lead had it happened in the previous inning.
“Whether she would have done that, we’ll never know or not,” Barbetta admitted. “We had a couple of chances to score, they weren’t great, but we had chances.”
Following Yorko’s double Vatakis pitched around cleanup batter Brooke Diamond before sandwiching a pair of strikeouts around an infield popup to end the game.
“She’s a division-I commit for a reason. The big stage doesn’t faze her,” Teets said. “She’s played in big games all her life in the travelball circuit. I knew she should wouldn’t be intimidated by the situation or giving up a leadoff double in the top of the seventh up one run.
“We really do kind of try to support her however possible and I think we made the plays when we needed to.”
And the Rockets didn’t.
“Dugan did a good job pitching for us,” said Barbetta. “She had only pitched in two games before this season. We figured we’d changeup them to death.
“Monessen didn’t want to play us. I knew we’d have a good game.”