May 16, 2017 3 min read

BALDWIN – Waynesburg saw its girls softball season come to a sudden end Monday afternoon in a WPIAL Class AAA first-round game at the hands of Avonworth, 11-1, in five innings.

The first inning was the entire story as Avonworth (10-5) scored nine runs and hit three home runs.

“You can’t start the game by giving up nine runs,” Waynesburg coach Jim Armstrong said. “A hit batter, walk, another hit batter and home run – it’s hard to come back against that.”

Waynesburg (9-9) starting pitcher Cortney Yuhas sandwiched a pair of hit batters around a walk to begin the game, and Armstrong pulled her in favor of Emma Ricciuti.

Two pitches later, Kimmi D’Ottavio drilled a towering grand slam to left field to make the score 4-0.

“You can’t really ask to start a game in a better way,” Avonworth coach Jenna Muncie said. “That’s exactly the way we want to start and we have some powerful hitters.”

Sarah Helffrich followed with a solo home run, and after two unearned runs, Dominque Raught hit a two-run homer to close the scoring in the first inning.

“We are capable of hitting home runs,” Muncie said. “We work hard on our offense and came to play today.”

The score remained 9-0 until the fourth inning when Avonworth scored its last two runs on a Gretchen Schmidt single, but Waynesburg’s Sydney Hare blasted a solo homer in the fifth inning to break up a no-hitter.

Armstrong spoke about how his team seemed to peak with its win over West Greene – the only loss for the Pioneers, who are the top seed in Class A – on April 19, only to lose six of its past seven games.

“I don’t know what happened the second half (of the season),” he said. “After the West Greene game, we walked out and I thought it was really cool.

“But I can’t explain it to you. I have coached 41 years, and I can’t explain this phenomenon.”

Armstrong closed by talking about his team and senior class.

“I’m upset that we lost like this because they are a great bunch of kids,” he said. “I am going to miss the seniors terribly and they made the playoffs four straight years. That, to me, is the hardest part of coaching – letting the seniors go because they are like my family.

“It’s about them learning about life, I wish them the best and I hate seeing them go.”

Avonworth advances to face third-seeded Deer Lakes (13-1) Wednesday.