Renner sisters lead West Greene to WPIAL title game
West Greene’s Madison Renner, center, is met by her teammates at home plate after hitting a home run during the Pioneers’ WPIAL Class A softball semifinal game against Leechburg.
West Greene’s Madison Renner is tagged out at third base by Leechburg’s Brooke Blumer Tuesday in a WPIAL Class A softball semifinal game.
West Greene’s Madison Lampe is tagged out at third base by Leechburg’s Brooke Blumer Tuesday in a WPIAL Class A softball semifinal game.
West Greene’s Jade Renner allowed one run over 6 2/3 innings Tuesday to lead the Pioneers past Leechburg in a WPIAL Class A softball semifinal game.
West Greene’s McKenna Lampe swings at a pitch Tuesday during the Pioneers’ WPIAL Class A softball semifinal game against Leechburg.
McMURRAY – Jade Renner, West Greene’s fabulous freshman softball pitcher, stepped on the pitching rubber Tuesday afternoon on Field 8 at Peterwood Park and circled her left arm high above her head and let go with the first of her customary warmup pitches prior to the first inning of the Pioneers’ playoff game against Leechburg.
The pitch was short, skipping off home plate and ricocheting off catcher Shelby Morris. The next three pitches also were nowhere near the strike zone.
“I thought,” Renner said, “that was odd. I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t hit Shelby’s glove.”
By that time, Leechburg’s third-base coach and the three-man umpiring crew had figured out what was wrong: the rubber was three feet too far from home plate. Instead of the regulation 43 feet from home plate, it was 46 feet, which is the distance used for a youth baseball game.
And who said softball isn’t a game of inches?
Once the rubber was put in its proper location, Renner didn’t have much trouble locating her pitches. She wore out the outside corner of the plate against right-handed hitters, allowed one run over 6 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts and her sister, Madison Renner, homered, drove in four runs and recorded the game’s final out as a relief pitcher as West Greene defeated Leechburg 6-1 in the WPIAL Class A semifinals.
The win sends West Greene (21-1), the defending champion, back to the WPIAL title game and clinches a spot in the PIAA tournament. West Greene will play Section 2 rival Monessen, a 6-2 winner over Carmichaels, for the third time this season.
“When they moved the rubber, it seemed very close,” Jade Renner admitted.
For Leechburg (14-3), the Section 3 champion, an early six-run deficit seemed like 600 the way the Blue Devils struggled early against Jade Renner. West Greene gave their pitcher a pair of three-run innings and Renner and her defense did the rest as the Pioneers took a shutout into the sixth inning.
“We’re versatile,” West Greene coach Bill Simms said. “We can play defense with the best of them and that gets overlooked. Everyone gets blah, blah about the runs we put up sometimes but those girls can play. We can play defense and that was shown with a full seven-inning game.”
Defense, of course, starts with pitching and Jade Renner did her job. Leechburg’s lone run came in the sixth inning when Kristen Knapp led off with a double – a fly ball that center fielder McKenna Lampe almost made a spectacular diving catch on in the gap. Two groundouts scored Knapp and made it 6-1.
Renner’s best pitching came in the second inning. After West Greene scored three times in the bottom of the first, Leechburg put runners on second and third with no outs, the result of an error and Brooke Blumer’s double.
Renner, however, struck out the next three batters on only 11 pitches to squelch the threat and give the momentum back to the Pioneers.
“We didn’t take advantage of an opportunity that inning. That was a key to the game, for sure,” Leechburg coach Debbi Young said.
It was the second time in as many playoffs games that Renner struck out the side after the opponent put two runners in scoring position. In a quarterfinal thumping of Bishop Canevin, Renner fired three consecutive strikeouts after the Crusaders loaded the bases.
“I thought she showed her mettle,” Simms said. “You never know what you’ll get from a freshman in a game with a WPIAL title berth on the line.”
West Greene forged a 3-0 lead in the first inning, using an aggressive approach on the basepaths. McKenna Lampe beat out an infield grounder to start the inning and stole second base. When the throw was wide and went past center fielder Kasey Klapheke, Lampe motored all the way around the bases to score.
Madison Lampe then singled, stole second and scored on a double to right field by Madison Renner, who was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple, an out for which Simms took the blame.
“Other than poor coaching in the first inning, we were alright,” he said.
Kaitlyn Rizor drew a walk, stole second and scored on the first of Marissa Rode’s two hits to make it 3-0.
After Jade Renner’s great escape in the top of the second, West Greene’s offense scored three more times. Mackenzie Carpenter singled, McKenna Lampe reached on a fielder’s choice and Madison Renner lined a three-run homer to centerfield that made it 6-0.
That was enough offense for Jade Renner, who retired 11 of the first 14 batters she faced. She exited with two outs in the seventh after allowing a single to Klapheke, the Blue Devils’ leadoff hitter. Renner improved her pitching record to 13-1 and has justified Simms’ decision to use her as the starter while moving Madison Renner – the Pioneers’ starting pitcher last year – to shortstop.
“The coaching staff talked about who gives us the best chance to win games from all nine positions,” Simms explained. “It’s not who is a better pitcher, but rather in the bigger games who allows us to put the best defensive team on the field.”