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Woo! Home runs lift Trinity over Montour, closer to section title

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Trinity’s Marlaina Bozek steals home in the fourth-inning during a game against Montour on Monday.

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Trinity’s Emma Morgan throws against Montour during a Class 5A Section 3 game Monday.

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Trinity’s Bayleigh McCullough rounds third as she heads for home during a game against Montour at Trinity’s field on Monday, April 29, 2019.

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Trinity’s Bailey Bell hits a three-run home run against Montour during a game at Trinity’s field on Monday, April 29, 2019.

It is not as flamboyant as a bat flip.

As Bailey Bell’s homer was still landing well beyond the center-field fence, the Trinity High School softball team gathered around home plate waiting her arrival.

Bell touched home and the Hillers went straight to their chant, “Can I get two claps and a Ric Flair woo!”

Clap, clap, woo.

It’s short, sweet and catchy but comes with one flaw.

“Who is that?” freshman first baseman Regan Miller asked about Flair, the former professional wrestler who made the “Woo!” popular.

“I’ve heard of him,” Bell, a senior, said.

The woo was on loop Monday afternoon.

Hitting four home runs, Trinity’s offense stayed scorching hot and moved one step closer to securing a section title with a 12-5 win over Montour in a Class 5A Section 3 game.

It was the Hillers’ sixth consecutive win and brings them to within one victory of sharing at least sharing a section title for the first time since 2013. Two victories and they will clinch the section outright.

“We have a shot,” Trinity softball coach Shawn Gray said. “We let them know what is at stake. They are excited. They want it bad.”

All indications of just how badly Trinity (8-1, 11-2) wants a section title could seen in how hard the Hillers were swinging the bats on their four homers. Bell started the onslaught with a three-run bomb in the second inning to give the Hillers a 4-0 lead. Miller hit a two-run shot to right centerfield in the third and Kylie Poland and Emma Morgan had back-to-back solo homers in the sixth.

The home runs prevented another mountainous comeback like Montour (7-4, 7-6) had in handing the Hillers their only section loss of the season, 15-14, April 8. The Spartans scored eight runs in the final three innings.

The only threat Montour put up in the second meeting was by taking advantage of a pair of Trinity mistakes to score three runs in the top of the third, trimming the Hillers’ lead to 4-3.

“We wanted revenge,” Bell said. “This team was our only loss in section. We wanted to put on a beatdown and score some runs. It was a nice win for us.”

It was the eighth consecutive game Trinity has scored in double digits and the 10th time it has scored at least 10 runs this year.

“Their lineup is one of the best we’ve seen. And we’ve seen a lot of good teams,” said Montour coach Ken Kutchman. “Everything they do is done with authority. There are no easy outs.”

The bottom of the Hillers’ batting order made that known as Alyssa Rager, the No. 7 hitter, and Miller, who settled in nicely at the nine spot, combined for five hits and five RBI.

Miller had the first big hit of the day as her two-out, line-drive single scored the opening run for Trinity. The lineup turned over for Bell, who hit her three-run home run in the next at-bat.

“I was happy to finally hit,” Miller said. “I’ve been struggling. I’ve been all over the lineup. I’m not complaining because that doesn’t matter. Whether you are at the top or the bottom, wherever you get put, you have to make sure you own it.”

Miller ended the scoring in a four-run third inning with a home run to give Trinity an 8-3 lead. The Hillers followed that with two runs in the fourth and two in the sixth.

Marlaina Bozek and Rager each had three hits, despite facing a vastly different pitcher in Montour’s Morgan Castelluci, who entered in the fourth inning relying on a deliberate changeup.

“We were ready to throw three deep today just to show them something different,” Kutchman said. “Show them different speeds, different locations and different arm angles. Obviously it wasn’t quite successful.”

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