Apr 26, 2024 By Jonathan Guth 4 min read

If Trinity keeps playing softball games like Friday’s Class 5A Section 4 contest, Hillers coach Shawn Gray may have more gray (no pun intended) hairs than he would like.

Trinity earned a 7-6 victory over Thomas Jefferson in a game where the ebbs and flows had Gray and his staff on edge from the first pitch.

“At the beginning of the season, the girls set a lot of goals for themselves,” Gray said. “They know that there’s a standard over here at Trinity softball, and they want to keep that standard up. Their goal is to win sections, and they want to come through and win this section.”

The Hillers improved to 6-3 in section play and 10-4 overall. Trinity is tied with Connellsville for first place. The two traded victories in the season series. The Hillers finish section play on Monday at Bethel Park, who is 5-4 in the section. The Jaguars fell to 5-4 in section play.

“Our starting pitcher, Aubrey Shaffer, handles herself very well, and she is just a freshman,” Thomas Jefferson coach Heidi Karcher said. “We just had a couple of innings where we were a little slow, but that can’t happen against a good-hitting team, but I am glad we fought back in the seventh inning.”

Trinity battled back from a 4-1 deficit to take a 7-4 lead into the seventh. Thomas Jefferson scored two runs, and appeared to be on its way to score the game-tying run on Taylor Karpac’s single to left field, but Hillers left fielder Riley Venick threw a strike to catcher Alexa Zawacki, who applied the tag for the second out.

Trinity pitcher Finley Hohn, who came in for Maddie Ray during the second inning with the bases loaded and nobody out, induced a popup to Zawacki that was snagged in foul territory for the final out.

Hohn allowed four runs (three earned) on nine hits over six innings. She had one strikeout and walked one.

“We are blessed that we have three good pitchers that we can rely on in Emma (Starr), Finley and Maddie,” Gray said. “Finley came through for us today.”

The Hillers opened the scoring on Hanna Suhoski’s double to left field that scored Ally Krenzelak for a 1-0 lead in the first.

Suhoski, who led Trinity in most offensive categories last season, has also worked on her fielding at shortstop, and the junior assisted on five plays and also caught two line drives for outs.

“I really didn’t do anything different in terms of working to improve on my fielding,” Suhoski said. “I just took a lot of reps during the offseason. My approach isn’t much different this season, but the only real difference is we have some newer players.”

The Jaguars took a 2-1 advantage in the second when Sophia Janosko and Taylor Karpac scored on Hannah Alonso’s double to left field. Thomas Jefferson extended its lead to 4-1 in the third on Emma DeSimone’s two-run homer.

Suhoski and Remmie Seitz hit back-to-back home runs to lead off the fourth and Krenzelak hit the game-tying blast to start the fifth.

The Hillers scored three runs with two outs in the sixth for a 7-4 lead. Ray reached on an error before moving to second on Starr’s base hit to left field.

Pinch runner Samantha Bruno and Starr scored on Krenzelak’s double to left before scoring on Zawacki’s single up the middle.

Krenzelak played last season during Trinity’s run to the WPIAL title, but didn’t get as many at-bats. If Friday’s game is any indication, the Hillers’ center fielder isn’t having any issues adjusting to hitting leadoff, as she was 4-for-4 and a triple shy of the cycle.

“Batting leadoff has been a big change this year but it’s good,” Krenzelak said. “I usually bat down in the lineup. In my last at-bat, I was looking for that inside pitch because she (Shaffer) was throwing that a lot to me today, and it was where I liked it. It was a great team effort today.”