BEA’s mettle proven in fifth-inning stand

Ron Bracken For the CDT

SHIPPENSBURG — It was the bottom of the fifth inning and Brandywine Heights had the bases loaded with one out in the PIAA Class AA championship game against Bald Eagle Area.

CDT photo/Nabil K. Mark

Bald Eagle Area’s Cortney Switzer’s leaping grab on a line drive in the fifth inning on Friday helped the Lady Eagles dodge a Brandywine Heights rally at Shippensburg University’s Robb Field.

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And you knew that this was the pivotal moment in the game. A hit’s worth two runs and two runs might be enough for the Lady Bullets to finally beat a District 6 team for a title. A defensive stop by the Lady Eagles and the momentum shifts to the BEA dugout.

If you want to be a champion, this is your moment to prove your worth.

The easy line here would be to say that the Lady Eagles dodged a bullet. In truth, they stuck their head down the barrel of a cannon and got away with not so much as a powder burn.

“Before the game we talked about how this was going to be a game where mistakes would be made and someone was going to have to take advantage of them,” said Eagle coach Dave Breon. “If it was us we needed to pick each other up, whether we struck out with the bases loaded or booted a ball with the bases loaded. These kids never quit on each other.”

If they had it would the Lady Bullets who are wearing the gold medal this morning instead of BEA.

BEA began shooting itself in the foot to start the inning when Leanda Helms’ grounder got through Lilly Glunt’s legs at third and Chelsea Trewella’s hard bunt toward shortstop caught Cortney Switzer moving to cover second, giving the Bullets runners on first and second with none out. Megan Shaw struck out the next batter but then Taylor Parsons mishandled Jill Guildin’s grounder, filling the bases with Bullets.

That pushed the needle on the pressure meter into the red numbers. It was time for a meeting on the mound.

“I just told everyone to relax,” said catcher Brooke Klinefelter. “We needed to stay at 90 (on the emotional scale), not get down to 45, just stay at 90. And after the game we could go to 100. We didn’t want to get too pumped up.

“We trusted Megan. We knew she would work out of it. Coach kept calling for drops and all I wanted to do was drop down and not let the ball get past me.”

Kaitlynn Eisenhart bounced to Glunt at third and she threw home to force courtesy runner Alyssa Neimeyer for the second out of the inning.

“I was a little nervous,” Parsons said of the bases-loaded situation. “But Megan always gets us out of those jams.”

And so she did, getting No. 9 hitter Amanda Shoemaker on a looping line drive toward short which Cortney Switzer leaped and caught to end the threat.

“We saw them melting after that,” Parsons said. “We knew we needed to get some runs. We knew we had to do it.”

By now you know they did, putting together a two-run rally in the top of the sixth to bolt down BEA’s second championship in four years thanks to RBI singles by Jasa Mitchell and Brooke Klinefelter.

“I just focused on calming down,” Shaw said of the fifth-inning threat. “We just needed to relax and do what we had to do, make the routine plays. I wasn’t that worried. I knew if I hit my spots my defense would make the plays behind me. We just had to shake it off and help each other.”

First baseman Meghan Granite echoed Klinefelter and Parsons in expressing her unshakable faith in Shaw.

“Megan is a fabulous pitcher,” she said. “And we practiced for challenges like this. As we went through the playoffs we knew we were going to see good hitters and better pitching and we would just have to fight our way through that. We just had to battle and make the routine plays. We were just hoping Megan would hit her spots and if they hit the ball we’d make the plays.”

And when Switzer made the leaping, backhand catch, they knew they had met the biggest challenge in a season that was filled with challenging moments, going back to a sunny April afternoon when Klinefelter’s two-run home run beat P-O 2-1, to the district title nail-biter again with P-O, and Monday’s 1-0 nail-biter over Riverside to earn the right to return to the title game.

For last year’s silver medalists, it was a season of challenges faced and challenges met.

“It was hard but we got through it,” Granite said. “And I know exactly how they (Brandywine Heights) feel. It’s tough. But this year we traded our silver (medals) for gold.”