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closeBEA players to enjoy the view
Ron Bracken and Walt Moody Centre Daily Times
By this morning the PIAA gold medals won by the Bald Eagle Area girls’ softball team are hanging in places of honor in the rooms of the recipients, replacing the silver medals that have hung there for the past year as a reminder of how close they had come a year ago.
CDT photo/Nabil K. Mark
Bald Eagle Area’s Megan Shaw, right, gets a hug from head coach Dave Breon after receiving her gold medal on Friday at Shippensburg University’s Robb Field. Shaw and the Lady Eagles’ class of six seniors, finished their scholastic careers with a 2-0 win over Brandywine Heights in the PIAA Class AA final.
“Mine’s going in the highest part of my room so I can look at it every day,” said center fielder Jasa Mitchell, who had an RBI single in BEA’s 2-0 win over Brandywine Heights. “I’m so happy right now I want to go hug everyone here. I can remember how I felt last year. I was pretty down, I was crying.”
There was no crying in the BEA dugout this year as the Lady Eagles won their second softball title in the last four years.
“This feels three thousand times better than last year,” said winning pitcher Megan Shaw. “This is one of the best feelings of my life. This (medal) is going beside my bed so I can look at it all the time.”
Brooke Klinefelter, who along with Meghan Granite will play at Northampton Community College, said she knows exactly where her medal will be.
“It’s going to college with me,” she said. “It’s going to hang in my room so I can look at it every day. This is 100 times better than last year, especially since it’s my senior year and we’re going home with the gold. I am so happy for the other seniors. We’ve done so much work since October.”
Pressure treated
You can’t blame Brandywine Heights coach Don Roach for wondering what’s in the water in Centre County. He’s faced BEA twice in the PIAA finals and came up with three hits and no runs in 14 innings. He fared a little better against Philipsburg- Osceola, getting six runs in an 11-6 loss in 2007.
But if you ask the Lady Eagles and Lady Mounties what makes them such a challenge for the Lady Bullets, they’ll say it’s each other.
“We think District 6 is the toughest district in the state,” Klinefelter said. “It didn’t matter whether we won our league or not (they didn’t, P-O did) we knew that P-O would be our biggest challenge. We knew we’d see teams in the playoffs that were similar to them but not of the same caliber as they are.”
BEA coach Dave Breon said the other district teams also pushed his squad, something that helps when you’re facing a bases-loaded, one-out situation late in the state title game.
“We had some really good games this year, not only Philipsburg,” Breon said. “Penns Valley is a good team and Bellefonte took us 10 innings. It’s all those pressure situations that you face throughout the season that helps you prepare for something like this.”
So long seniors
BEA graduates six seniors, including five starters. Gone are pitcher Shaw, catcher Klinefelter, first baseman Granite, left fielder Margaret Rougeux and right fielder Janelle Poorman.
Kendra Giedroc, a reserve infielder, also got into the title game as a courtesy runner.
Breon said the group will be missed.
“There’s certainly some really really big shoes to fill with the likes of Megan Shaw, a pitcher like that, and Brooke behind the plate,” he said. “That’s a great tandem. With Granite on first, those three kids were the nucleus of the team this year.”
Rougeux and Poorman made the best of their opportunities. “I can’t say enough about Rougeux and Poorman for working so hard,” Breon said. “They really weren’t there at the beginning of the year. They fought there way into the lineup. They just did not quit.
“That’s what makes us better than average. We have kids pushing each other all of the time and you can’t relax. There’s some people who were in the starting lineup last year who weren’t here this year.”
Not so Super
After losing in the title game for the third time in five seasons, Roach drew upon a football reference to describe his feelings.
“Who went to 9,000 Super Bowls and didn’t win?” he asked, referring to the Buffalo Bills, who dropped four straight NFL title games between 1990 and 1993. “ I feel like Marv Levy. I just hope we have an opportunity to come back again some day and play again.”
I need a vacation
Klinefelter, who battled injuries to both knees and a bad ankle, was happy to make it through the season. Despite the ailments, she led the Lady Eagles in hitting (.419) and RBIs (30).
“I gutted it out,” Klinefelter said after driving in a run in the title game. “Now we start off summer ball. I might take off a week or two.”
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