PIAA CLASS AAA SOFTBALL

Double trouble

Lady Chucks’ defense, offensive fifth inning eliminates Lady Raiders

Walt Moody

BROCKWAY — You can't say that baserunning woes cost the Bellefonte softball team a chance to advance into the PIAA Class AAA main draw, but they certainly didn't help matters Wednesday.

Craig Houtz

Punxsutawney's Shawna Crago steals second base against Bellefonte's Erica Pooler in the 7th inning during their District 6/9 playoff game on Wednesday, May 27, 2009.

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Punxsutawney squelched three early Lady Red Raider threats with double plays and took advantage of timely hitting and excellent defense to dispatch Bellefonte 2-1 in a play-in game at Brockway High School.

The Lady Chucks’ Angela Burke tossed a six-hitter as she outdueled Bellefonte’s Emily Dauberman, who was perfect through four innings and finished with a five-hitter.

Bellefonte had baserunners in the first four innings against Burke, but failed to score and had runners doubled off of first base to end the second, third and fourth frames.

In the second, freshman Hannah Cooper singled, but was doubled off on a line drive to second base. In the third, Brianna Faust failed to make it back to first after Brittany Smith’s deep drive was run down on a fine catch by Lady Chucks’ left fielder Hannah Neal. And in the fourth, Danielle Gomola broke for second on a hit-and-run and was doubled up on a foul pop-up to first.

Bellefonte coach Gregg Kohlhepp did not fault any of his baserunners, who he said were told to be aggressive.

“I don’t think they made any mistakes out there,” he said. “Those are plays that we understand that if we put a hit-and-run on and the ball goes in the air that we understand that it’s going to be an out if it gets caught. You can’t do much with infield line drives. And that ball that was out there (to Neal), I bet every kid on both teams would be running off first base on that play. It stands out a little bit more in this case because of the fact we lost, but (Punxsutawney) made baserunning errors, too. ... We didn’t get the ball to fall when we needed it to fall.”

Punxsutawney didn’t get anything to fall against Dauberman for the first four innings. The junior right-hander retired the first 12 hitters, mainly on weak pop-ups and three strikeouts.

“There for awhile I was wondering whether we were going to get a hit off of her,” Punxsutawney coach Alan Pifer said. “We had a couple of balls hit well, but most of them initially weren’t hit that well.”

The Chucks (19-2) broke through in the top of the fifth as a light rain began to fall. Catcher Sara Ruehle led off with a double into the right-center field gap to break up Dauberman’s perfect game.

“I think it proved to the rest of the team that (Dauberman) was hittable and as long as we put the bat on the ball we could make something happen,” Pifer said. “That was huge.”

With Bellefonte thinking about a bunt, sophomore Taylor Powell caught Lady Raiders shortstop Erica Pooler leaning a little bit toward third and singled behind her to drive in courtesy runner Ashley Barenchik. Powell advanced to second on the throw home.

After Dauberman made a nice driving stab of Burke’s bunt attempt, Jenna Reitz drove in the eventual game-winning run with a single to right-center.

Bellefonte (14-8) cut the margin in half in the bottom of the inning. Freshman Cooper smacked a one-out single. After a force out on Alyssa Stahly’s grounder, Faust lined a single to right to chase pinch runner Jessica Walizer to third. Ashley Bowes then smacked a single to plate Walizer.

Burke got out of the jam by getting Smith, who had singled and ripped the ball to left in her first two at-bats, on a comebacker.

Getting out of trouble is nothing new for Burke, who as a freshman was called upon in relief after starter Brooke Callen injured her arm in the PIAA Western final against Corry.

Burke closed out that contest that sent the Lady Chucks to the PIAA final.

Burke struck out just one and walked one as she relied on her fielders to get Bellefonte out.

“She’s a cool customer for us and she always has been,” Pifer said of his senior right-hander. “Today she wasn’t hitting her spots as well — and I think she’d tell you that herself. She had a little trouble with her curveball. The fortunate thing was that when she had to she was spotting her fastball inside and outside and taking advantage of what we thought was some of their hitters’ weaknesses.”

With the rain falling harder, Stahly singled with two outs in the seventh, but Burke got Faust on a grounder to short to end it.

“That was one of those games you hate to see somebody lose because it was a well-played game on both sides,” said Pifer, whose District 9 champs advanced to face the District 7 champ Monday. “Fortunately for us, we just got the key hits at the right time.”

Dauberman (8-8) struck out four and did not walk a batter.

“With the conditions, she was still moving the ball around,” Kohlhepp said of Dauberman’s fine effort. “We knew that we would have to move the ball against a team like Punxsutawney. She was able to do that right until the end.”

Kohlhepp loses seniors starters Stahly (first base) and Faust (right field).

“They’ve provided a lot of leadership and they’re fantastic defensive players,” he said.

Despite having so many players returning, Kohlhepp said the District 6 champs were solemn after the game. “We talked about the fact that their dream wasn’t fulfilled and that they wanted more out of this than what they got,” he said. “... They love playing with each other. I think that’s the toughest thing for them is that they don’t get to do that anymore.”