SPRING MILLS — One side of the diamond thought it was about a foot fair. The other side thought it was about foot foul.
CDT photo/Craig Houtz
Bald Eagle Area’s Meghan Granite (20) is greeted by teammates at the plate after hitting a two-run home run in the fourth inning of the Lady Eagles’ 4-1 win over Penns Valley on Thursday.
Bald Eagle Area’s Meghan Granite wasn’t about to give her home run back no matter who was right or wrong.
Granite’s two-run blast down the right field line in the fourth inning provided the Lady Eagles with some needed breathing room as BEA edged Penns Valley 4-1 in Thursday’s clash of Centre County softball rivals.
Granite’s shot gave Lady Eagles starter Megan Shaw a three-run cushion as she dueled with Lady Rams starter Rachel Myers. Both pitchers threw five-hitters on a blustery day where runs were a premium.
With BEA clinging to a 2-1 lead in the fourth, Granite stepped to the with one out and Kelly Chambers at first via a walk. On the first pitch from Myers, Granite belted a fly ball down the right field line. With Penns Valley right fielder Clarissa Keller giving chase and hard breeze from center field to right trying to push the ball foul, the ball landed over the fence in foul territory.
Then the confusion began. plate umpire Walt Dolan pointed fair, but the baserunners couldn’t figure out if the ball was a ground rule double, home run or foul.
After conferring with base umpire Eric Bernier, Dolan ruled that the ball sliced around the foul pole and signaled a home run to the delight of the BEA faithful and Granite.
“I definitely thought it was fair,” said Granite.
“It appeared to be fair to me,” said BEA’s Dave Breon, who watched from the third-base coaching box. “It was just a lot of confusion as to what was going on. It looked fair about maybe by a foot to me.”
Penns Valley coach Don Lucas, who had a pretty good view down the line from the home dugout, saw it differently. “I was looking straight down the line and it went about a foot on the (other) side of the foul line,” he said.
Granite, a standout hitter for the Lady Eagles in their PIAA Class AA runner-up finish last season, was happy to break a 1- for-11 start at the plate. “The first time I was up to bat she threw me outside and I looked at it and it was a good pitch,” said Granite. “Next time up, I just figured why not? I looked for it, it was there and I took it where it wanted to go.”
Penns Valley, which was no-hit by Philipsburg-Osceola’s Kelsey Gonder in a 6-0 loss on Tuesday, wasted little time getting over their batting woes.
In the first, Alicia Leitch singled with one out and moved to second on Myers’ two-out single. With Nicole Bowersox at the plate, Leitch swiped third. Bowersox then hit a grounder that BEA third baseman Amber McClure bobbled and threw wild past first allowing Leitch to score.
The wild throw set off a bizarre play. As Myers went to third, BEA first baseman Granite picked up the errant throw and ran back to the infield. Bowersox strayed toward second and Granite dove back to the bag, but was late to tag Bowersox. With Granite prone with her back to the plate, Myers broke for home. Granite was able to get to her knees and fire to catcher Brooke Klinefelter to nip Myers at the plate.
BEA went ahead for good in its next at-bat, thanks to another struggling hitter. Chambers drew a one-out walk and moved to second when Shaw was hit by a pitch. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch.
With two outs, Cortney Switzer stepped to the plate. Switzer, who struck out three times and was pinch-hit for in a 3-2 loss to Central Mountain, on Tuesday, delivered a two-run single to right-center.
“When you’re a goat one day, you might be the hero the next day,” said Breon. “That was a big hit.”
The two pitchers dominated throughout, though Penns Valley did put the ball in play often against Shaw, who came in averaging nearly two strikeouts per inning. Shaw fanned five and did not walk a batter.
“They came out swinging,” Breon said of the Lady Rams. “They were being a lot more aggressive than we were.”
Myers struck out eight, walked four and had BEA off-balance with a mix of curve-balls and changeups.
“Against a hitting team like Bald Eagle, she pitched very well,” Lucas said of Myers. “We have to cut down on ours walks because they come back to bite you. Except for that, she pitched an outstanding game.”
Breon was not pleased with his team, which plays host to rival P-O on Tuesday. “We saw too many pitches being taken and too many signs being missed,” he said. “... We’ve got to be a little bit better than what we’re doing right now. If not, we’re going to get beat a couple of more times.”
Lucas was pleased to see his team battle coming off loss at P-O.
“We have some growing pains we’re going through.,” he said “The team that played tonight is the team that I know can play. The team played at played at Philipsburg on Tuesday for whatever did not show up.
“I think that we belong in the mix. If we get some of these girls to become a little more savvy, we’ll be there.”
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