How Bald Eagle Area softball stopped Central’s rally to roll to an 11-3 win
For a starting pitcher, Bald Eagle Area’s Madison Peters proved to be an excellent reliever in the Lady Eagles’ 11-3 win over Central on Tuesday.
After the Lady Eagles jumped out to a 3-0 lead over Central at the end of two innings, BEA coach Don Lucas decided to give Peters the rest of the day off and brought in junior Katelyn Smitchko.
But the Lady Dragons greeted her with a single, worked her for a walk and then Madison Kennedy lined a homer to left-center, knotting the score at 3. Central kept the pressure on, getting another single and a walk before Smitchko struck out Madison Benfer to end the inning.
BEA responded with three runs in the bottom of the third thanks to a single by Mara Hockenberry, a double by Ava Stere and back-to-back singles by Madison Eckley and Autumn Tobias to put BEA on top, 6-3, as the Lady Eagles rolled to the 11-3 victory.
“Madison (Peters) pitched extremely well but we expect that, she’s a senior. And we played very well behind her,” Lucas said. “Katelyn had pitched very well for us against Mifflin County. Tonight just wasn’t her night. But she’ll be all right. We need a No. 2 pitcher.”
The BEA offense stayed on the attack, getting a solo run in the fourth as Makena Baney drew a one-out walk, stole second and third and scored on a wild pitch. BEA stole eight bases for the day.
Leading 7-3 with Peters back in the circle, BEA nailed down the win with a four-run outburst in the fifth.
With one out, Madison Eckley singled and stole second and third and scored on Tobias’ infield out. With two out, Madison Perry had an RBI triple and Baney scored ahead of an RBI double by Hockenberry for the final run.
BEA finished the day with had 13 hits against three Central pitchers, with Hockenberry leading the way with three hits while Stere, Eckley and Tobias had two each.
“Mara is really the spark plug for us,” Lucas said. “She gets quality at-bat and if you even blink an eye, she’s taking an extra base.’’
Lucas was happy with his team’s resiliency after the Central rally, but is looking for even more production from his lineup — even with its 13 hits.
“After they got the home run, we came right back and scored three runs,” Lucas said. “But we need to hit better. I know it’s only the fifth game of the season and we’re a work in progress. But if we start hitting up and down the lineup, we should be all right.’’
Peters got the win while Central’s Hoyt took the loss. BEA is now 5-0
Central -003 000 0 - 3 8 0 -
BEA 213 140 x 11 13 0 -
This story was originally published April 13, 2021 at 9:52 PM.