Penns Valley softball comes up short in the 9th inning of the District 6 2A title game

Kendra Gardner came up to bat with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth.

With one swing of the bat, Mount Union defeated Penns Valley 9-8 to be crowned District 6 AA Champions. It wasn’t an unexpected moment for the seven hole hitter.

“I didn’t know it was coming, but it came and I’m proud of myself,” Gardner said. “We put it together when we were down and then, we went up and pulled through.”

Gardner’s teammate Kadyn Crisswell came up big throughout the game. Crisswell led off the bottom half of the first inning with a first-pitch home run. In the bottom of the sixth, she hit another homer, this time a two-run shot. The senior finished the day going 3-for-4 from the plate with a double, two home runs and a walk.

“We just had to keep the momentum up and the energy up,” Crisswell said. “It felt great hitting and getting on base. Every single person from this team played a part in this game. It was really amazing when we kept the energy up and that’s what kept us going.”

While Mount Union starting pitcher Kerrigan Woodward allowed eight runs on the day, she fared far better in the batter’s box. She followed Crisswell’s first inning home run with a double, reached on an error, later scoring a run, doubling again and going 2-for-5 from the plate.

Kendra Bumgardner singled to score Allie O’Brien to give Penns Valley a 1-0 advantage after the top of the first. Crisswell blasted her home run over the left field fence and Kayshawn Spriggs drove in Woodward on a fielder’s choice to give Mount Union a 2-1 lead after the first inning.

Penns Valley’s Scotty Dinges doubled to score Leah Meyer to tie the game at 2-2 in the second inning. Later, Avery Dinges singled to plate O’Brien to give the Rams a 3-2 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth. Mount Union fired back with a double by Morgan Brumbaugh that scored Crisswell and Woodward. Brumbaugh scored later in the inning to put Mount Union up 5-3 after five frames.

Avelyn Van Heyst doubled in Jordan Anderson and Kailen Winkleblech. Van Heyst immediately scored on a wild pitch and then, Avery Dinges scored O’Brien on an RBI double to give Penns Valley an 8-5 lead. Crisswell answered back with a two-run shot to score Sophie Smith and herself to trail 8-7 after six innings.

Kaitlin Arnold homered to tie the game at 8-8 for Mount Union in the seventh inning. After a number of close calls and an interference call on Penns Valley coach Tessa Deardorff in the bottom of the ninth to end a bases-loaded situation, Mount Union loaded the bases themselves and Gardner got the job done with a game-winning single.

Despite the loss, Penns Valley will still advance to the state tournament next week.

“It’s frustrating how that inning ended for us, but you can’t take it down to that,” Deardorff said. “You have other things earlier in the game that probably wouldn’t have put us in that position in the first place. It’s definitely a tough call to end that inning on.”

Bellefonte beats DuBois 8-1 to advance to the PIAA tournament

Bellefonte softball earned its spot in the PIAA Class 5A championships on Thursday with an 8-1 win over DuBois at Saint Francis University.

Lexi Rogers was the winning pitcher, surrendering four hits and a run while striking out five and walking one over seven innings. Rogers also led the Raiders at the plate, going 2-for-2 with an RBI, including a double.

They’ll play in the first round of the PIAA tournament on Monday.

This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 9:35 PM.