Bald Eagle softball stays aggressive, defeats Philipsburg-Osceola 10-3
Bald Eagle head coach Don Lucas is at the forefront of preaching aggressiveness at the plate to his team.
So, his Lady Eagles responded on Tuesday against Philipsburg-Osceola, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning and eventually taking the game 10-3. In the windy conditions with fans scurrying from the errant foul balls, Bald Eagle continued to stick to the plan.
“The last three or four games, we’ve really started to take that (aggressive) approach,” Lucas said. “We have some girls that can sting it. Tonight, like last night, they hit the ball really well. We had some big hits. Really, it’s just to go up to the plate and look to hit — not looking for a walk or things like that.”
The soft-spoken Sierra Albright is a first-year pitcher who Lucas trusts with the ball in her hands. She let her pitching do the talking for Bald Eagle, going 62/3, allowing eight hits and three runs while striking out five and walking one batter.
She just wants to get better.
“We did really well against Philipsburg,” Albright said. “(I pitched) not my best, but it was pretty good. (I need to) learn more about what my opponents like and don’t like (to hit) and how to pitch to them.”
Kierra Serb set the tone for the Lady Eagles in the first inning with a two-run double to score the team’s third and fourth runs. She was excited to break the seal for the team’s success.
“It felt really good to hit the ball and get our team going,” Serb said. “I had a sense that I was able to help the team get going to start scoring and get us the win.”
Autumn Tobias got the game started by driving in Kailey Eckert on a single. Katelyn Smitchko followed up by scoring Ava Stere on a single and Serb’s double scored Smitchko and Maddie Perry to give the Lady Eagles a 4-0 lead at the end of the first inning.
Albright, Eckert, Stere, Tobias and Smitchko all contributed with RBIs in Bald Eagle’s 5-run third inning to take a 9-0 lead. Philipsburg-Osceola scored its first run in the fourth and scored two more in the fifth. Eckert later scored in the fifth inning on an RBI single by Smitchko to give the Lady Eagles a 10-3 lead.
Paige Jarrett led the Lady Mounties by going 2-for-4 at the plate. Philipsburg-Osceola starting pitcher Karissa Taylor went 21/3, allowing seven hits and nine runs while striking out one. Things went better for Alivia Bizzarri in relief, allowing just one run on five hits over 32/3 innings, striking out one and walking one.
“We just made a few mistakes that turned into big mistakes,” Philipsburg-Osceola head coach Steve Frank said. “When we switched our pitchers, it made a difference. You’ve got a pitcher (Bizzarri) that gets it down a little lower. She’s a heck of a freshman.”
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 9:42 PM.
