Bald Eagle Area softball blanks South Williamsport to reach PIAA Class 2A finals
Milk and cookies, yin and yang, everyone knows they just go together.
Some might say that Bald Eagle Area and the PIAA softball finals just go together.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Lady Eagles blanked South Williamsport, 4-0, at Central Mountain High School to reach the PIAA Class 2A finals. It marks the seventh time that the program has been in this spot with the most recent coming in 2009, when they won.
BEA (23-2) will face District 5 champion and undefeated Everett (25-0) at 11 a.m. Thursday at Nittany Lion Softball Park.
“We’ve been in some tight ballgames. All year, we’ve been in some donnybrooks. We played a really good South Williamsport team today,” manager Don Lucas said. “They were a nice ball club. They (BEA) are young. My whole outfield are sophomores, the pitcher is a sophomore, my catcher is a sophomore. They were there last year (loss in PIAA semifinals). They came back this year and just played tough.”
Sierra Albright was dominant in the circle for the Lady Eagles.
The sophomore struck out 16 Lady Mountaineers batters, and earned a complete game win. She gave up just three hits and walked one batter.
“For a sophomore, she pitches well beyond her years. When you have 16 strikeouts, your defense has to come up with five outs,” Lucas said of Albright’s performance. “They had the bases loaded in the first inning, and she was unflappable. She struck out the side.”
When it came to helping Albright out on the offensive end, BEA didn’t get things rolling until the sixth inning. The game was scoreless until that point.
Kailey Eckert got things rolling for the Lady Eagles by collecting a triple to start the inning. Lucas recalled that earlier in the game she nearly had an inside the park homerun, but the left fielder made an outstanding play. This time around, Eckert burned that outfielder.
She scored on the next batter in Alexa Baney, who was the lone BEA batter with multiple hits. Baney was followed by Sydney Thompson, who kept the hit parade rolling.
Ava Stere picked up a double that scored Baney. Following an out, Alyssa King came to the plate and cracked a single that scored Thompson and Stere.
“A pressure situation, we were only up 2-0 at that point, and Alyssa blooped one over second base and we scored two more runs. We were up 4-0, and I felt pretty comfortable at the time,” Lucas said. “The bottom of the sixth and seventh we just rode her (Albright). I think our ability to be in tight games and not get pressured by is all we have been doing, so I think that kind of helped us.”
This story was originally published June 13, 2023 at 6:10 PM.
