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Lady Chucks fall short of district title against Lady Bisons |
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Written by Dan Walk
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Thursday, 31 May 2007 |
BROCKWAY - The Lady Chucks struggled to get baserunners all afternoon, and after splitting the regular-season series, Clearfield won the all-important game No. 3 to claim the District IX Class AAA title Wednesday in Brockway.
The Lady Bisons scored one run in the first, one in the third and two in the fourth to shutout the Lady Chucks, 4-0.
"It was unfortunate that we had an off night," Punxsy head coach Alan Pifer said. "You get one chance, and if you have an off night, the other team is going to beat you.
"They're a good team, and you can't take anything away from them. Today, they capitalized on every mistake we made," he said.
Brooke Callen pitched 3 2/3-innings and allowed all four runs, even though Clearfield earned just two.
Mandi Rowles limited Punxsy to just four hits and one walk while pitching the complete-game shutout.
Two errors in the first inning gave the Lady Bisons two baserunners with two outs. Brittany Pataky, who was 3-for-4 on the game, drove in Ashley Lias, Clearfield's first run.
In the bottom of the first, the Lady Chucks started a two-out rally with back-to-back singles from Lauren Martino and Nicole Cappella. However, Callen struck out to end the threat. The first inning represented Punxsy's best chance at scoring, as the team never had two runners on base at any time in the next six innings.
"You don't win games like that," Pifer said. "You have to string some hits together. It wasn't like (Rowles) had a lot of strikeouts. But, to their credit, they made the plays in the field."
Punxsy sophomore Angela Burke came in as a relief pitcher and didn't allow a run in 3 1/3-innings. Burke controlled Clearfield, but Punxsy still couldn't cut into the deficit.
"A lot of their hits early on were weakly-hit balls," Pifer said. "We wanted to give them a little different look, so we went with Burke. We couldn't give them any more runs; we were trying to keep that at bay."
Tina Elgin, Punxsy's designated player, was 1-for-2 with a walk. Cappella was 2-for-3 with two singles, and Martino was 1-for-3. Martino ends her Lady Chucks' career with 77 hits, which is a school record.
"I'm very disappointed for our seniors; they're a great bunch of kids, and they deserved a better fate," Pifer said. "I would just like to thank all the fans for all their support this year. It's a disappointing end, but all and all, it was a good season, and that's what we have to take from it." |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 01 June 2007 )
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