CURWENSVILLE – Playing home instead of away is usually a good thing. Â However, Monday night’s change of venue didn’t work out for the Curwensville Area High School softball team. Â The Lady Tide was originally scheduled to travel to Kane, but the Wolves’ field was not ready for play. Â Instead, Kane used the road trip to notch their first win of the season in a 12-11 tilt that covered nine innings.
Kane is a District IX Class AA team that didn’t make the play-offs a season ago, and as Curwensville enters the AA trail, they have to re-evaluate what’s to come this season.
“It’s game four of the season, and we get to play on Wednesday and then the next game and the next,” said Tide head coach Allen Leigey. Â “They won the first round, but it’s the last meeting that counts. Â We can’t get down after one game with a whole season ahead of us.”
The offense for the home team started out well as the Lady Tide scored in each of the first four innings. Â However, they simply couldn’t put the determined Lady Wolves away. Â Curwensville belted out 10 hits in the first four innings, and held a comfortable 7-2 advantage, before Kane started chipping away with the aid of inconsistent pitching.
Four walks and one single closed the gap to 7-4 in the fifth inning, and when Kane put the ball in play in the sixth, it seemed that Tide attempts to get lead runners came up short. Â The result was an 8-7 lead for the visitors.
Curwensville rallied in the sixth with back-to-back doubles from Sarah Wriglesworth and Taylor Goodman starting things off with one out. Cheyenne Pentz, with an RBI, Â and Tiffany Carter followed with hits, and an RBI ground out off the bat of Abby Johnson set the hosts up with a 10-8 advantage. Â The rest of the game would take on the see-saw battle.
“You just can’t walk as many batters as we did tonight and expect to win,” said Leigey. Â “Hopefully this game will give us the experience of being in a tough game and we can come out stronger for it.”
Needing three outs to win, Curwensville again struggled. Â In all, Kane sent nine batters to the plate in the top of the seventh and scored three runs to hold an 11-10 advantage. Â During the sixth and seventh innings, the Lady Tide tag-teamed Tierra Shope and Nikki Harker in the circle to try to deter the Wolves, but had little success.
“We just couldn’t find that go-to pitch when we needed it,” Leigey admitted. Â “Calling pitches became tough, because we just were not sure what was going to get the job done.”
The bottom of the batting order was called on in the bottom of the seventh, and they were able to answer the call. Â With one out Harker and designated player Tricia Laird both singled. Â Wriglesworth singled in the tying run, but the bases were left loaded and the game went into extra innings.
It seemed to be a matter of allowing a team to hang around long enough and anything can happen as neither team scored in the eighth. Â In the top of the ninth, a two-out error allowed the winning run to scamper home, and the Tide left the bases loaded in the bottom of the frame to drop their first loss of the season.
Curwensville slapped out 19 hits in the game while allowing only nine hits for the Lady Wolves. Wriglesworth finished with four hits on the day while Goodman and Carter had three each. Â Pentz, Johnson, Abby Dugo and Harker all picked up two hits for Curwensville.
Shope and Harker combined for 14 walks in the game with nine strikeouts that Kane was able to use to their advantage. Â Haley Walters paced the Wolves offense with three hits while Kaila Jamerson added two hits for the day.
Curwensville will look to bounce back on Wednesday when they host Elk County Catholic in a 4:15 contest.
KANE – 12
Daria Huckabone lf 3200, Nichole Sluga rf 4312, Kaila Jamerson ss 5122, A. Stanko pr 0000, Tristan Hillman 1b 4001, Cheyenne Wheatley 3b 4101, B. Thompson pr 0000, Allysa Gregg c 4213, Kaila Hoag p 6000, Haley Walters cf 5123, Emily Truden 2b,  TOTALS – 40 AB 12 R 9 H 12 RBI.
CURWENSVILLE – 11
Sarah Wriglesworth cf 6242, Taylor Goodman 2b4231, Cheyenne Pentz ss 5322, Tiffany Carter c 5032, Abby Johnson lf 5022, Alaina Stiles rf 5000, Abby Dugo 3b 5220, Nikki Harker 1b/p 3220, Malanie Milliron pr 0000, Emily McGarry 1b 1000, Tricia Laird dp 3011, Kealy Wassil ph 1000, Tierra Shope flex/p/1b/p 0000, TOTALS – 44 AB 11 R 19 H 310 RBI.
SCORES BY INNINGS – R H E
KANE   020 024 301 – 12 9 3
Curwensville  111 431 100 – 11 19 2
ERRORS – Walters, Sluga, Gregg; Wriglesworth, Pentz.  LOB – Kane 14; Curwensville 12.  2B – Walters; Wriglesworth, Goodman, Johnson.  SAC – Harker, Laird. SB – Gregg; Goodman. PB – Gregg. WP -Hoag 2; Shope, Harker.
PITCHING
Kane –Â Â Â Hoag – Â 9 IPÂ 19 H 11 R 9 ERÂ 4 BB 1 K 0 HB
Curwensville –Â Shope – Â 8 IPÂ 6 H11 RÂ 10 ERÂ 12 BBÂ 8 KÂ 0 HB
Harker – 1 IP 3 H 1 R 1 ER 2 BB 1 K 0 HB
WP –Â Hoag (1-0). Â LP -Shope (3-1).
Umpires – Denny Koppenhaver, Steve Basile.
Lady Tide Scoreboard:
Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
3/25 | JOHNSONBURG | ppd. | 0 – 0 |
3/27 | @ DuBois Central | ppd. | 0 – 0 |
4/03 | SHEFFIELD (Doubleheader) | ppd. | 0 – 0 |
4/04 | SHEFFIELD (Doubleheader) | 10 – 0 | 1 – 0 |
4/04 | SHEFFIELD (Doubleheader) | 17 – 0 | 2 – 0 |
4/05 | WEST BRANCH | 4 – 3 | 3 – 0 |
4/08 | KANE | 11-12 | 3 – 1 |
4/10 | ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC | Â | Â |
4/12 | MOSHANNON VALLEY | Â | Â |
4/15 | JOHNSONBURG | Â | Â |
4/16 | @ Brockway | Â | Â |
4/18 | @ Ridgway | Â | Â |
4/20 | @ DuBois Central | Â | Â |
4/22 | @ Johnsonburg | Â | Â |
4/24 | DUBOIS CENTRAL | Â | Â |
4/26 | @ Punxsutawney | Â | Â |
4/29 | @ Glendale | Â | Â |
5/02 | @ Kane | Â | Â |
5/03 | @ Redbank Valley | Â | Â |
5/06 | @ Elk County Catholic | Â | Â |
5/08 | BROCKWAY | Â | Â |
5/13 | @ Harmony | Â | Â |
5/15 | RIDGWAY | Â | Â |