Lady Hornets top Loyalsock, advance to District championship game

By: Ed Weaver  /  June 1, 2016

The Wellsboro Varsity Softball team upset No. 2 Loyalsock 2-1 on Tuesday, May 31 to advance to the District IV AA championship game.

Loyalsock's Kendall Watkins led off the game with a home run to jump out to an early 1-0 lead. Wellsboro settled down after that as sophomore Alyssa Yungwirth only allowed one other hit, a lead off double in the sixth inning by Sam Stopper, walked two batters and struck out 11 on 96 pitches for her 11th win of the season.

The Lady Hornets struggled at the plate as they collected only 4 hits. Wellsboro came alive in the sixth as senior Jenny Young beat a throw to first, then senior Sarah Ingerick hit a triple to score Young to tie it 1-1. The Lady Hornets took the lead later in the inning as senior Darci Warriner hit a hard ground ball to the short stop, that was bobbled, to score Ingerick to put Wellsboro up. Wellsboro's defense held from there to send them back to the championship game.

Ingerick, sophomore Brianne Keane, Young, and Warriner all went 1-for-3 at the plate and sophomore Sydney Tremper drew a walk.

"These last 6 or 7 games for us have been nip and tuck and I told the girls the last few days that if we can keep it close we'll give ourselves a chance to win and they did," said head coach Greg Carr. "I can't be any happier for the whole team, especially the seniors that have been here and have devoted their entire career for this."

Wellsboro (19-3) now has a short turn around before their upcoming title game with No. 1 Milton on Thursday, June 2 at the Moser Complex.

"We have one day of practice and then we play for a District title so for us it's one pitch at a time, whether we're playing defense or we're up to bat, it's one pitch at a time. That's our philosophy and that's how we're going to approach it," concluded Carr.