Liberty's monster fourth inning dooms Wellsboro

By: Ed Weaver  /  May 28, 2017

A four-run sixth inning rally by North Penn-Liberty ended the Wellsboro Varsity Softball team's season in the District IV Class AAA semi-finals on Saturday, May 27.

Both teams struggled early at the plate in another classic pitching duel between junior Alyssa Yungwirth and Savanah Doney. The Lady Hornets found a little success picking up three base hits in the first couple of innings, but stranded four runners. Finally in the bottom of the third the Wellsboro bats woke up.

Yungwirth reach first base on error, but a shallow fly ball to center in the next at bat by junior Sydney Tremper forced Yungwirth out at second. After a walk by freshman Cathryn Brought, a base hit up the middle of the infield by junior Brianne Keane scored Tremper and gave Wellsboro a 1-0 lead. Wellsboro added one more run in the game as Brought scored on an RBI single by sophomore Heidi Zuchowski to make it 2-0 heading into the fourth inning.

Liberty's troubles at the plate persisted through the fourth and fifth innings as they managed only one base hit, but eventually they found success in the top of the sixth.

Carmen Bates led off the inning with a monster triple. Brooke Harvey followed Bates with a perfectly executed bunt that scored Bates and put Harvey on first. Savanah Doney followed Harvey with a double to left field to move Harvey to third. Tremper tagged Harvey out at home plate as Mackenzie Heater hit a ball back to Yungwirth to prevent the tying run, but Liberty wasn't done.

With one out Abby Heatley sent a shot to right field that was caught by sophomore Hailey Neal, but was deep enough to score Doney from second to tie the game at 2-2. Now with two outs, Emily Strange doubled to left to score Heater and Lauren Smith singled to left to score Strange to give Liberty a 4-2 lead.

Wellsboro went down in order in the bottom half of the inning. Liberty also went down in order in the top of the seventh giving Wellsboro one last chance to for a comeback.

Yungwirth beat out a throw to first for a base hit with one out and Brought singled to move her over to second with two outs, but a ground out to Doney sealed the 4-2 win for North Penn-Liberty, sending them to their first-ever District IV championship game and PIAA State tournament berth.

"The girls had a outstanding season," said head coach Ron Brought. "I knew after the first few days of practice we had a special group of girls that were going see a lot of success this season and they certainly followed that up with their play on the field. Today was a tough one. Statistically we outperformed our opponent in multiple areas including hits, had runners on base in 5 innings and didn't committed any defensive errors. We also had a handful of hard hits that unfortunately were right at their outfielders."

Brought and Zuchowski were both 2-for-3 at the plate at Keane was 2-for-4 for Wellsboro. Neal, Tremper, and Yungwirth had the remaining hits.

For Liberty, Doney was 2-for-3 with a double, Smith and Strange were both 1-for-2 with walks, and Bates and Harvey were 1-for-4.

Yungwirth pitched a complete game for Wellsboro in the loss, allowing 4 runs (all earned) on 6 hits with 3 walks and 7 strikeouts. Doney also went the distance on the mound for Liberty, allowing 2 runs on 9 hits with a walk and 3 strikeouts.

"I couldn't have asked for a better team and coaches to work with for my first year at the varsity level," continued Brought. "They embodied "team" in so many ways. I am already excited for next season with the return of the entire roster in addition to some strong players from the middle school program. This team has far more to accomplish and will certainly be one to look out for in 2018. Thank you girls, I am so proud of all of you."

Yungwirth led Wellsboro from the plate this season, and set a new single-season record for hits, going 38-for-76 (0.500) with 22 runs scored, 6 doubles, 2 triples, and 2 home runs. On the mound she was 16-2 for the season (0.889) with a 2.03 ERA and 178 strikeouts, the most in a single season in Wellsboro Softball history*. She now has 392 career strikeouts, is 36-6 overall, and has 82 career hits.

Freshman Ryann Adams (27), Keane (26), Tremper (24), and Brought (23) rounded out the top five Lady Hornet hitters. Tremper led the team with 8 doubles, junior Kailee Clymer led the team with 17 RBI's, and Keane and Brought tied for the team lead in walks with 9 each. Clymer was a perfect 7-for-7 on stolen base attempts on the year and Tremper led the Lady Hornets with 211 put outs in the field.

The loss ends the Lady Hornets' season with a record of 18-3 (14-1 NTL Large School Division), while Liberty (17-4, 11-4 NTL Large School Division) moves on to face #1 seed Mifflinburg on Thursday, June 1 for the District championship.

* - Records may not be accurate to date due to incomplete stats. If you know of a record not currently listed on this page, or have game statistics or film from previous years, please contact us.