MORGANTOWN — It was a beautiful early evening May 3 at Mylan Park for the girls’ high school softball Region 1, Section 2 championship, especially for Morgantown, and not so much for University.
The Mohigans were battling their way out of the loser’s bracket after dropping a 7-4 decision to the Hawks on Tuesday, and 4 1/2 innings into that elimination game, they’d played just about the perfect softball game.
Timely hitting (especially during a monster nine-run fourth inning), impeccable defense, aggressive base-running and splendid pitching produced an overwhelming 14-0 lead with just three outs to secure to extend their season.
In the University dugout, heads were hanging a bit, as might be expected, but UHS coach Mindy Parks challenged her team to pick it up and get going.
“We were down, but I didn’t want us to just pack it in and hope for the second game to go our way,” she explained. “So I challenged them to battle and try to grab some momentum.”
Well, the Hawks did show some fight, scratching across four runs before running out of outs in the 14-4 game 1 loss, but Parks and her team walked off the field happy to have broken through.
So where would the momentum land in the win-or-go-home final?
It looked like the Mohigans might continue their lusty hitting after they quickly scored two runs in the first, on a ringing double from Ally Hawkins.
But that was it, as the Hawks scored big in the middle innings, then walked off their rivals in the bottom of the sixth to capture the Section 2 crown, 10-2.
University (10-14) took its first lead of the evening in the third. The Hawks bunched three singles and a hit batsman to plate three, a pair scoring on Yasmine Colebank’s two-RBI single. Colebank scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch and close play at the plate.
“It was a risky chance, but Yaz is a very good baserunner,” Parks said. “It was a huge play, and gave our dugout a big lift to grab the lead there.”
Morgantown (13-14) couldn’t take advantage of Hawkins’ lead-off double in the fourth, due in large part to a tremendous running snow-cone catch in deep center field by Lindsey Vorndran.
The Hawks blew the game open in the bottom of the frame, sending five runs across on five straight hits against three Mohigans pitchers, with Layne Assif’s long double knocking in a pair.
Hawks pitcher Hayden Powroznik continuously induced pop-ups from the Mohigans throughout the second game, and when MHS did barrel up, excellent defense took care of the rest and kept the zeros lining up on the Lynch Field scoreboard.
In the bottom of the sixth, a long two-out triple from Halei Johnson drove in Assif, then Lou Kisner drilled a single to center to chase Johnson home with the championship.
After the game, Morgantown coach Lorri Lipscomb could only shake her head at the sudden swing in fortune between games.
“It’s impossible to predict how momentum comes and goes in this game,” she said with a smile. “We couldn’t have played better in game 1, and I didn’t think the last inning affected us at all, especially when we came out strong right away in the final.
“And then we just couldn’t get the big hit when we needed it, and when we did hit the ball hard, they made the big plays to get outs. You have to tip your hats to them for that. Our seniors (Noell Shreve, Julia Zaph, Abby Shafer, Alex Alt, and Hawkins) were terrific, and I wish we could’ve found a way to hold on to what we have in game 1, but it just wasn’t meant to be for us this year.”
University will compete for the Region 1 championship next week, with the date, time and opponent to be determined.
