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By Rich Murawski
For the Mirror
FLINTON -- The Glendale softball team erupted for 10 runs in the sixth inning of Tuesday's District 6 Class 1A quarterfinal against Penns Manor, turning a tight pitchers' duel into a 12-2 mercy rule win for the Lady Vikings.
Glendale used the short game to get to Lady Comet pitcher Anna Peterman, who held the Lady Vikings to just three infield singles through the first five innings.
The Lady Vikings had three bunt singles and two sacrifice bunts in the sixth to get the offense rolling. Glendale had four bunt singles and three sacrifices in the game.
"We've been struggling, and even the hits we got (early) in this game weren't real hard hits," Glendale coach Beth Campbell said. "So we've been really hammering it to them how important the bunt is. Never has it been more important to us than today because we were very much struggling with (Peterman)."
Riley Best led off the sixth with a bunt single and advanced when Chloe McElheny sacrificed her to second. Both runners moved up a base when the throw to first was errant.
Kyla Campbell followed with a bunt single that scored Best.
After a strikeout, Alyson Buterbaugh put down a sac bunt that plated McElheny. The throw to first was again wild, allowing Campbell's courtesy runner Ariann Richards to score and Buterbaugh to take second.
"It's a very unselfish thing to be a good bunter," Coach Campbell said. "You may not necessarily get a hit out of it, but good things happen when you bunt."
Penns Manor changed pitcher's after that, putting Kassidy Smith in the circle for Peterman, but Glendale kept playing small ball as Jillian Taylor's sac bunt moved Buterbaugh to third.
Peterman struck out nine in her 5• innings of work. She gave up six hits and only one of the six runs she allowed was earned.
Caitlin Rydbom followed with a hit to score Buterbaugh. Rydbom also had a bloop single in the fifth that led to a run when her courtesy runner Cindy Richards stole second, moved to third on an error and scored on a wild pitch.
The Lady Comets then committed their third error of the fifth, and fifth of the game, allowing Lilley Vereshack to reach and Richards to score.
Hanna Noel belted a double to knock in Vereshack before Best drew a walk in her second at bat of the inning.
McElheny clubbed a double to plate both Vereshack and Best, then scored on a Campbell single.
The game ended when Kelly Kasaback reached on an error and Ariann Richards motored home.
Glendale took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when McElheny scored on an error on Buterbaugh's first sac bunt of the game.
The Lady Vikings took a 2-0 lead in the fifth, but Penns Manor tied it with two in the sixth.
With one out, Campbell hit Peterman with a pitch on an 0-2 count and Smith followed with a double to the gap in right-center field.
"That's a little on me," Coach Campbell said of the hit batter. "That's a pitch I'm trying to force her to fix. Maybe calling it at that point wasn't … that was a little on me. I maybe had a little more confidence in that pitch that right now shouldn't be there."
Kyla Campbell tossed all six innings, allowing just one earned run on three hits, while walking one batter and striking out eight.
"I'll feel like Kyla's getting stronger, and our defense was good after that first inning," Coach Campbell said. "We had a few errors in the first inning and even the plays that we did make weren't clean. But we just told them, 'that's the jitters, and now they're gone, so just go play,' and they did."
Campbell also led Glendale's 10-hit attack with three. McElheny was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.
The Lady Vikings are at top-seeded Conemaugh Valley Thursday at 4 p.m.
PENNS MANOR (2): Hnatko 3b 3000, Sturgeon cf 3010, Peterman p-c 2100, Smith c-p 3111, Stahl rf 3000, Bennett 1b 3000, S. Stiteler 2b 3010, A. Stiteler lf 1000, Dumm ss 2000. Totals: 23-2-3-1.
GLENDALE (12): Vereshack cf 4100, Noel ss 4111, Best rf 3210, McElheny 1b 3322, Campbell p 4032, A. Richards cr 0200, Kasaback lf 4010, Buterbaugh 3b 1101, Taylor dp 2000, Rydbom c 3021, Cavalet (flex) 2b 0000. Totals: 28-12-10-7.
SCORE BY INNINGS
Penns Manor 000 002 -- 2 3 6
Glendale 010 01(10) --12 10 3
Errors--Bennett 2, Smith, Peterman 2, S. Stiteler; Cavalet 2, Campbell. DP--Glendale 1. LOB--Penns Manor 5, Glendale 5. 2B--Smith; Noel, McElheny. SAC--Buterbaugh 2, McElheny, Taylor. SB--Smith; C. Richards. HBP--Peterman (by Campbell). WP--Peterman 2, Campbell 1. PB--Smith.
Pitching
Penns Manor: Peterman--5 1/3 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 SO; Smith--1/3 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO.
Glendale: Campbell--6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO.
WP--Campbell. LP--Peterman.