Lady Bulldogs ride defense to District 6 1A final
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FLINTON -- Claysburg-Kimmel junior pitcher Emalee Cavender calmly caught Glendale's Maddie Peterson's line drive for the final out Thursday evening in the District 6 Class 1A semifinal.
It was a fitting way to end the game considering Cavender had held the potent second-seeded Lady Vikings to just one run and five hits in an 8-1 victory.
Cavender, though, deflected the credit to the C-K defense.
"I threw pretty well tonight, but I'd like to just give it to my defense," Cavender said. "That's what kept us in the game. They were putting them in play hard, but our defense stopped them tonight."
Cavender got plenty of support, especially senior third baseman McKenzi Black. Black handled everything, including a scorching ground ball off of her arm in the second inning.
Plus, seven of the nine C-K hitters had at least one hit in their 8-1 win. Senior No. 3 hitter and catcher Nevaeh Walter and No. 9 hitter Payton Hinish had two hits apiece, and Cavender knocked in two runs.
"It's a dream come true," Walter said. "Coming into the game, I knew it was going to be a close game. Both are good teams with well-rounded players. But we jumped on them quick and we took it home."
"It feels great," Cavender said. "I knew coming into it that it would be tough, but we just came out and hit the ball.
With the win, the third-seeded Lady Bulldogs (19-3) advanced to the championship game against the winner of today's game between top-seeded West Branch and fifth-seeded Ferndale. The title game is Wednesday at Saint Francis University at a time to be announced.
"Hats off to them," Glendale coach Bruce Vereshack said. "Claysburg is the standard. Everybody is trying to be them. We've built a nice program, but we're not quite there yet."
Glendale (18-4) will play the loser of that Friday game in the consolation on a day, time and location to be announced. The top three teams in Class 1A advance to the PIAA playoffs.
C-K, a District 6 Class 2A runner-up and state semifinalist last season, began putting pressure on last year's Class 1A District 6 runner-up and state semifinalist from the start.
The Lady Bulldogs scored two runs in the first inning and two more in the third. They added two in the fourth and sixth innings.
"We're solid up and down the lineup," C-K coach Mike Barbarini said. "Any of them can put a string of hits together. We did and scored early, which was very important. It's important to get ahead, especially with us being as young as we are."
In the first inning, No. 2 hitter Jenna Helsel singled on a Peterson offering, stole second, reached third on Walter single to right and scored on a wild pitch. Bella Francona plated Walter with a sacrifice fly.
Hinish began the third with a double just beyond left fielder Kelly Kasaback, and Cavender followed with a double for another run. With one out, Walter chased Cavender home with another single.
"I think we were on it tonight," Walter said. "It was a lot of offspeed (from Peterson), but we were patient, and we just waited on it."
The Lady Vikings had two runners on base in the third and third inning, but Cavender got a strikeout to end the first and a ground ball back to her to end the third.
Glendale senior leadoff hitter Riley Best, who has 16 home runs this season, went 2-for-4 with two singles.
"She's a good pitcher," Vereshack said. "She pitched a great game. She kept us off-balance. The balls we squared up were right at people."
"She's got a lot of good offspeed pitches," Barbarini said. "She's got drop ball that was very effective. She has a changeup that's very effective against good hitters."
Black, who handled four ground balls, barely had time to react on Alyson Buterbaugh's ground ball to start the second. The ball hit her left arm, but she picked it up and threw Buterbaugh out before putting her hands on her knees. She only needed a short injury timeout, though.
C-K's McKenna Black was awarded home in the four on a fielder's interference call. A Cavender one-out ground ball scored Zakera Bush to make the score 6-0.
In the sixth, a Hinish ground ball out scored McKenna Black. And Jaylee Swindell scored when Cavender was involved in a rundown after she walked.
Cavender handled the last two outs, fielding a Best grounder for the second out before catching the line drive.
"It was very nice as a pitcher to make the last out of the game after working my butt off," Cavender said.
CLAYSBURG-KIMMEL (8): Cavender p 311, J. Helsel cf 411, Walter c 412, Francona 2b 300, McKenzi Black 3b 300, C. Helsel pr 000, McKenna Black lf 321, Swindell ss 311, Bush 1b 311, Hinish dp 302, L. Musselman pr 010, Lehman rf 000. Totals--29-8-9.
GLENDALE (1): Best cf 402, Peterson p 400, Ka. Cavalet 2b 200, Kasaback lf 312, Taylor ss 300, Buterbaugh 3b 301, Ko. Cavalet pr 000, Rydbom c 200, Sinclair 1b 300, Weld rf 200. Totals--26-1-5.
SCORE BY INNINGS
Claysburg-Kimmel 202 202 0--8 9 2
Glendale 000 010 0--1 5 0
E--Swindell, McKenna Black. 2B--Cavender, Hinish. RBIs--Cavender 2, Walter, Francona, Hinish; Rydbom. SF--Francona, Rydbom. SB--J. Helsel, Walter, C. Helsel, Hinish; Ko. Cavalet. LOB--Claysburg-Kimmel 4, Glendale 7.
PITCHING
Claysburg-Kimmel: Cavender (W)--7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0, ER, 2 BB, 4 SO.
Glendale: Peterson (L)--7 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO.
Records: Claysburg-Kimmel (19-3); Glendale (18-4)