Moniteau Tops Redbank Valley for Third Time to Move into D9 Class AA Softball Title Game

Chris Rossetti

Chris Rossetti

Published May 26, 2016 4:18 am
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WEST SUNBURY, Pa. — Sometimes when you are the prohibitive favorite to win a title like the Moniteau softball team, you find yourself looking past a team you beat twice already this season.

(Photo: Cortney Claypoole rounds second base after her fifth-inning home run. Photo by Mike Schnelle. Check out more of Schnelle’s work here.)

That wasn’t the case the Lady Warriors Wednesday afternoon, though, as they rolled to a 10-0, five-inning win over visiting Redbank Valley in the District 9 Class A semifinals to move to 20-1 on the year.

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Moniteau will take on Cranberry, an 8-5 winner over Johnsonburg, in the District 9 Class AA title game at a site, time and date to be determined. The Lady Warriors are looking for their third District 9 straight title.

Dan Beebe, the Moniteau manager, talked about this team’s win, how they stay focused and what they will need to do to make it a three-peat.

Wednesday was another team win for Moniteau with seven different players scoring, seven different players getting hits and six different players driving in runs.

Cortney Claypoole had a big day going 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBIs, while Gabby Stewart was on base four times out of the leadoff spot going 3-for-3 with a walk, three runs scored and two RBIs including the game-ending hit with two outs in the bottom of the fifth.

Claypoole got the scoring started in what turned out to be a six-run fifth inning with a two-run home run over the centerfield fence. Megan Hepler then added a two-run double to center, and Alyssa Dailey, who scored the 10th run, chipped in with an RBI single.

That run support was more than enough for Kennedy DeMatteis, who gave up her first hit in three outings against Redbank Valley this season but little else. She walked one and struck out eight in getting the shutout win.

Alyssa Burkett held Moniteau in check to an extent for the first four innings before the Lady Warriors got to her in the fifth.

She gave up a run in the first and then three more in the second and finished the day going 4 ⅔ innings and allowing 10 runs, nine earned, on 11 hits, a walk and a hit batter. She struck out six, although one of those reached on a wild pitch.

Maycee Shumaker (33) of Redbank Valley and Gabby Stewart (21) of Moniteau during Wednesday's game. Photo by Mike Schnelle. Check out more of Schnelle's work here.

Maycee Shumaker (33) of Redbank Valley and Gabby Stewart (21) of Moniteau during Wednesday’s game. Photo by Mike Schnelle. Check out more of Schnelle’s work here.

Maycee Shumaker had Redbank Valley’s lone hit, a two-out single to center in the fourth.

Moniteau got on the board early when Stewart led off the bottom of the first with a single to left and continued to second on an error by leftfielder Jess Walter. She then took third on a flyout to right by Claypoole and scored on a safety squeeze by Kennedy DeMatteis.

The Lady Warriors added three more runs in the third thanks to RBI singles by Stewart, Claypoole and Kristina DeMatteis.

Redbank Valley closed out the season 10-8, but four of the losses came to District 9 Class AA finalists Moniteau (3) and Cranberry (1), two more game to D9 Class A semifinalists DuBois Central Catholic (1) and A-C Valley (1), who play each other Thursday, a seventh came against D9 AA semifinalist Johnsonburg and the eighth came against WPIAL Class AA quarterfinalist Freeport.

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