DUBOIS, Pa. (D9Sports) — For three batters to start Cranberry’s PIAA Class 2A softball first-round game against Freedom, things didn’t look good for the Berries.(Photo of Cranberry’s Andrea Watson. Photo by Jared Bakaysa of JB Graphics. See more of Bakaysa’s work here)
A hit batter, a walk and a single staked the Lady Bulldogs to a quick 1-0 lead and caused some nervousness among the Cranberry faithful.
As it turned out, there was nothing to be nervous about.
Senior starting pitcher Andrea Watson shook off the early jitters and didn’t allow another run, and the Cranberry offense exploded for 10 runs to help the Berries make school history with their first-ever PIAA softball playoff win, 10-1, over Freedom at Heindl Field in DuBois.
“No, they did not,” Watson said about things not starting out the way she wanted them too. “I am not going to lie. I had a lot of nerves coming into this. This could be the decision maker in how far Cranberry goes. So I was really nervous. But then I pulled myself together with help from my team and got it going.”
It didn’t take long for Cranberry to respond to the early Freedom run, as senior Rachel McCauley started a fantastic afternoon with a two-run double to left-center in the bottom of the first.
McCauley finished the day 3-for-4 while also reaching base on an error and driving in five runs.
“It feels amazing,” McCauley said. “We have worked so hard to get here. We just made school history making it to the Elite Eight.”
It was a McCauley two-out single in the third that scored Maddie Cornelius, the second of three runs scored by the right fielder.
“Honestly, that’s the best I have felt the whole season,” McCauley said. “I went up there with so much confidence. This is my senior year. This could have been my last game. I did not want to end on a bad game.”
Watch the interview with McCauley and Watson.
Cranberry put the game away in the fifth with five runs that was helped immensely by a one-out error on Freedom.
McCauley picked up her third RBI on the error, which allowed her to reach first safely, Megan Hadden added a sacrifice fly, Emily Duncan added a two-run single to right with two outs and Jenna Seigworth had an infield single that scored Maria Anderson to close out the scoring and push the Berries lead to 8-1.
“(Rachel) is another senior who is stepping up her game,” Cranberry manager Glenn Barcinas said. “There is going to be an end of the road with this. They are making the most out of every moment, getting better with every bat.”
Cranberry looked like it had won the game on the 10-run rule in the sixth but an interesting decision by the umpires forced the game to go regulation innings.
After a Kaylie Bruce double made it 9-1, McCauley picked up her fifth RBI on a single to center to make it 10-1. Freedom then intentionally walked Malliah Schreck and Hadden to load the bases with no one out.
A ground out by Anderson forced McCauley at the plate, and then Duncan hit a pop fly that third baseman Amber Baumiller couldn’t catch. Schreck sprinted home with what should have been the game-winning run, as Duncan should have been out on an infield fly with the runners able to advance at their own risk. But the umpires failed to call the infield fly and said Schreck was forced at the plate with Duncan being awarded first base.
In the end, it didn’t matter, as Watson, despite allowing two base runners in the top of the seventh, shutdown Freedom to secure the victory.
“She settled down really nice,” Barncinas said. “She brought it. The defense played great behind her. The kid is good. She is clutch. She is our rock in the circle. She is amazing.”
Cranberry will take on WPIAL champion Laurel, a 5-3 winner over Wilmington, in the quarterfinals Thursday, June 6, at a site and time to be announced.
“This feels fantastic,” Barncinas said. “We got here (the first round) last year. The time before that was eight years ago. We’ve been knocking on the door. We just couldn’t get past the hump on the first-round game. Finally, we did. It feels great.”
CRANBERRY 10, FREEDOM 1
Score by Innings
Freedom 100 000 0 — 1
Cranberry 201 052 x — 10
FREEDOM — 1
Shyann Komara ss 3110, Tara Speicher 1b 3010, Madison Slowinski p 4021, Kassandra DePoppe cr 0000, Trisha Speicher c 3000, Olivia Shaffer 2b 3010, Hayley Schreck rf 3000, Amber Baumiller 3b 3010, Marybeth Feits lf 2010, Erica Gazdik cf 3000. Totals 27-1-7-1.
CRANBERRY — 10
Andrea Watson p 3120, Maddie Cornelius rf 3300, Kaylie Bruce dp 3321, Jenna Reynolds c 0000, Rachel McCauley 1b 4035, Alisha Beggs 0100, Malliah Schreck ss 2100, Megan Hadden cf 2001, Maria Anderson lf 3110, Emily Duncan 3b 4012, Jenna Seigworth 2b 4011. Totals 28-10-10-10.
LOB: Freedom 8. Cranberry 9. Errors: Freedom 2. Cranberry 0. 2B: Komara, McCauley, Anderson. 3B: Watson. SB: DePoppe, Trisha Speicher, Baumiller. CS: Tara Speicher. SF: Hadden. HP: Komara by Watson.
PITCHING
Freedom
Madison Slowinski 6 IP, 10 H, 10 R, 6 ER, 7 BB, 4 K
Cranberry
Andrea Watson 7 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HBP
Winning pitcher: Andrea Watson
Losing pitcher: Madison Slowinski
