MCKEES ROCKS — After defeating Monessen handily on Monday, South Side Beaver ran into a tough pitching matchup Thursday evening at Montour High School as it fell to Carmichaels 7-0 in the quarterfinal round of the WPIAL Class A playoffs.
It was all Mighty Mikes Thursday afternoon as they dominated on both at the plate and on the defensive side of the field.
“I think that we played a good game,” South Side Beaver head coach Amy Pieto said following the team’s season-ending loss to the Mighty Mikes. “They [Carmichaels] has a heck of a pitcher and we started to hit just a little too late. Our defense was good for the most part and all and all I think that it was a good game.”
The main component of Carmichael’s domain effort came from the right-handed arm of pitcher Bailey Barnyak.
The sophomore hurler was stout pitching a complete game allowing no runs on one hit walking two and fanning 14 batters in the victory.
With the bats coming along late, Pieto believed that the hitting struggles came from swinging at the rise ball pitch as one of the weaknesses of the Rams’ hitting approach Thursday evening.
“At the beginning of the game, I thought it was mostly the rise ball that she was throwing that the girls got sucked into and started to swing at. But once we started to lay that pitch off, we started to find a little bit of success. She’s a great pitcher we just got on her a little too late.”
After being set down in order for the first 15 batters, South Side started to settle into a groove against Barnyak as Madi Morrow was the first Ram to reach base for her team in the fifth inning when she drew a two-out walk.
The sixth inning was South Side’s strongest offensive inning as it found itself with two runners on with two away. But in the end, Barnyak got the final out of the inning getting Kenidi Cook to ground into a fielder's choice.
Outside of the offensive struggles, defensively, the Rams also had several unfortunate miscues that caused the momentum to shift in the Mighty Mike's favor.
In the first inning, Rams pitcher Mya Ringhoff got Megan Voithofer to ground the ball to second base which went just under the outstretched glove of Giovanna Chicarello allowing Carys McConnell to score from second base for the game's first run.
Later in the contest, Carmichaels Ali Jacobs singled sharply into centerfield but Miladija Pavlovich misplayed the ball allowing it to roll to the fence in the deepest part of the yard which in turn allowed two runs to score.
Growth is always the key factor to a team’s success in a season and Pieto believes that the group that she had this year came far from where they started which gives her hope for the seasons moving forward.
“This has been a really good season for us,” Pieto said. “We have come really far as a team and the pitcher that we have [Mya Ringhoff] is a freshman so it is our first year with her. We are really looking forward to improving every year and continuing to build what we started. This year we did better than we did last year and that is all that you can hope for as you grow together as a group.
Even though the Rams finished their season on the losing end, they still have shown a lot of growth throughout this season after finishing second in the first section of Class A while going on to compile a 13-5 record throughout the season.
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