Pittston Area carried its bid for a second perfect softball season in the last three years into an extra inning of the regular season’s final game.
The Lady Patriots followed up their unbeaten Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 title by going on the road to face three strong opponents prior to the start of District 2-4 Class 5A Subregional tournament action.
After beating two other division champions, Pittston Area dropped a 2-1, eight-inning decision at North Pocono Thursday to finish the regular season at 16-1 and earn the only bye in the seven-team Class 5A playoffs.
Alexia Charles led off the bottom of the eighth with a single, stole second and scored on a single by winning pitcher Amelia Bell.
The Lady Trojans (15-5) managed seven hits off Gianna Adams, who struck out 16 and walked just one.
Bell has 12 strikeouts in a five-hitter.
Three of the five Pittston Area hits went for extra bases.
Adams gave Pittston Area a 1-0 lead with an inside-the-park home run in the third inning. She was 2-for-3.
Gabby Gorzkowski, who also had two hits, and Lily Hintze had doubles.
Pittston Area 2, Valley View 0
Gianna Adams struck out 14 in a one-hit shutout Monday as visiting Pittston Area downed Valley View, the Lackawanna League Division 1 champion and defending champion and top seed for the upcoming District 2 Class 4A playoffs.
Adams, who walked just one, struck out the game’s last four batters and eight of the last nine. She allowed a second-inning single and issued her third and final walk to lead off the fourth before retiring the game’s final 12 batters.
The game was scoreless until the top of the sixth when Lily Hintze led off with a double.
Adams was intentionally walked.
Julia Mehal broke the scoreless tie with a one-out, RBI single through the left side.
Marina Antal singled in another run with her second hit of the game.
Western Wayne 5, Wyoming Area 4
Wyoming Area lost the non-league game at Atlas Field Monday, ending the regular season on a three-game losing streak and falling to 10-9.
The Lady Warriors are likely to be headed to Berwick to open the playoffs as the fifth seed in District 2 Class 4A.
Winning pitcher Adyson Wargo went 4-for-4 with a triple and four RBI to lead the Lady ‘Cats.
Western Wayne scored three times in the sixth to erase a 3-2 Wyoming Area lead.
Maggie Hallman singled in two runs to put Wyoming Area in front and added a third RBI on a seventh-inning groundout.
Allison Layland doubled, singled and scored twice in the loss.
Pittston Area 4, Lake-Lehman 1
LEHMAN TWP. – Pittston Area captured the unofficial Wyoming Valley Conference title in the May 11 game.
Not only did the pair of teams that went unbeaten in their divisions square off, but so did one of the state’s best pitchers against one of the state’s best hitters.
As it turns out, it was the pitcher who also starred at the plate.
Pittston Area’s Gianna Adams struck out 14, allowed one hit and had two of her team’s three hits in a 4-1 victory over Lake-Lehman.
Division 1 champion Pittston Area protected what was then the only unbeaten overall record in District 2 by ending a 10-game winning streak by Division 2 champion Lake-Lehman. The Lady Knights go into Sunday’s regular-season finale positioned to be the top seed in the District 2 Class 3A playoffs over defending state champion Mid Valley.
Adams came into the game with a 0.27 ERA and nearly 700 career strikeouts. She was clocked in warmups at 66 mph, the equivalent of a baseball pitcher throwing 95 mph. She won two of her three battles with Lehman’s Kirsten Finarelli, a Penn State commit. Finarelli had an RBI double in the fourth to score Gracie Bucknavage with the Lady Knights’ only run.
“It was great when we played them last year and it was great when we played them this year,” Adams said. “We’ve been on this nice complex before and we knew what to expect. We were prepared to come and play hard, but (Finarelli) did great. She really did.”
After Finarelli’s double, Adams retired 11 in a row and nine via strikeout. Kaitlyn Brudnicki flied out in the second inning, the only other time Lehman hit the ball out of the infield.
“This is the kind of game you want going into playoffs,” Lake-Lehman coach Nicole Chipego said. “I don’t think we’re going to see another pitcher of Gianna’s caliber. She did great today. As a matter of fact, I think there were some pitches she threw that were strikes that weren’t called strikes.”
As it was, Adams still recorded strikes on 73 of 100 pitches.
Pittston Area scored all its runs in the first inning. Adams led off with a triple to right and Gabby Roman followed with a walk. An out later, Marina Antal and Sam Herbert drew consecutive walks to force in a run. After Roman scored on a wild pitch, Tori Stephenson singled in two runs.
“It was a change-up and it was inside,” Stephenson said. “I was ready for it. I was ready for the fast one, but you have to be ready for the change-up.”
The Patriots had only one hit over the final six innings, an infield single by Adams in the fourth. They hit only three balls out of the infield in that span against Lehman’s Hannah Chipego, who finished with 10 strikeouts.
“We had another really good inning and nothing again the rest of the game,” Pittston Area coach Frank Parente said. “That’s something we have to fix. Three games where it was playoff atmosphere where we had one inning and nothing after it.”
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