Victory puts Lady Bulldogs in familiar position

Jun 9, 2023

Mirror photo by Michael BoytimThe Lady Bulldogs celebrate after pitcher Emalee Cavender recorded the final strikeout in the seventh inning of Thursday afternoon's victory.

By Michael Boytim

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GREENSBURG — Claysburg-Kimmel is back in the PIAA semifinals for the second straight season after a 5-1 victory over Chartiers-Houston at Robert D. Kulp Field Thursday afternoon, but there's a different feel behind this Lady Bulldogs team.

C-K was in 2A last year and is down to 1A in this year's postseason, and many of the key players of last year's team graduated.

"Last year's team was a totally different team," Claysburg-Kimmel coach Mike Barbarini said. "I thought, ‘oh here we go, rebuilding again,’ but we have a lot talent on top of talent, and they progressed through the year like I hoped they would. Now we’re coming to where everyone is performing at a high level."

While the sophomores and freshmen have adapted to the varsity level quickly, a constant from the last two seasons — junior Emalee Cavender — has helped ease the transition.

Cavender has taken over as the Lady Bulldogs pitcher this season after being an excellent shortstop previously, but Thursday she got the opportunity to show off her glove again, fielding several balls including registering all three outs against the middle of the Lady Bucs order in the fifth inning.

"This feels great," Cavender said. "We have such a young team this year, and they came out and showed what they can do. Next year is going to be even better."

Cavender allowed just one run, a deep home run by Chartiers-Houston leadoff hitter Ella Richey, and was all over the basepaths offensively. She led off with a single, stole second and scored on Bella Francona's groundout when the throw to third got away to give C-K an early 1-0 lead.

In the circle, she allowed a leadoff single and then retired 17 straight batters before Richey's home run in the sixth inning.

"I was a little nervous going into the game, because I knew the top of their lineup could hit pretty well," Cavender said. "After that, we have been making plays, so it made me feel more comfortable on the mound."

The game remained 1-0 until the bottom of the fourth inning.

Claysburg-Kimmel made two quick outs before Jaylee Swindell hit a ball to the fence for a double. Jenna Helsel followed with an infield single, and Zakera Bush doubled in both runners after Helsel stole second. Ninth-hitter Launa Musselman followed with an RBI single to score Bush, and Musselman came home when Cavender reached on a three-base error that made the score 5-0.

"That's always big in a game to be able to score runs with two outs," Barbarini said. "We held their top four batters down, which was big. We knew coming in that they could hit the ball, and we made one mistake at the end where she made us pay. We knew if we could control their first three batters, we could be successful today."

Richey had two of Chartiers-Houston's four hits, but the Lady Bucs nearly brought the tying run to the plate in the final inning. Chartiers-Houston pitcher Meadow Ferri led off with a deep drive to center, and Helsel fell down tracking the ball. From a sitting position 200 feet from home plate, she caught the ball.

"That was a big out," Cavender said. "To recover after falling and still make the catch was huge."

The next two batters singled, and Kaileigh Walton worked the count full before Cavender struck her out with the tying run on deck.

"They played a good defensive game, and we made some mistakes that cost us runs every time," Chartiers-Houston coach Tricia Alderson said. "That's the name of the game. When you get this deep in the playoffs, the team that makes the least amount of mistakes usually moves on."

Barbarini's team made no errors and finished with seven hits.

"They did exactly what we practiced all week," Barbarini said. "They laid off (Ferri's) high fast ball and made her come down in the zone so we could hit it. That's what we practiced all week, and we were successful doing it. We got timely hits from the bottom part of our lineup, which has been coming through all year for us."

The Lady Bulldogs will play Union Area, a 5-2 winner over District 6 runner-up West Branch, in the semifinals on Monday. Union scored five unanswered runs to rally past the Lady Warriors.

"I have to go look at what Union has, but from what I understand, they are a more solid team from top to bottom than Chartiers-Houston was," Barbarini said. "We’re going to have to play better defense against them. We kept their hitters off balance today, and we’re going to have to do that next week too."

CHARTIERS-HOUSTON (1): Richey c 312, Rush ss 300, Ferri p 300, Riggle 1b 01, Swarrow 2b 301, Palone cf 300, Walton 3b 300, Fetsko lf 000, Watkins dp 200, Almo rf 200. Totals — 25-1-4.

CLAYSBURG-KIMMEL (5): Cavender p 312, Francona 2b 300, Walter c 301, McKenzi Black rf 200, Lehman pr 000, McKenna Black rf 300, Swindell ss 311, Helsel cf 211, Bush 1b 311, C. Helsel lf 000, L. Musselman dp 211. Totals — 24-5-7.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Chartiers-Houston 000 001 0–1 4 3

Claysburg-Kimmel 100 400 X–5 7 0

E–Riggle, Rush, Fetsko. 2B–Swindell, Bush. HR–Richey. RBI–Richey, Bush 2, L. Musselman. SB–Cavender, Helsel. CS–McKenzi Black, McKenna Black.

Records: Chartiers-Houston (15-7); Claysburg-Kimmel (22-3).

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