Burrell had designs on ending Mt. Pleasant’s seven-game winning streak when the Section 1-3A softball rivals met Monday in Lower Burrell.
But the section-leading Vikings, who hadn’t lost since their nonsection season opener against District 5’s Berlin, kept rolling.
Mt. Pleasant scored twice in the second, three times in the third and added seven more the rest of the way to complete a 12-2 six-inning victory.
The streak includes Friday’s wild 15-14 win at Ligonier Valley.
“We played four games in five days last week, so I really didn’t know how they would respond to that today,” Vikings coach Paul Reho said. “It started off a little slow, but then we got rolling. They did a nice job with timely hitting, and that last inning was really nice.”
The Vikings, 8-1 overall, improved to 6-0 in the section with a home section matchup against Deer Lakes (5-5, 2-4) looming Wednesday before a Friday road trip to Southmoreland.
“We just have to stay focused and stay locked in,” Reho said. “Now, this is Round 2 through the section, and we haven’t lost a section game yet, but the target definitely is on our backs. The message has been to be the hunters and not the hunted. The girls have been good about that.”
Burrell, 5-5 overall and 3-3 in the section, hopes to bounce back from a two-game skid Wednesday at Ligonier Valley and Friday at home against Deer Lakes.
“Mt. Pleasant has a good-hitting lineup,” Bucs coach Brandon Daughtry said. “When you put bats on balls, anything can happen. Some bounces went their way with their hitting. I also thought we hit the ball well.
“I don’t think any of the girls would say we played our best game today. We need to come back out Wednesday refreshed and ready to go. We can’t do anything about this game, but we can look forward and put ourselves in a good spot if we take care of business.”
Mt. Pleasant broke through for a pair of runs in the top of the second, loading the bases with no outs on a double from Kendra Brunson, an infield single from Carly Surma and a fielder’s choice grounder by Talia Reho.
Surma went 4 for 4 (four singles) with three runs scored.
After Burrell starter Shelby Novak struck out No. 9 hitter Autumn Jurkovic, Sadie Poole singled home Brunson from third for a 1-0 Vikings lead.
A grounder to second from Chloe Borelli gave Burrell a second out in the inning, but it also allowed Surma to score to double Mt. Pleasant’s lead.
Novak then struck out her pitching counterpart, Danica Trainer, to prevent any further damage.
Burrell responded in the bottom of the second as Jenna Morrison walked with one out, and Leah Waldsmith singled with two outs off of Vikings starter Danica Trainer.
That turned the lineup over for Novak, who doubled to the fence over the head of Reho in left, driving in Morrison and Waldsmith to tie the score.
The two-out lightning from Novak came after Burrell left runners on second and third in the first.
Mt. Pleasant struck for three more in the third. Reho had the big hit of the inning with a two-run single with one out and the bases loaded. Jurkovic then reached on an error that scored one more for a 5-2 Vikings lead.
Emma Miller’s run-scoring single in the top of the fourth extended Mt. Pleasant’s advantage to four.
Burrell got two runners on in the bottom of the fifth on singles from Soph Gregg and Tina Gural, but both were left stranded.
Brunson punctuated the Mt. Pleasant win in the top of the sixth with a three-run homer to left. Mt. Pleasant sent 10 to the plate in the inning and added three more, fronted by an RBI single from Poole and a sacrifice fly from Trainer.
“I never feel comfortable,” coach Reho said. “It’s always a good feeling to be able to add on, and we did that well in the sixth. Even one of the outs was productive in adding a run.”
Novak worked into the fourth before being lifted for Gural.
She surrendered eight hits, two walks and five earned runs with four strikeouts.
Gural gave up five hits, struck out two and walked three.
Trainer went the distance for Mt. Pleasant. She gave up seven hits, walked two, and struck out six. Bucs third baseman Addy Wojtczak singled twice.
“The Ligonier game kind of got away from us, and it was pretty high scoring, but when teams get runners on, Danica usually bears down and does a nice job of shutting it down,” coach Reho said. “It’s inning to inning, and it works out long term. Hopefully, this gives her even more confidence going into the rest of the week.”