The top two teams in WPIAL Section 3-5A softball ended up splitting their two-game series this season.
The strange thing is the total combined margin of victory was 19 runs.
Three weeks after being 10-runned in a game at West Allegheny, Montour turned the tables and defeated the visiting Indians on Monday afternoon, 13-4.
The victory gives the Spartans at least a share of the section championship.
“The whole conference has been crazy this year. Anyone can beat anyone,” Montour coach Ken Kutchman said. “We’re kind of lucky to get off to a good start, and then we played West A. What happened to them (Monday) in the first inning happened to us out there in a role reversal.
“They’re a really good team, but there are a bunch of good teams in this section.”
On April 10, West Allegheny exploded for eight runs in the bottom of the first inning on its way to a five-inning blowout, 14-1.
Montour matched that eight-run inning and added one more Monday.
After the Indians scored a run in the top of the first inning when sophomore Maddie Maritz came home on the back end of a double steal, the Spartans went to work.
Montour sent 13 batters to the plate and West Allegheny starting pitcher Irena Santora did not survive the inning.
Emily McClean doubled to lead off and eventually scored on a wild pitch to tie the game.
Cayley Hughes delivered a run-scoring single to put Montour up for good. Then with two on and two outs, the roof caved in on West A’s outright section title hopes.
Natalie Ciammaco delivered a two-run single, Hailey Herbst had a run-scoring single, Emily McClean hit a two-run double and Hughes followed a walk to Hailey Staub with a two-run double, her third RBI of the inning.
A wild pitch and a steal of home upped the Montour lead in the second inning to 11-1.
However, West Allegheny staved off the 10-run rule with three runs in the top of the fifth inning on an RBI single by Santoro and two Montour defensive miscues leading to two more runs.
Those defensive lapses weren’t the norm, though, as this young group of Spartans, with only one senior in the starting lineup, flashed a lot of leather to keep the high-scoring Indians in check, including a home run-robbing catch by center fielder Staub.
“We’ve been working hard on our defense,” Kutchman said. “When we’ve gone bad, we have struggled on defense with errors at the wrong time, but it’s coming together now, which is a good time.”
The winning pitcher was junior Savannah McClean, who allowed two earned runs and scattered 10 hits. She just returned to the team to help with their pitching depth and overcame the mental challenge of pitching with a big lead.
“It obviously helps when our batters are hitting the ball really well,” McClean said. “It is really hard, though, to have the same mentality like when you start the game and its zero-zero.”
McClean spent part of the last two seasons on the shelf in a wheelchair for nine months from what started as a shoulder injury. She had to relearn to walk and has battled back to be a key part of this Montour section title-winning team.
She was asked if she believed she would be back in the circle again while she was sidelined.
“For the first year I didn’t, but then as I kept coming to practices and games and feeling like part of the team again, I was like, of course,” she said.
Montour junior Paige Fiedler capped off the scoring in the fifth inning with a two-run homer.
West Allegheny senior Ava Benish was 4 for 4 and Maritz finished going 3 for 4 as the Indians fell to 6-3 in the section and 9-3 for the season.
On Wednesday, West A concludes section play as it hosts Upper St. Clair. A win gives the Indians a share of the section title with the Spartans.
A USC win would give Montour, which concluded section play at 7-3, the section crown outright.
Hughes had a huge game for the Spartans, going 4 for 4 with three RBIs and throwing out two would-be base stealers.
“It’s good to get hot at the end,” Kutchman said. “We look forward to getting to the playoffs, but we have some work to do before we get to the playoffs.”