A couple seventh-inning, “snow cone” catches by Burrell infielders Sophia Gregg and Addy Wojtczak helped to seal a 6-3 Buccaneers victory against Charleroi on Thursday in the opening round of the WPIAL softball playoffs at Norwin High School in North Huntingdon.
They came at a crucial time.
“You don’t want to let too much momentum go when you have a lead going into the seventh,” Burrell coach Brandon Daughtry said. “Both those girls made big plays in big moments for us.”
Gregg singled-in the go-ahead run during a four-run fifth, Tina Gural drove in three — two on a double during the decisive rally — and Burrell’s defense shined in the seventh to help the sixth-seeded Bucs (11-8) advance to the Class 3A quarterfinals against Section 1 champion Mt. Pleasant on Monday at a site and time to be determined.
No. 3 Mt. Pleasant, which earned a first-round bye, won both regular-season games against Burrell, the Section 1 runner-up, by a combined 20-4.
Junior right-hander Shelby Novak, battled flu-like symptoms and endured the cold, rainy elements and a rough first inning to earn a complete-game victory.
She struck out eight while yielding eight Charleroi hits, walking six and throwing five wild pitches.
“It was cold,” said Novak, sporting an ice pack on her throwing shoulder afterward. “I had to get used to it. Sometimes, it’s just what you’ve got to do.”
Novak and Burrell fell behind, 1-0, in the first inning but recovered when No. 11 Charleroi (5-13) failed to add on, despite getting five baserunners on two hits, two walks and an error.
The Cougars left the bases loaded.
“Shelby has been dealing with some sickness earlier in the week, so she wasn’t at 100%,” Daughtry said. “And then, you come out here and it’s 50 degrees and raining. It’s not ideal, and I definitely don’t like that slow of a start. But holding them to one, I kind of felt confident that once we got to the second time through our order, we’d be able to put some better swings together.
“And that’s pretty much what happened. We started hitting the ball a little bit better, getting some runners on, making some things happen on the bases.”
Circus grabs in adverse weather conditions — in this case, a portion of the softball on both plays was visible in the glove, resembling a snow cone — seem always to force a coach’s smile.
“That first out was big,” Daughtry said of Gregg’s acrobatic, over-the-shoulder catch of a looping ball to shortstop by Charleroi pitcher Lyla Brunner to lead off the seventh with Burrell ahead, 6-2.
“’Sofe’ going up a good ways for that ball, it’s what we work on,” Daughtry said. “It’s one of the first drills we do every day. It was just a question of whether she would get there.”
Charleroi put the next two batters on against Novak before third baseman Addy Wojtczak atoned for an error on the previous play by leaping to snare Taryn O’Nell’s hard liner over the bag for the second out.
Rya DiPietrantonio’s RBI single followed before Novak got the game’s final out by enticing London Powell to hit into a fielder’s choice groundout on an unconventional play.
Coincidentally, the players involved on defense were shortstop Gregg flipping the ball to Wojtczak for the force at third.
“This was a great game until that one big inning for them,” Charleroi coach Trey Tilghman said. “We played Keystone Oaks and McGuffey (during the regular season), and we could’ve won all four of those games. They were so close, and it was only one inning each time. Seems like the typical thing that’s happened to us this year.”
Charleroi (5-13), a Section 3 team, which finished the season on a four-game skid, was led by freshman Jade Sheppick, who reached base in all four of her plate appearances.
She was 1 for 2, walked twice and reached on Wojtczak’s first-inning error that allowed the Cougars to take their early lead.
Ariahna Blouse also logged two hits for Charleroi.
“I know people say this a lot, but we’ve got a young team,” Tilghman said. “We’re only losing two girls, and we’ve got four good freshmen coming in. We’ll be stronger and better next year.”
Burrell took a 2-1 lead in the fourth against Brunner on Wojtczak’s RBI triple, scoring Gregg, who led off with a single. Gural’s groundout to second scored Wojtczak with the second run.
Charleroi answered in the fifth, when Brunner, who also went the distance on the mound, giving up eight hits with no walks and striking out three, doubled home Nori Stringa-Smith, who walked.
Burrell surged in front for good with its four-run rally in the bottom of the fifth, and Novak and the Bucs held on to advance.
“We usually have one bad inning,” Novak said. “It only gets better from there. We just had to get settled in.”