MEADVILLE — The Mt. Pleasant softball team had a good idea of what was coming from Sharon pitcher Maddy Vogan.
The Vikings still struggled to hit the ball Monday afternoon. They actually did not record a hit in a 4-0 loss to the Tigers in a PIAA Class 3A first round game at Allegheny College’s Robertson Field.
Vogan, a junior righthander, struck out 16 to give her 305 in 132 innings this year. The Penn State recruit pushed her scoreless streak to 15 games, too.
“She didn’t have a good warmup. But, as the game went on, she got stronger and stronger,” Sharon coach Wade Vogan said of his daughter. “She was dialed in today.”
However, Mt. Pleasant, which finished its season at 15-6, shouldn’t feel too bad it couldn’t register a hit. This was Vogan’s 10th no-no of the season and 21st of her career.
“She is tough. She’s really tough,” Mt. Pleasant coach Paul Reho said. “We had a plan of attacking her early because we know what’s coming when we get behind in the count. We know the rise is coming. With her velocity, it’s just hard to lay off the rise. She pitched really well.”
Vogan’s lone hiccup came in the top of the first inning. She drilled leadoff batter Sadie Poole in the foot with a pitch. Chloe Borelli followed with a sacrifice bunt to move Poole up to second. However, Vogan struck out the next batter and Danica Trainer hit a sharp groundball right to third baseman Isabella Renner, who fielded the ball and fired it to first to get the out and end the threat.
“She is a freshman over there at third base and she made a nice play and their girl hit the ball hard,” Wade Vogan said. “Maddy is still a kid; she’s only 17. She had to get the jitters out. As she goes, the team goes, but it’s good to see the team back her up like that.”
That sequence was critical for the Vikings.
“We score there, who knows?” Reho said. “But, after that, she got in her groove. We don’t typically strike out like that. She’s tough.”
Maddy Vogan settled in after that first inning and struck out eight of the next nine batters. After a groundout and pop up in the fifth, she fanned the final seven batters to secure the win.
“We had good pitching and clean defense,” Wade Vogan said. “We had a couple girls put the ball in play, too, that normally don’t do that and that’s a huge deal in the state playoffs.”
The bottom of Sharon’s lineup produced the first run in the second. Aliyah Fleet, who bats seventh, lined a two-out single to center. She came home on Mary Claire Brown’s double to left.
The Tigers (22-0) got three more insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth. Maddy Vogan reached on a fielder’s choice and scored on Mya Bundrat’s single. Renner lined a run-scoring single to center and Bundrat scampered home on a throwing error on the play for a 4-0 lead.
“The goal is one, but I will take more than one anytime we can get it,” Wade Vogan said.
The Vikings graduate seniors Grace Etling (third base) and Carly Surma (right field), but return a bevy of talent for next year.
“It stinks that our season is over, but the seniors should be proud of what they accomplished,” Reho said. “What they have done is build the foundation of what we’re going to do, moving forward. We are a very young team. Playing in a WPIAL championship and state playoffs is invaluable experience for the younger girls. But, it only gets harder now.”