Brian Hagberg
ST. MARYS, Pa. – St. Marys built an 8-0 lead then held off a late rally for an 8-6 win over Warren in an interdistrict matchup on Saturday.
The Lady Dutch scored five runs in the second, two more in the third, and another in the fourth to stake themselves an 8-run advantage. The Lady Dragons scored four runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh. Warren had the tying run on base, but St. Marys was able to get the 2-3 putout after a dropped third strike to end the game.
Avery Eckles’ sac fly got St. Marys on the board in the second. Two batters later, Shannon Kaiser scored on a passed ball. Rosa Deprater walked, and, during the next at-bat, Lindsey Reiter scored on a passed ball and Danielle Rolley scored on an error. Olivia Eckles singled in Deprater to give the Lady Dutch a 5-0 lead.
Avery Eckles and Reiter hit back-to-back RBI singles in the third to push the lead to 7-0, and Kara Hanslovan’s RBI single in the fourth made it 8-0.
Carly Beers hit a 1-out double in the sixth and came home on Halle Kuzminski’s single. Kuzminski scored when Lexi Hoffman reached on an error. Hoffman scored on Lillian Devore’s RBI groundout that cut the lead to 8-3. Emma Gray followed with a double and scored on Danika Abbey’s single to make it 8-4 heading to the seventh.
With two outs and a runner on second in the seventh, Kuzminski hit her second RBI single to cut the deficit to three. Hoffman followed with a single to put runners on first and second. A wild pitch allowed the runners to advance to second and third, and a second wild pitch allowed Kuzminski to score and Devore to reach on a dropped third strike.
Gray tried to reach on another dropped third strike, but the Lady Dutch were able to get the putout to end it.
Olivia Eckles had three hits and an RBI for the Lady Dutch, while Avery Eckles had a hit and drove in a pair. Kaiser scored twice.
Kendall Young got the win giving up just one hit with no walks and 10 strikeouts in four scoreless innings. Kaiser allowed six runs, three earned, on six hits with a walk and five strikeouts in three relief innings.
Kuzminski had a pair of hits, scored twice, and drove in a pair. Devore also had two RBIs, while Beers and Gray both doubled and scored.
Alexis Stec took the loss allowing eight runs, five earned, on 10 hits with six walks and a strikeout.
