Warriors find offense
- 21 April 2007
The Ephrata Girls Softball team rolled into Lititz on Friday night. With the smell of chocolate in the air and thoughts of upset on their mind, the Lady Mounts were hoping to keep this one close and surprise the section 1 leader. Warwick had been searching for some consistent offense entering Friday night's L-L League Section One-Section Two matchup versus Ephrata.The Warriors had scored four and 12 runs respectively in their last two games, and found themselves deadlocked in a scoreless tie with Conestoga Valley last Friday after 17 innings in a game to be completed this Tuesday.
Under the lights in Lititz, though, Warwick's bats came alive and the Warriors jumped ahead early and pulled away for a 10-0 victory in six innings over the Mountaineers.
Freshman Kristen Pilkington cleared the bases in the first inning with a triple to right-center field off of Ephrata senior Jolyn Stauffer, giving Warwick (8-0 Section One, 9-2 overall) a quick 3-0 lead.
Sophomore rightfielder Jenn Gennett immediately followed with an RBI single to bring home Pilkington.
"We have been struggling scoring runs so it was a big win for us," said Warriors' coach Donald Miller.
"We got some nice, big key hits early which took the pressure off of some of the girls later on."
Stauffer managed to make it only through the first inning, allowing those four runs and dropping her record to 2-2, as junior righthander Megan Matos came on in relief for the remainder of the game.
"We struggle with trying to go with the right pitcher and we keep guessing wrong," said Ephrata coach Art Davis, whose team fell to 4-5 in Section Two and 5-7 overall.
"One pitcher will be on and the other pitcher is not and we're guessing wrong right now."
On the other hand, pitching was not a problem for two-time defending Section One champion Warwick, even if senior star pitcher Chelsea Kreiter received the night off.
Freshman southpaw Sam Derr went the distance to earn her first varsity win, racking up seven strikeouts while allowing only five hits and a walk to even out her record at 1-1 for the season.
Even though her 1-1 mark does not look imposing, Derr has been impressive during her more than 30 innings of work so far this season, including the 17-inning affair with the Buckskins still to be continued.
According to Miller, the runs have been scarce for the Warriors, who have now won eight in a row, when Derr has the ball.
"It's tough luck, we just haven't scored when she's been on the mound," Miller added.
"I was kidding the girls before the game, 'Whoever scores the first run, they're getting ice cream', and then we come out and score four in the first."
Warwick tacked on five more runs in the fourth inning off of Matos, including a two-run double by first baseman Megan Bollinger.
Bollinger went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and a run scored, and Derr also went 2-for-4 out of the leadoff spot to pace the Warriors' attack.
Matos struck out seven and walked only one.
Ephrata's best opportunity to get on the board came in the top of the third inning after back-to-back singles by junior outfielder Nicole Miller (2-for-3 for the game) and senior centerfielder Laina Martin and a passed ball with two outs put runners on second and third base.
But Derr got the next batter, junior catcher Erica Ewing, to hit a pop-up to junior shortstop Jess Brown to put an end to the threat.
"Tonight we had a few mistakes in key areas and they took advantage of them," said Davis.
". . .We're getting people to second and third, and we just can't get that hit to get them in. That's what really hurting the team."
We here at www.ephratamounts.com are proud sponsors of the Dodgeball for Diabetes tournament.