Bo Manor tops Perryville to propel them closer to the state championship game. Freshman Maddie Penta pitched a no hitter into the sixth inning and struck out 17 batters in a complete game, defeating visiting Perryville 8-0 in the 1A North Region Section I Final on Wednesday, May 17, giving them the ticket into the regional finals. The Eagles (17-2) eliminated the Panthers (12-6) from the playoffs this year ending their chances to be repeat 1A state champions. Bo Manor will now host McDonough in the next play off game. "My screwball and my changeup was really working for me today," said Penta, who didn't allow a hit until Jordan Pollitt singled in the sixth. "My changeup had them really off balance and the screwball was in on their hands and they didn't know what to do with it." After striking out Perryville's starting line up in the top of the first, the Eagles went to work against Perryville senior pitcher Emily Phillips. Anna Tidaback hit a single, making it to first base with two outs and Taylor Abshagan came up to the plate and blasted a home run to center field that brought Bo Manor a 2-0 lead. "I figured she was going to come in on me, for a while because my hands were a little late and she has a really good inside fast ball or screwball, so I was just adjusting pitch by pitch. As soon as I got two strikes I knew I had to protect. I kept fouling balls off and I worked the count until I got a good pitch to hit and I finally took a good swing at it. It hit the right part of the bat," said Abshagan. "After our first game against Perryville , when Emily pitched lights out and we didn't score until the seventh inning, we've had that mindset to score in the first inning. I guess it was kind of like a boost of confindence to finally get some runs on the board in the first inning." "I jumped right out of my seat, I was very excited," Pent said."Having a team that scores runs for you really early, it just makes it ten times easier to pitch and it takes a lot of pressure off." The Eagles added an additional run in the third inning when Abshagan scored on an RBI from Melinda Morgan. They then scored five runs in the sixth inning, with Tieback triple. Perryville almost rallied in the top of the sixth, after Amber Keen was walked and Jordyn Pollitt hit a single, but Keene was tagged out in attempt to move from first to third on the play. In the top of the seventh, the Panther's Mara Little doubled, with only one out, but Penta struck out the last two batters to end the game. In Penta's previous encounter with the Panthers on April 19, the freshman threw 19 strike outs in seven innings and only allowed one unearned run in a 6-1 triumph. "We practiced really hard to get ready for this type of pitching, and they have seen a lot of pitching from short distances. They did a better job with it but we were up agaisnst it right from the get go," said Perryville head coach Dave Ruark. "We were hoping to chip away at it but when it got (up) to three or four, its brutally tough," Pentas performance was unhindered by the hot temperatures ending the afternoon striking out the opposition in three different innings. "We felt confident that she was going to keep us in this game if we could put enough balls in play," said Bo Manor head coach Russ Morgan. "We really worked hard yesterday on limiting strikeouts and trying to put balls in play, trying to capitalize on things that we do well. We know we have really solid pitching, we know we have good hitting, it's just can we put it all together? Early in the season we ended up playing from behind and coming back a lot, which gave us a lot of confidence in 'there is no need to panic; which is great. But it's also really nice to play out front. When you can play out front and relax you just tend to make better choices, better plays." The win came as redemption after the Eagles lost to Perryville three times last year. "Any win in the playoffs is great but to beat a very good team it feels really good," said Morgan. "Last year was last year-it doesn't get you anything this year -but it's a great win." Comments are closed.
|
Categories
All
Archives
December 2018
|