SECTION IV SOFTBALL: UNION SPRINGS ROLLS OVER TIOGA IN CLASS C TITLE GAME (19 PHOTOS) (2024-05-25)
Valley Sports ReportBINGHAMTON - After two tightly-contested games this season, the rubber match — in the most important contest of the three — was all Union Springs.
The second-seeded Wolves jumped out to a big lead early, and it got bigger in a 16-1 win over top-seeded Tioga here Saturday afternoon in the championship game of the Section IV, Class C softball playoffs.
"It’s not how we wanted to end the season, obviously," said Tioga coach Heather Klossner.
"We didn't make errors, they just had really hard base hits," she noted. "It was a tight strike zone, and we struggled.
"Their pitcher (Paityn Delancey) threw a great game," said Klossner. "We took ourselves out of the game mentally early on.
"Still, we had a great season, and the girls should be proud of how far they made it," added Klossner.
In their first meeting of the season, Union Springs jumped out to a 10-2 lead, and held on for a 13-11 victory. (Tioga's win, a 5-4 decision, came in the IAC Small School title game.)
On Saturday, Union Springs scored four runs in the top of the first inning, then added two runs in the third inning, and two more in the fourth to take an 8-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Tioga scored an unearned run to close the gap to 8-1, but there would be no Tiger comeback.
The Wolves scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning to take an 11-1 lead, and tacked on five runs in the top of the seventh inning to provide the final margin.
Tioga, which scored 42 runs in the first two postseason games this week, managed just two hits off Union Springs starter Paityn Delancey — a one-out single by freshman Jade Keaty, who later scored, in the fourth inning, and a two-out single by sophomore RaeAnne Feeko.
Delancey fanned five and walked one in a two-hit complete-game win for the Wolves.
The Tigers will graduate Emily Bidwell and Megan Vance.
Our seniors leadership and personalities will be missed," said Klossner.
The Tigers return seven starters, and several young players who were brought up from the JV team for the postseason.
"We return a ton of talent and have some really great younger players coming up through the program," said Klossner.
"Anyone who follows Tioga softball should be excited about our future," she noted.
"I told the girls today that there is no reason they should not work to be right back here next year," added Klossner.
Tioga wraps up the 2024 campaign with a 17-4 record.
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IN PHOTO 1: Tioga’s RaeAnne Feeko. … PHOTOS BY MIRANDA SZYMANSKI.
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