By TIM TAYLORValley Sports Report
WAVERLY — Waverly jumped on Owego for eight first-inning runs en route to a 13-3 victory to claim the STAC Central Division softball title in a playoff here Tuesday.
Both teams finished the regular season with 9-3 conference records and split their season series. The River Hawks won, 6-4, at the end of March and the Wolverines took the second game last Monday, 20-2.
“Huge first inning. Our kids were so excited today to have an opportunity like this and it showed,” said coach Brent Doane. “We went out there and played shutdown pitching and defense to open the inning up, and then came back and just put up a bunch of runs, so a lot of fun. And the hitting is continuing to roll.”
Seven different players contributed hits and eight scored at least one run.
“We've been able to string some really good hits together over the last few games now,” Doane said. “It's starting to become a regular occurrence, so I'm excited about that. Hopefully, we can continue that right on through the rest of this week.”
Owego was looking to score first following singles by Elise Silvanic, but Waverly pitcher Taylin Gonzalez shut the door, striking out a batter following each hit.
Lecksie Douglas got the early onslaught going with a single and moved to second when the ball scooted by the center fielder. She raced home on a Maddie Cron double to center.
The River Hawks issued an intentional walk to Gonzalez, then Hannah Carpenter singled to left. Paige Bubniak followed with a two-run double to make it 3-0.
Then, with one away, Carpenter and Bubniak scored on an error off the bat of Abby Wheeler and Melanie Skovira would draw a base on balls. Owego would pick up a second out, but Douglas smacked a two-run double and Cron doubled Douglas home to give Waverly an 8-0 cushion.
Each team would put a runner on base in the second, then the River Hawks would attempt a comeback in the third.
Joslynn Space started the rally bid off with a single, Silvanic reached on an error and Eva Crawford drew a walk to load the bases. Space scored on a passed ball while Silvanic and Crawford advanced a base, then Silvanic scored on Miley Laubach’s sacrifice fly.
Emily Sipe walked, but was thrown out by Carpenter attempting to steal second and Crawford stole home on the throw to close the gap to 8-3, and the batter hit into a ground out two pitches later.
In the home half of the inning, Kaiya Horton singled, Douglas was hit by a pitch, then Gonzalez singled with one away, scoring Horton. Douglas would score on a passed ball and Carpenter followed with an RBI single to make it an 11-3 game.
Waverly would pick up its final two runs in the fifth as Douglas took another one for the team and scored on a Cron double to left. Gonzalez followed with a base hit to advance Cron to third and she scored on Carpenter’s sac fly out to right.
The Wolverines collected 13 hits to Owego’s eight with Cron going 3-for-4 (all doubles) with two runs and three RBI. Douglas was 2-for-2 with four runs and two RBI; Gonzalez went 2-for-3 with two runs and one RBI; and Carpenter and Bubniak both went 2-for-4 with a run and two RBI. Abby Wheeler chipped in with a hit, run and two RBI; Horton added a hit and a run; and Skovira tacked on a hit.
Jules Serfass led Owego (12-4) with two hits.
Gonzalez struck out seven while scattering eight hits and four walks.
“She's been turning in pretty solid performances recently,” Doane said. “Owego's got some good sticks in the order for sure. We had to try to manage our way around them a little bit. Sooner or later they're going to punch one through and they did, so hats off to them, but we played solid defense behind Taylin today, which was exciting to see.”
“I think for the first time this year everybody on the defensive side of the ball actually got to touch the ball in the game, because we've had some games where some kids didn't touch the ball once,” said Doane. “Every outfielder got to make a play, every infielder got to make a play.”
Once again, Waverly received an all-around solid team effort from its players.
“A lot of energy, a lot of excitement, a ton of support for one another, which is what we're looking for,” Doane said. “This game is all about emotions and if we can keep it all at the same level all the way through, we can be a pretty good team.”
The Wolverines (13-4) will visit Horseheads on Thursday, then face West champion Corning (14-0) in the STAC semifinals at Greenlight Networks Grand Slam Park on Saturday at 11 a.m. The victor faces the winner of Vestal (11-2) and Susquehanna Valley (15-2) at 1 p.m. for the championship.
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PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
