UNIVERSITY PARK – A softball may be round, but it sure can take some erratic bounces and fly in unpredictable ways.
Erratic and unpredictable might be the only accurate ways to describe the final moments of Bellefonte’s 2-1 win over Bellwood-Antis in the District 6, AAA Softball Final at Penn State’s Beard Field on June 1.
With one out in the bottom of the ninth inning of a game tied at one run each, Bellefonte had Alexis Wetzler — the winning run — on third base and Samantha Gates on second. Angela Capparelle was at the plate facing Bellwood pitcher Taylor Shildt.
Capparelle took a pitch and then popped one up toward third baseman Edyn Convery for what looked like an easy second out.
Convery, however, lost the ball in the late-afternoon sun and couldn’t make the catch, and Wetzler raced home into the arms of her excited and celebrating teammates.
But wait.
Convery never touched the ball; it hit at her feet and spun directly into foul territory. Some say it appeared to bounce behind the base (fair ball). Some say it bounced over the base (fair ball). The only ones who counted, the umpires, said it bounced in front of the base, which meant it was a foul ball and Wetzler had to go back. No run and no celebration.
On the very next pitch, Shildt, who had exceptional control all afternoon, unleashed a wild pitch. It sailed far past catcher Caroline Showalter, and this time Wetzler scored for real, emphatically stomping on the plate as she nailed down the Raiders’ biggest victory of the season. Her teammates, initially taken aback by the suddenness of it all, could now run back out to celebrate in earnest.
The win returned the Lady Red Raiders into the winner’s circle of District 6 softball, and it also qualified them for a spot in the 2016 P.I.A.A. Tournament, set to begin on June 6.
“I didn’t care if it was foul or fair,” Bellwood-Antis coach Jim Payne said. “I was going to call it foul the whole way. I was at least going to make a point. Plant a seed. Let’s talk about it, and maybe they don’t want to end the game on something like that. Rethink it, and let us play it out.
“But, of course, we ended on something like that anyway.”
The wild game-ending events overshadowed a tense pitching duel between Bellwood’s Shildt and Bellefonte’s Tara Baney. Both were sharp all afternoon, and neither was about to give in to the other.
Bellwood scored its run first in the third inning after a base hit by Sara Knisely and a triple by Shildt made the score 1-0.
Bellefonte countered in the fourth after three consecutive one-out singles by Wetzler, Rianna Trexler, and Gates. Gates’ hit drove in Wetzer and tied the game at 1-1.
That was it. Except for Shildt reaching third base in the top of the eighth, neither team seriously threatened until the bottom of the ninth.
“The pitch she (Shildt) hit the triple for was a pitch that got hung up on the outside of the plate,” Bellefonte coach Fred Caldwell said. “That was honestly a mistake and shouldn’t have been there. We were trying to stay inside on her, keeping it inside and low with screwballs and drops to try to tie her hands up so she couldn’t extend. She’s a good hitter. She’s got long arms, and if she extends, she’s going to hit the ball hard.”
Shildt’s second hit of the day, a single in the eighth, allowed her to advance to third base after a single by Showalter. Baney, however, got Maddie Miller to ground out to end that threat.
Bellwood’s Laycee Clark opened the ninth with a single, but Baney didn’t rattle then either. She went pop-up, ground ball, strikeout to end the inning and set up the Bellefonte ninth.
“Tara’s been fantastic all year,” Caldwell said. “I’ve lost count, but she now has somewhere around 160 strikeouts on the year. She’s solid in the circle, solid at the plate, she batting somewhere over .400 now. Just solid all around.”
In the ninth for Bellefonte, Wetzler opened with a walk and was sacrificed to second by Trexler. Gates reached on an error, moving Wetzler to third and bringing Capparelle to the batters’ box. The rest will become part of Lady Raider softball lore.
“You just have to stay calm on the mound,” Baney said. “Take a couple deep breaths and know that your defense has your back. We’ve been working hard since last summer on everything and we wanted this very bad.”
