CRESSON – At this level, the adage goes, everybody is good.
In the case of the Yough High School softball team in its PIAA Class AAA quarterfinal game against the Bellefonte Lady Raiders, it would also be appropriate to add a few more adjectives to that, such as hard-hitting, aggressive and extremely well prepared.
In the days leading up to this state-tournament showdown at Mount Aloysius College on June 9, the Lady Cougars planned and practiced their approach to Bellefonte star pitcher Tara Baney, and then they executed it to perfection.
Yough scored in every inning, connected on 12 hits and carried an eight-run second inning lead to a convincing 13-3 victory over Bellefonte in six innings.
Third baseman Alona Sleith had three hits for the Cougars, scored three runs and laced a decisive, three-run triple in the second inning that sent Yough to an 8-0 lead.
Five different players had RBIs for Yough beside Sleith, including two each by Aubrie Mance and Allie Harvey, and seven of nine starters hit safely in the game.
Bellefonte scored a run in the third inning and two more on a Jordan Rockey hit in the fourth in an attempt to keep pace, but Yough was relentless. The Cougars responded in kind in both innings to keep Bellefonte safely eight runs behind.
And on the mound, Yough pitcher Macy Mularski righted herself after the Bellefonte fourth and retired eight of the final nine Raider batters to wrap up the win and send the Cougars into the AAA semifinals against Donegal.
“They (Yough) made some good adjustments,” Bellefonte coach Fred Caldwell said. “They crowded the plate, and as Tara (Baney) began her motion they backed off a little to take her inside pitching out. They did a very good job of looking down and swinging at strikes. They were very well coached and did a really good job.”
Yough’s offense heated up almost immediately after the game began. With one out in the first, Mance reached on an error — one of four for Bellefonte on the day — and then came around to score after a triple in the gap to right by Harvey. Harvey didn’t stop at third, however, and scored on a missed relay-throw to give Yough an early 2-0 lead.
The Cougars sent 10 hitters to the plate and scored six runs in a game-breaking second inning. Hayley Warrick, Kierra Waywood, Mance and Harvey all had hits in the inning before Sleith added the clincher with a bases-loaded, three-run triple that bounced off the wall in left-center field.
“At that point, we were just trying to win an inning,” Caldwell said. “Just try to win an inning, and then hopefully win the next one.”
Bellefonte started on that with a run in the top of the third after a triple by Baney and a wild pitch brought in the Raiders’ first run. Yough answered, though, with an unearned run in the bottom of the inning on a hit, walk, fielder’s choice and a passed ball.
Yough also countered Rockey’s two-run hit in the fourth with another two runs of its own that put the score at 11-3 and preserved the Cougars’ eight-run margin.
“They (Yough) answered right back,” Caldwell said. “I don’t think we shut them out any inning. They scored in every inning.”
The Cougars’ final two runs scored on an RBI single by Mance in the fifth and on a hit, walk, passed ball and a wild pitch in the sixth.
Yough’s 13th run ended the game in the bottom of the sixth under the 10-run rule.
“We did not start out well and we just never really got it together,” Caldwell said. “You have to tip your hat to Yough. They executed in all phases of the game. They played a great game and I think they will do well the rest of the way.”
