STRATTANVILLE, Pa. – It took a lot longer than expected, but Clarion-Limestone finally played a home softball game and the Lions came away with an 11-3 victory over Redbank Valley Thursday afternoon.
(Photo by Dave Cyphert/ProPoint Media Photography)
The top three batters in the C-L lineup combined for seven of the Lions’ 13 hits. Abby Himes, the No. 3 batter in the order, powered the offense with a 3-for-3 effort with a pair of triples, a double, and a sacrifice fly while driving in four runs.
Kendall Dunn collected two hits, three runs scored, and an RBI. Frances Milliron also added a pair of hits with three runs scored and two RBIs.
“It’s starting to come together for us a bit,” said C-L head coach Jason Craig. “It’s been tough playing a game and then waiting a week or so to play again because of the weather. I think this was our seventh game and today was our home opener. We’ve only been outside here for practices like four times.”
Redbank Valley took advantage of a pair of errors in the top of the first to score the first run of the game.
C-L (3-4) tied the game in the bottom of the inning when Dunn singled and scored one out later on an RBI triple by Himes.
C-L erupted for five runs in the second inning to take a 6-1 lead. Three straight singles by Abby Knapp, Jenna Dunn and Olivia Smith started the inning with Smith driving in a run. Kendall Dunn added a sacrifice fly, Milliron added an RBI bunt single, Himes added her second triple of the game, which drove in a run, and Alyssa Wiant added an RBI single.
Carlie Rupp drove in a pair of runs for the Bulldogs in the top of the fourth to cut the lead to 6-3.
C-L took advantage of three errors in the bottom of the inning to help score three runs to expand the lead to 9-3 after four. Himes picked up the lone RBI of the inning with a sacrifice fly.
The Lions closed out the scoring with two runs in the sixth inning. Milliron hit an RBI single while Himes added a run scoring double.
Knapp collected two hits while Wiant, Jenna Dunn, Smith, and Sam Simpson each added one hit.
Regan Husted picked up the win in the circle, allowing three runs, one earned, on four hits in five innings. She didn’t walk a batter while striking out one.
Jenna Dunn pitched two scoreless innings on her birthday, striking out five.
“I take the blame for a couple of those early losses because I probably should have taken our pitcher out a little earlier after she had thrown probably over 100 pitches,” said Craig. “I think that Keystone game might have turned out differently for sure. It was nice to see Jenna throw a couple of strong innings on her birthday today.”
Mackenzie Foringer, Payton Polka, Carlie Rupp, and Sam Evans picked up the four hits for Redbank Valley.
“We’re a young team as even our older girls don’t have a lot of experience,” said Redbank Valley head coach Lee Miller. “We were starting to climb the ladder toward better things until we fell off the past couple of games. Tonight though I felt we played fairly well and hopefully we can start climbing that ladder again.”
Foringer suffered the loss in the circle giving up 11 runs, although only three were earned runs.
“Mackenzie is only a freshman so I look forward to what the next three years brings with her,” said Miller. “She’s been a workhorse for us.”
