Burrell wins, Highlands celebrates on eve of softball pairings announcement

By: George Guido
Wednesday, May 12, 2021 | 8:46 PM

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Despite a loss to rival Burrell on Wednesday, Highlands was determined to celebrate the school’s first section softball crown in 16 years.

Burrell used a big inning to down the Golden Rams, 8-1.

Highlands (13-4, 7-3) leads the Bucs (7-5, 6-3) and Knoch (6-3) by one-half game in the standings. Burrell and Knoch will play a make-up game Thursday.

Games played after Wednesday will count toward the final section standings, but they won’t be affect a team’s resume when WPIAL playoff pairings are decided. Pairings will be released at 5 p.m. Thursday on the TribLive High School Sports Network.

Still, Bucs sophomore Katie Armstrong had one of her best outings of the season, striking out 13 Golden Rams and yielding just three hits.

“Katie came down with an injury last week, and this was her his first day back,” said Bucs coach Rick Nealer. “She’s a gamer and had a very good game against a very good team. We needed to get back on the winning track.”

As for Highlands, the loss didn’t mar what has become a successful season.

“Absolutely we saw a chance for a section title going into the season,” said Golden Rams coach Jenn Koprivnikar. “We just took things game by game. We had a run there right in the middle of the season, but we didn’t want to look ahead.”

Highlands, playing its last game of the season on its renovated field, opened the scoring in the first inning without putting the ball in play.

Riley Pointkowski walked, took second on a wild pitch, took third on a passed ball, then scored when a third strike to Abbie Deiseroth was wild and Deiseroth reached first safely.

Burrell tied the game in the fourth when Amber Bigler’s single brought home pinch runner Abby Larko.

The Bucs broke the game open in the fifth, scoring five runs after two were out. Caroline Dynka — after a pep talk from third base coach Nealer before offering at a 3-2 pitch — reached on an infield single to score Rikki Wyble. Larko came home on an overthrow to give Burrell the lead for good, 3-1.

Said Nealer: “I told Caroline just to shorten up. They were working us outside and she was a little in front of it, and she waited on it and she had a nice hit. We needed it.”

Cassidy Novak later had a three-run single off the center-field fence to put the Bucs ahead, 6-1, and Armstrong took it from there.

“I think we’re close to them, distance-wise, so you want to look good,” Armstrong said. “They’re tough competitors, and they’re all good ballplayers on that team.”

Jess Cekada opened the seventh for Highlands with a double, but the next three batters were retired to end the game as the Golden Rams celebrated the first section title since 2005.

“They’re smart players,” Koprivnikar said of her team. “You can’t teach instincts. I’ll take these guys because they make things happen. We let Burrell get into our heads, but I told them they had seven chances and they only scored once.”

Liz Clark homered to start the seventh and the Bucs concluded the scoring on an RBI single by Kylie Karns.

Tags: Burrell, Highlands