Mt. Pleasant softball stays unbeaten after defeating Ligonier Valley

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, May 2, 2018 | 9:18 PM

Previous Next

Mt. Pleasant softball players wore their retro-red third jerseys for Wednesday's home game against Ligonier Valley.

Regardless of their game-to-game attire, this team is quite an outfit.

The Vikings, ranked No. 1 in WPIAL Class 4A and the returning PIAA champions, continued to tear into their impressive nonsection schedule with a 7-1 win over the Heritage Conference-leading Rams, a Class 3A team from District 6.

Mt. Pleasant (13-0), winners of 18 straight games and 25 of their last 26, also has beaten the No. 2- and 3-ranked teams in WPIAL Class 5A in Franklin Regional and Penn-Trafford, and Connellsville, another 5A team.

Mt. Pleasant, the Section 1-4A champion, has outscored its opponents 120-8. The Vikings are hitting .366 and slugging .608 as a team.

A competitive schedule is making for a slow but skill-sharpening build to what the Vikings hope is a WPIAL title run and state repeat.

“We have scheduled them in years past, and its always got canceled,” Vikings senior third baseman Chloe Poulich said of Ligonier Valley (11-3).

“They have really strong pitching, and it's good to see that. We obviously weren't used to that in the beginning innings, but we made adjustments. We learned to lay off the high (pitches), and that made the difference in the later innings.”

Poulich was referring to Rams' ace pitcher Jane Garver, who gave the Vikings a few issues early on before hitters began to adjust to her motion and delivery and grooved some hits.

“We put the ball in play a lot,” Mt. Pleasant coach Lauren Armanious said. “It was hard to get some of those gap shots. We hit a lot of line drives. They had a good defense; they were able to get under the ball and make those good plays. I thought we made excellent contact. They adjusted well at the plate.”

Mt. Pleasant junior ace Carolyn Alincic was her hard-throwing self, limiting the Rams to three hits while striking out nine, walking one and hitting a batter. The Dominican commit is now 8-0.

And the defense did not make an error behind her, continuously snuffing out ground balls.

“We got what we wanted from this game,” Ligonier Valley coach Mike Zimmerman said. “We gave up too many unearned runs and didn't get the big hits when we needed to. (Alincic) had us locked down, and they hit the ball well.”

As for the scoring, junior catcher Mya Klejka, senior left fielder Addy Kubasky and senior center fielder Ava Gnibus all had RBIs during a three-run second inning.

Kubasky went 2 for 3.

Ligonier Valley cut the deficit to 3-1 when Lexie Petrof drove a double off the fence to score courtesy runner Nina Christopher in the third.

A pair of errors in the outfield allowed the Vikings to score their fourth and fifth runs in the fifth. Freshman Haylie Brunson, a Lousinana-Lafayette recruit, came through with a “Little League” home run as her drive to center got past Abby Turcheck and rolled to the fence and she sprinted home.

Senior first baseman Meadow Uncapher's sacrifice fly scored senior shortstop Christiana Czegan to make it 5-1.

After the Rams left two stranded in the sixth, the Vikings added three more scores.

Poulich, who struck out and flied out twice in her first three at-bats, ripped a double off the top of the center-field fence, while facing reliever Petrof in the sixth, to make it 6-1. Brunson then knocked in Gnibus with a single.

Catcher Lindsey Stormer had two hits for the Rams. Garver struck out four and gave up four earned runs.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.

Tags: Ligonier Valley, Mt. Pleasant