Bunt singles, Parshall’s pitching help vault Belle Vernon into PIAA quarterfinals

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, June 4, 2018 | 8:24 PM

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For one of the first times this season, Belle Vernon softball coach Tom Rodriguez stopped second guessing himself.

As some of his batters struggled at the plate and the Leopards couldn't push a run across in their PIAA first-round game against District 6 champion Bellefonte, Rodriguez called for a bunt. Then another and another.

Belle Vernon had three batters reach on bunt singles, including one by Kourtney Gavatorta that reached the outfield grass and scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to vault the Leopards to a 4-0 win and a spot in the PIAA Class 4A quarterfinals.

“I've preached about it all season long and always argued and second-guessed myself. We didn't do it all season,” Rodriguez said. “Well, we did it today, and it worked great.”

The Leopards didn't have a hit until the bottom of the fourth inning off Red Raiders' starter Lexi Rogers.

After Bailey Parshall ripped a line drive that hit Rogers in the circle, the ball squirted to second baseman Emma DeHaas who threw a bit low to first. Lissi Przybys dropped the ball as Parshall hit the bag to reach on the error.

“I noticed she was throwing a first-pitch strike. Then after she got ahead, she was going high,” Parshall said of Rogers. “I thought she was a little wild in warmups. But she was trying to get ahead of us and move us out. I just wanted to wait until she threw me a strike and get a pitch to hit.”

Parshall reached second on a wild pitch during Mekenzie Sokol's ensuing eight-pitch at-bat. Sokol hung tough, fouling off three pitches with two strikes before ripping a double to the fence in left to score Parshall easily from second to give the Leopards a 1-0 lead.

“Mekenzie has been doing her thing up there the past couple games,” Parshall said of Sokol.

It was Sokol's double that helped push Belle Vernon to a come-from-behind win over Elizabeth Forward in the WPIAL championship.

Rogers managed to work her way out of the fourth, but ran into trouble again an inning later.

Vanessa Porter drew a walk to put the Leopards' leadoff man on. Casey Weightman followed with a bunt down the third base line appearing like it was heading foul, but Bellefonte third baseman Rianna Trexler touched it on the line meaning it was a fair ball and Weightman easily beat the play to first to put runners on first and second with no one out.

Jordon French sacrificed Porter and Weightman to third and second, respectively.

Rodriguez noticed something on the play that made him call for the bunt again with Gavatorta coming up.

“Every time we bunted, the second baseman immediately took off to first,” Rodriguez said. “Kourtney is someone I trust in that situation, and I knew she could do it.”

Gavatorta pushed the first pitch she saw between the circle and first base and the ball trickled all the way to the outfield to score both runners and give Belle Vernon a 3-0 lead.

“That felt good,” Gavatorta said. “I bunted a lot when I played travel ball, and I knew I put it in the right spot there.”

Trailing 3-0, the Red Raiders (15-4) loaded the bases with no one out in the top of the sixth.

Leadoff hitter Mallorie Smith reached on an error on Gavatorta before Parshall walked Alexis Wetzler.

Rianna Trexler followed with a bunt single that Parshall didn't try to make a throw on after fielding it to bring up cleanup hitter Maddie Tice, who had the lone hit for the Red Raiders to that point.

Parshall got two quick strikes on Tice before she was able to foul two off. After a ball made the count 1-2, Tice roped a line drive to Mekenzie Sokol at first, who calmly stepped on the bag for a bang-bang double play.

Rogers followed and battled Parshall through eight pitches, but the ninth had too much on it and she struck out swinging.

“Defensively, we did a good job today. When we've needed to, we've been able to get the job done,” Parshall said.

In the top of the seventh, the Leopards (22-3) added another insurance run. Alex Sokol hit a one-out single to right field. Red Raiders right fielder Taylor Kerr muffed it and the ball rolled toward the fence. Sokol ended up on third after the two-base error.

Natalie French reached with another perfectly placed bunt on a squeeze play to plate Alex Sokol with the final run.

Parshall struck out Przybys to start the bottom of the seventh. DeHaas singled, but a rally never started after Parshall induced a groundout to Natalie French.

With a runner on second and two outs, Parshall got Taylor Kerr to pop out to catcher Ally Pacak, who made a spectacular lunging catch out of her squat position to end the game.

“Sometimes it's difficult to play against teams that you really know nothing about,” Rodriguez said. “You do what you can to look up stats, assume their best hitters are the 3-4-5 hitters. You worry about what you can do and prepare the best you can.”

Parshall said she prepared as she always does.

“Sometimes you don't know what you're going to see from their lineup,” Parshall said. “But they have to prepare for me, too. They don't know what I'm like as a pitcher and probably haven't seen a pitcher throwing as hard with the movement from the left side.”

Belle Vernon will play Mt. Pleasant on Thursday.

The Leopards topped the Vikings (17-1) in the WPIAL semifinals, 1-0.

Last year, the scenario was the same with Belle Vernon winning in the WPIAL playoffs and Mt. Pleasant winning the rematch in the PIAA quarterfinals on their way to a state championship.

“We're just going to take one game at a time,” Parshall said. “We have to worry more about preparing ourselves and not who we're facing.”

Jeremy Sellew is a Mon Valley Independent staff writer.

Tags: Belle Vernon