Beaver Claims First Softball Gold in WPIAL AA Softball Championship

By: Bruce Markey
Thursday, May 29, 2014 | 7:41 PM

It was a dominant performance for Casey Farkasovsky when she needed it most. Beaver’s sophomore starting pitcher shined bright on the big stage at California University as the Bobcats defeated the Deer Lakes Lancers 2-0 in the Class AA WPIAL Softball Championship. Both teams entered the game unbeaten and the matchup featured the top two seeds in the bracket.

Farkasovsky shut down a Deer Lakes team that had seven hitters batting over .400 for the season. She held the Lancers to just three hits and fanned nine batters to go to 16-0 on the season with 129 strikeouts.

Beaver scored their runs in the third and the fifth innings. Deer Lakes Junior Pitcher Tiffany Edwards entered the championships with a 43-2 career record. Edwards allowed just six hits and struck out three batters in the contest. The Lancers were making their third straight title game appearance, winning in 2012, but falling to Riverside 5-1 last year.  

Deer Lakes had their best scoring opportunity in the first two innings, getting two runners on base. But with two outs Farkasovsky got Sarah Blinn looking to end the inning. Beaver got thier first run when Katie Glass singled to lead off the third. She then moved to third on a pair of groundouts and scored when Jennifer Kondracki reached on an error by freshman third basemen Brittany Dengler.

The Lancers had another chance in the bottom of the fourth, as Siera Sarver doubled and Edwards walked. But Farkasovsky got Maria Taliani on a called third strike and then struck out Dengler to end another threat. 

Beaver scored the second run on a wild pitch after Jayda Justice singled to lead off the inning. After two ground outs, Justice scored on a passed ball. The Bobcats had a chance to blow the game open in the sixth, getting the first two runners on base, but Edwards was up to the chance as Sarver snared two pop ups at first to end the inning.

Deer Lakes got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the sixth when Taliani drew a two out walk. But Dengler struck out to end the inning. In the bottom of the seventh, Blinn was caught looking and Stephanie Drapela flew out to shallow right field. Fittingly, catcher Tayven Rousseau, the granddaughter of Head Coach Butch Rousseau, made the catch on a foul ball near the screen to start the celebration.

Farkasovsky credited her defense for making the plays behind her. She said Beaver used the loss to Deer Lakes in last year’s semifinals. A year ago, the Bobcats led 7-0 with Deer Lakes scoring eleven runs after a rain delay to move on to the title game.  

Rousseau was on base twice, going 1 for 3 with a single and was hit by a pitch. The Bobcats are now 16-0 and will take on the District 5 champion Everett Warriors in the first round of the state playoffs on Monday.

Deer Lakes falls to 18-1. The Lancers meet the Wilmington Greyhounds, the District 10 champions, on Monday in the PIAA first round.

Beaver Bobcats : 0 – 0 – 1 – 0 – 1 – 0 – 0  = 2 – 6 – 0
Deer Lakes Lancers :  0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 = 0 – 3 – 0

Tags: Beaver, Deer Lakes