Burrell softball team faces juggernaut Beaver in PIAAs

By: Michael Love
Tuesday, June 7, 2022 | 7:25 PM

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The Beaver softball team currently owns one of the longest winning streaks in WPIAL history.

The Bobcats, last year’s PIAA Class 4A champs, defeated District 3’s Fleetwood, 3-2, on Monday to extend their unbeaten run to 41 games.

Burrell (14-2) has its chance to stop Beaver in its tracks Thursday, and the Bucs are excited to give it their best shot.

“This is an exciting opportunity for us,” Burrell junior left fielder Abby Larko said Tuesday during practice on the turf at Buccaneers Stadium.

“We’ve seen how well they’ve been doing with their winning streak, and I am sure they are seeing how well we’ve been doing. We obviously have to be at our best to knock them out. The most important thing is being able to advance (to Monday’s semifinals).”

First pitch for the state quarterfinal matchup at Mars is set for 3 p.m.

Beating Beaver (20-0) means solving senior pitcher and Virginia Tech recruit Payton List, who is 18-0 with a 0.290 ERA, 243 strikeouts and 30 walks in 121 innings.

Burrell hopes momentum from Monday’s 10-hit output in its 6-0 victory over District 10 champion Villa Maria Academy, with seven players recording at least one hit, will carry over.

Larko contributed a single with one out in the seventh and crossed home for her team’s fifth run on a single from junior pitcher Katie Armstrong.

“The hitting definitely was contagious,” Larko said. “We fed off each other’s energy. It’s hard when we’re not hitting. But hopefully that game is a spark where we can keep it going. List is so strong, but we’ve faced some really good pitchers all year.”

Winning Thursday also means, in part, slowing List down at the plate. She leads the Bobcats with a .603 batting average, 10 doubles, 10 home runs, 23 runs batted in and 38 runs scored.

But Beaver’s offense is not one person, and the Bobcats have several lethal bats in the lineup, including freshman Samantha Springman (.481 average, 15 RBIs), junior Kayla Cornell (.368), freshman Taylor Young (.364), and senior Hanna Crowe (.315, 17 RBIs).

Beaver coach Amy Haggart said the winning streak always is in the back of her players’ minds, but they don’t talk about it too much.

“We just focus on the next game and work on winning that one,” Haggart said.

“We’re more focused on keeping this run going, and hopefully that leads back to Penn State.”

In this round of states last year, Beaver topped Elizabeth Forward, 5-3, and it kept it going with a 4-0 victory over Highlands before capturing the state title 5-4 over Tunkhannock at Penn State’s Beard Field.

It took all seven innings Monday for Beaver to dispatch Fleetwood, the third-place team from District 3. List and the Bobcats surrendered a run in the top of the seventh before closing the door.

“It was pretty stressful, just because we hadn’t been challenged like that this season since we’ve been home,” Haggart said.

“When we were in Myrtle Beach earlier in the season, we played a team from Ohio (Riverside), and we won that one 1-0. That was probably the best team we have faced, I would say, in the last two years to this point. We had talked about (Monday) being a trap game coming off the high of championship and having to refocus to win that next game. We told them it wasn’t going to be easy, and that team brought everything they had. I don’t know if we were focused or as sharp as we had shown all season. It definitely was eye-opening for the girls that anyone can beat them on any given day.”

Haggart said she knows her team certainly will have to be focused and at its best as it faces a Burrell team that has surrendered just three runs in four postseason games. List and Armstrong lead teams who are a combined 34-2 this season.

Armstrong’s numbers over four postseason games: 32 innings, 65 strikeouts, two walks, 14 hits allowed and three run surrendered with only one of them earned. She was dominant Monday as she gave up one hit and no walks while striking out 17. She fanned three in an inning four times.

“It is going to be an awesome game between the teams, and it will be fun seeing both pitchers go head-to-head,” Haggart said.

“The girls are excited for this game. I think that when we face better teams, we play better. I know some of the girls know Katie and have played travel ball with her. They know what to expect from her. Both teams have had a fight in them all year. It should be such a good game.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Beaver, Burrell