Hitting is contagious for OLSH softball in win over Chartiers-Houston

By: Don Rebel
Friday, April 16, 2021 | 10:21 PM

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Back in the spring of 2019, top-seeded Chartiers-Houston faced Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the first round of the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs and won easily to advance to the district quarterfinals.

On Friday, the script was flipped.

The Chargers remained undefeated with a 14-5 victory over the host Buccaneers.

OLSH came into the contest averaging over 10 runs a game and for the fourth time in seven wins, they scored double-digit runs.

Trailing 4-2 after three innings, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart scored five runs in the fourth inning and kept adding on, including four more runs in the seventh.

“Our bats came alive, the top of the order came alive, in those middle innings,” OLSH coach David Quinn said. “It got contagious. Everybody started feeding off each other. My team this year really feeds off each other, and they’re a great team to coach.”

Chartiers-Houston grabbed early leads in the first and third innings.

Freshman Paige McAvoy tripled home Bella Hess, then scored on a Nicolette Kloes sac fly to put the Bucs up 2-0.

After sophomore Justena Giles tied the game with a two-run single in the top of the third, Chartiers-Houston went back on top in the bottom of the inning when Kloes doubled home Hess and scored on a Madison Smith RBI single.

It was all Chargers after that.

OLSH’s five-run fourth inning was highlighted by two-run home runs by Lindsay Felsing and Giles.

The rally began on the first of three hits by the No. 9 hitter, Delaney Walsh.

“As fate would have it, she has been our leadoff hitter all year,” Quinn said. “(Friday), the coaching staff decided to switch her to the nine because she wasn’t relaxing quite enough in the leadoff spot.”

Walsh had an RBI single in the fifth inning and doubled home a run in the seventh. It was in the seventh that OLSH had four straight extra base hits from Alyssa Monton, Walsh, Kaylee Fabiano and Felsing before a run-scoring single by Madison Chlyster capped off a four-run exclamation point.

The Chargers hammered out 18 hits against Kloes and Bella Hess, who pitched in the final inning.

The game was hardly one-sided, though. Besides the early lead, the Buccaneers had baserunners in all but the second inning. However, of their 10 hits, nine came from the first four spots in the batting order.

Besides going 4 for 5 with five RBI, Giles was the winning pitcher for the Chargers, giving up five earned runs on 10 hits with one walk and four strikeouts.

“It looked like she got better as the game went on,” Quinn said. “I think she controlled their bats for the most part. I’m sure there are a couple of pitches she’d like to have back, but she’ll learn from that.”

The Chargers improved to 5-0 atop Section 1-2A, 7-0 overall, while Chartiers-Houston fell to 1-3 in the section, 2-4 for the season.

Tags: Chartiers-Houston, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart