Hometown Softball Recap – Peters Township

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, April 3, 2017 | 10:46 PM

Peters Township played fabulous defense for 6 2/3 innings. Unfortunately for the Indians, softball is a full seven inning game. Two throwing errors by PT defenders in the 7th and 8th innings allowed Mount Lebanon to rally and hold on for a 3-2 victory Monday at wet Peterswood Park.

Kiley Hartbauer of Peters Township and Catie Rogan of Mount Lebanon each pitched four shutout innings before the Indians plated the first run of the game in the bottom of the fourth. Kate Hondru led off with a double and two outs later scored on a Haley Cecere double.

It stayed 1-0 Peters until the top of the 7th inning. The Blue Devils #9 hitter Emily Amato led off with an infield single and was forced at second on a ground ball to shortstop off the bat of Megan Dietrick. A sacrifice bunt by Rachel Lee moved Dietrick into score position with the Blue Devils down to their final out. Rogan hit a ground ball in the hole at shortstop that was fielded nicely by Cecere who tried top make the spectacular play for the final out, but her throw was wide off first and Dietrick scored the tying run.

Then with two outs in the top of the 8th inning, Danielle Malizio hit a hard ground ball to Peters Townships Hondru at third base. While she made a solid stop, she rushed her throw to first which bounced and Alex Bondi could not squeeze it for the final out of the inning. Instead the error gave Mount Lebanon a chance and they took advantage as Sam Squatriglia followed with a single and both runners advanced on an ill-advised throw to third base on the single. Amato followed with a two-run single scoring both to make it 3-1 Blue Devils.

Peters Township would not go quietly in their half of the 8th though as Midiyava Hutnik was hit by a pitch and pinch-runner Jerry Fitzgerald scored on a tow out bloop triple by Hondru. However Rogan retired Hartbauer to seal the deal on the road win for Mount Lebanon.

Hartbauer was the tough luck loser for Peters Township as she yielded no earned runs in eight innings, allowing seven hits with six strikeouts. What was surprising about the Indians defensive miscues in the final two innings was that it took away from a very good defensive game in which solid plays were made by Alex Bondi, Kate Hondru and Olivia Castalone.

Mount Lebanon improves to 1-1 in Class 6-A Section 1 and also overall, while Peters falls to 1-2 overall and 0-2 in the section.