St. Joseph softball finds cure for ‘cabin fever’ in victory over Riverview

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, April 10, 2018 | 7:54 PM

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A growing number of postponements kept St. Joseph mostly in its gymnasium this spring. But the numerous dark clouds over Western Pennsylvania provided one silver lining, as it meant the Spartans could sharpen their already-strong hitting.

After a more than two-week break, the St. Joseph bats had another big day Tuesday, with hitting up and down the lineup leading the way to a 12-8 victory over Riverview in a Section 3-A victory at the “No Offseason” complex in West Deer.

“These girls have been getting cabin fever the last two weeks,” St. Joseph coach Dan Edgar said. “They've been kind of nipping at each other in practice, and they wanted to take it out on someone else.”

St. Joseph took it out on Riverview's pitching, scoring a dozen runs for the second time this season. The Spartans (2-0, 1-0) finished with 11 hits, including two apiece by Serena Edgar, Anna Swierczewski, Ava Swanson and Molly Coleman. Swanson drove in four runs, including a key bases-clearing triple.

“Our hitting definitely is one of our stronger points,” Swanson said. “We worked really hard through February and March to really improve that.”

The hot hitting combined with Riverview miscues — the Raiders (1-1, 1-1) committed six errors — to help St. Joseph post an important early victory in the section schedule.

The Spartans and Riverview qualified for the WPIAL playoffs last season, and both returned a strong core of starters as they look for a repeat performance in 2018.

Although Tuesday represented just the first section game for St. Joseph and the second for Riverview, the teams' high expectations made it an important contest.

“This game especially was important because last year Riverview was really one of our rivals,” Swanson said. “Just to come out and beat them is really cool.”

Riverview, coming off a victory over Jeannette in its season opener last week, had a strong offensive game of its own. Alyssa Cappa hit a two-run, inside-the-park home run, Molly Collins added a two-run shot over the right-field wall and Allura Jendrasik went 3 for 3 with a pair of doubles and an RBI.

However, the Raiders' shaky fielding ultimately short-circuited their chances.

“This is the second game we've played, and I think that not being able to really field ground balls off of bats and see the different angles hurts a little bit,” Riverview coach Jim Ashbaugh said. “But both teams have the same thing. We'll bounce back from it.”

Riverview and St. Joseph were tied 3-3 through two innings, before the Spartans took the lead for good in the third by taking advantage of a pair of Raiders errors.

A four-run fourth, highlighted by Swanson's three-run triple, widened the gap to 8-3.

“The strength of our team is our hitting, there's no doubt about it,” Dan Edgar said. “We're probably 10 or 12 deep with hitters, so that's going to win us more games.”

Riverview had some chances to tie. Cappa's homer and Jendrasik's run-scoring single cut the deficit to 8-6 in the fifth, and the Raiders put the tying run on first with two outs before St. Joseph starter Shelby Gogal struck out Collins.

After St. Joseph added another run in the bottom of the fifth, Riverview had the tying run at the plate in the top of the sixth against reliever Anna Swierczewski, but Kate Davis grounded to second for the third out.

“I can't complain about the offense,” Ashbaugh said. “I can't complain about the defense. We'll get things squared up, and we'll be back next game.”

St. Joseph put the game out of reach with a three-run sixth before Collins hit her two-run homer in the seventh to close the scoring for Riverview.

After ending their two-week hiatus, the Spartans could play as many as three more games this week against section opponents Ellis, Leechburg and Geibel.

“It's really a good confidence booster for us to win our first (section) game,” Swanson said. “I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.”

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer.

Tags: Riverview, St. Joseph