Marian ends Weatherly’s softball season with 2-1 playoff win

Marian’s Morgan Kelly went from pitching ace to hitting star on Friday, using all her talents to dispatch Weatherly Area from the District 11 Class A Softball Tournament. After limiting the Lady Wreckers to one run and two hits over seven innings, the junior standout took matters into her own hands at the plate.

With the Fillies and Weatherly locked in a 1-1 tie, Kelly’s one-out triple to right-center field in the bottom of the seventh inning had Marian knocking at the door. After the next batter popped out for the inning’s second out, Marian’s Alise Heisey beat out a bobbled grounder to first, allowing Kelly to race home with the game-winning run in a 2-1 victory that sent the Fillies into the District 11 Class A championship game.

With the win, secondseeded Marian (16-6) advanced to the district final for the first time since

2005 and the fourth time in program history. The Fillies were scheduled to play top-seeded Tri-Valley (19-2) in this week’s championship game back at Blue Mountain.

Kelly and Weatherly Area’s Maddie vonFrisch were locked in a pitcher’s duel throughout. Kelly finished with a two-hitter, allowing one unearned run while striking out 15 batters. She allowed a leadoff single to Anna Bloom to start the game, then retired 18 in a row.

Meanwhile, vonFrisch surrendered two unearned runs, scattered six hits, walked two and struck out eight in her final pitching performance for the Lady Wreckers.

Marian got on the scoreboard first, taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning when Gracie Gallagher led off with a line single to right, then scampered home when the

Colts top Wreckers en route to D-11 baseball title

Marian’s Jake Bobish pitched a five-inning perfect game last week, as the Colts shut out Weatherly Area 10-0 in the semifinal round of the District 11 Class A Baseball Tournament Tuesday evening in Pottsville. The victory sent the top-seeded

Colts (13-9) into the finals, where they upended Nativity 10-2 on Saturday to win the program’s first district championship since 2016, and punch their ticket to states.

Against Weatherly, the Colts opened the scoring with a two-run first. as Brian

Hinkle and Chase Petrilyak reached on a walk and a hit by batsman, respectively, and both scored on a throwing error to make it 2-0.

In the top of the second, Chris Chambers drew a leadoff walk and Cole DeFrancisco later executed a safety squeeze to drive him home. Hinkle then hit an RBI-groundout to plate DeFrancisco for 4-0 Marian lead.

The Colts tacked on three runs in the bottom of the fourth when Michael Gelatko hit a two-run single up the middle. With the bases loaded, Bobish was hit by a pitch to force in another run and make it 7-0.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Colts pushed across three more runs to finish things off. David Zullo’s RBI-groundout and Gelatko’s two-run single concluded the game via the PIAA 10-run rule.

Gelatko paced Marian’s offense with two singles and four RBIs. Meanwhile, Bobish finished with 10 strikeouts, fanning the side in both the second and third innings.

Weatherly Area’s season ended at 3-18. Weatherly ball got past the outfielder for an error.

VonFrisch worked out of trouble each inning, as Marian stranded eight runners over seven innings. She finally got some offensive help in the top of the seventh, when the Lady Wreckers finally broke through against Kelly. Weatherly’s Kelly Michaels worked a leadoff walk and took second on an errant pickoff throw. With two outs, Rachel Rosenlund singled through the left side, and Michaels raced home with the game-tying run. But Marian had the final word in the home half of the seventh, and the Lady Wreckers saw their 13-8 season come to an end.

“It’s such a young group outside of the seniors,’’ Lady Wreckers head coach Will Bartel said afterward. “They’ve just grown since February. I can’t even tell you how much.

“It was a great effort. We didn’t lie down. We fought back. They had 1-2 more plays than us. … The future looks good for us.’’