L-S Softball, State Champions

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L-S Comes From Behind to Win Second PIAA Title

Lampeter-Strasburg girls’ softball team defeated Armstrong 10-7 on Friday, June 18 to claim their second PIAA 5A championship at Penn State’s Beard Field in State College.

photo by Mona Steinhauer

The Pioneers wait for Keiva Middleton to cross the plate to celebrate her third inning home run against Armstrong on Friday, June 18.

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BY MONA STEINHAUER

The Lady Pioneers earned their 29th straight victory Friday, June 18 with a 10-7 comefrom-behind win over Armstrong at Penn State’s Beard Field; and with it came a second PIAA Class 5A championship. But it wasn’t easy.

“There were 23 total hits and 17 runs scored in a championship game,” head coach Gene Charles said. “That tells the story. It was a heck of a game.”

The young River Hawks, with just one senior in the starting lineup, and making their debut performance in the finals, were not intimidated by the mighty Pioneers (30-1). They pushed across four runs in the second inning on one error, one walk and a pair of hits.

The Pioneers have not had to come from behind often. The battled back against Elizabethtown in the first meeting, were down two to Hempfield going into the seventh inning and were down 5-3 against Penn Manor before Chloe Blantz crushed a grand slam.

“It was stressful,” said senior shortstop Blantz of falling behind early. “But we knew we could score too. And Keiva (Middleton) is amazing. I knew she’d keep us in the game.”

“We had to work at coming back and remain positive and keep each other pumped up,” added Daisy Frank, a senior second baseman. Blantz and Frank, along with senior first baseman Cam Byler started as freshmen when the Pioneers won their first state title in 2018 by beating West Allegheny. L-S fell to Yough in 2016 and to Penn-Trafford in 2019.

And speaking of seniors, it was Sydney Weichler, batting in the nine hole, that delivered a clutch two-run double in the fifth inning to put L-S in front for good.

“That was the big hit of the game,” said Charles. “It was the turning point. It was a spark, and it gave us the lead for good.”

Weichler sent Brooke Zuber (single) and Ally Raub (double) home, giving L-S a 7-6 lead. Frank followed with a two-out RBI single up the middle and Byler added the crushing blow, a two-run homer, giving the home team its biggest lead of the day, 10-6.

In a game that featured 13 hits, L-S got production up and down the lineup.

“Our motto this year was ‘It Takes a team,’” said assistant coach Lisa Boone. “And today that was clearly evident as every single player contributed. We don’t have just one all-star, we have a true team. And I don’t think anyone really expected us to get this far,” she continued. “We lost a lot of key players and then didn’t get to play last year. We just went about business as usual.”

And that started with overcoming that four-run deficit. In the bottom of the second, L-S took advantage of a pair of errors, putting Zuber and Raub on first and second. Freshman Julia Gerard moved them up on a groundout and Blantz crushed a two-run double to the center field fence.

“At one point, I wasn’t sure we’d stop them,” said Charles. “But then Chloe gets the hit that cuts their lead in half.”

One inning later, Keiva Middleton, who finished with eight strikeouts, two walks and scattered 10 hits, helped her cause at the plate, sending a solo shot over the left field fence. Senior third baseman Emily Platt and Zuber then reached with back-to-back base hits. Platt scored on Raub’s single up the middle and Gerard’s sac fly put L-S in front 5-4.

That lead, however, was short-lived as the hard-hitting River Hawks answered with a single, a stolen base, a sac-fly RBI, and a home run to go back in front, 6-5, setting the stage for Lampeter’s clutch five-run fifth.

Armstrong (18-6) got one back in the sixth and Middleton yielded a lead-off walk in the seventh before working an infield pop to Byler, striking out the nine hitter, and ending with a fly-ball out to Zuber in left field.

“Kevia is unflappable,” said Charles. “She wasn’t getting the corners all game, but she settled in over the last three innings and got the job done.”

photo by Mona Steinhauer

In Friday’s Class 5A Championship final, Lampeter’s Chloe Blantz is late with the tag against Armstrong’s Emma Paul.

photo by Mona Steinhauer

Cam Byler takes the putout throw at first base in the PIAA Championship win over Aramstrong on Friday, June 18.