Knoch stays patient at plate, rallies past Greensburg Salem in 4A 1st round

By: Chris Harlan
Monday, May 13, 2024 | 10:00 PM

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Staying patient was Knoch’s winning strategy in a playoff opener against Greensburg Salem, especially after falling behind by three runs early.

Knoch drew 10 walks, added four timely hits and capitalized on four errors to rally back and defeat Greensburg Salem, 8-3, in a WPIAL Class 4A first-round game Monday at Plum.

The Knights’ big inning — five runs in the fourth — started with consecutive walks.

“You’ve got to be patient and have good at-bats,” Knoch coach Chris Gardner said. “Don’t swing at balls.”

The Knights took that to heart against Greensburg Salem pitcher Alle Scarpa. Scarpa and her defense stranded six batters in the first three innings, but they couldn’t keep escaping from jams.

Knoch sent nine players to the plate in the fourth inning and eight more in the fifth.

“She was throwing a lot of pitches, so everybody knew to work the count against her,” Knoch sophomore Marlee Fraser said. “Don’t go up there and swing at the first pitch they saw.”

A two-run single by freshman McKenna Brailey and an RBI double by Fraser broke the game open in the fourth inning for Knoch. The Knights trailed 3-0 before scoring one run in the third, five in the fourth and two in the fifth.

“If you give up walks, you’ve got to make the plays behind them,” Greensburg Salem coach Bill Wright said. “We just didn’t do that.”

No. 7 seed Knoch (14-6) advances to face No. 2 Hampton in the quarterfinals Wednesday at a site and time to be announced. Hampton (15-4) had a first-round bye.

Brailey went 3 for 3 with a double, four RBIs and two runs scored. Fraser reached base three times with a run and two RBIs. Fraser also pitched Knoch to the win by scattering four singles and a double, walking one batter intentionally and striking out nine.

“My mindset was to go right at them,” she said. “Work strikes and try not to throw many balls.”

She was helped by a Knoch defense that made only two errors.

This was a season-ending loss for No. 10 seed Greensburg Salem (8-13), but with only one senior in the lineup, Wright was already thinking about next year.

“For as much as this one is going to sting, I think we’re in a good place,” he said. “If we’re not back here next year, it’s probably a failure on our part.”

Greensburg Salem scored first with three runs in the third inning.

Tymara White reached on a fielding error, advanced on a groundout and scored on Scarpa’s RBI single. Patty Redinger followed with a one-out single. A fielding error on a ball hit by Gionnah Ruffner scored Scarpa, and a groundout by Mahayla Jones brought home Redinger for a 3-0 lead.

“We thought for us to be successful, we were going to have to score the first run,” Wright said. “We felt pretty confident that if we did, we’d be in good shape.

“We live and die with our pitcher. She wasn’t on, and when she’s not on, we have to make plays behind her. We just didn’t do that today.”

Knoch answered with one run on the bottom of the third with help from two fielding errors. McKenna Brailey hit a one-out single, moved to third on one throwing error and scored on another.

“I thought we had them on the ropes there for a little bit,” Wright said, “and then we go out in the next inning and we can’t shut them down. We let them right back in it. That was tough.”

Knoch took the lead with a five-run fourth.

The Knights’ first two batters, Sylvia Luffy and Samantha Robb, drew consecutive four-pitch walks. Luffy scored on a throwing error on a ball hit by Grace Hensch, and Brailey followed with a two-run single to lead 4-3.

The Knights added two more runs later in the fourth when Fraser hit an RBI double and later scored on a groundout by Brynne Smith for a 6-3 lead.

Knoch scored twice more in the fifth.

Luffy drew a leadoff walk, Hensch reached base on an error, and Bailey followed with a two-run double to lead 8-3.

“We always have the one bad inning where we give up some runs that shouldn’t be on the board,” Gardner said. “Sometimes we battle back. Our bats aren’t always as lively as they were today. If we’re able to put some pressure on the defense, we’re able to generate some runs.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Greensburg Salem, Knoch