Hempfield’s Golden Season Continues With PIAA Softball Title

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, June 17, 2016 | 9:39 PM

Alexa Pastor’s bases loaded sacrifice fly scored Jordan Sterling with the game’ s only run in the bottom of the 8th inning as Hempfield defeated Avon Grove 1-0 to capture the 2016 PIAA AAAA Softball Championship at Beard Field on the campus of Penn State University.

Bob Kalp, in his 20th season as the head coach of Hempfield, went to his bench to start the bottom of the eight, as he sent up junior Jordan Bernard to pinch hit for Jordan Sterling against Avon Grove senior pitcher Maggie Balint. Bernard fell behind 0-2 against the Oregon bound Balint but battled back to draw a lead-off walk. Junior first baseman Ali Belgiovane then came to the plate and laid down a bunt that was fielded in front of the pitching circle by Balint, but Belgiovane beat the throw to first base for Hempfield’s first and only hit of the game. Leadoff hitting senior Taylor Hoffman then stepped in and her bouncer to third skipped off of the glove of third baseman Rachel Butler to load the bases. Pastor, who also reached base via an error and a walk and stole two bases, hit the first pitch she saw from Balint to left field. It was caught by Megan Nolan but her throw home was a bit late to catch the sliding Sterling who had re-entered the game and Hempfield captured its second state championship with the first coming in 1999.

The other story of the game was junior pitcher Morgan Ryan, who was outstanding throughout the entire game. Ryan, who came into the game with a (22-2) record, an ERA of 1.10 and 183 strikeouts, retired the first 8 batters of the game before Olivia McGarvey punched a two-out single to right field with two outs in the third inning. After the base hit, Ryan retired the final 16 batters of the game as McGarvey was the only Red Devil to reach base. Ryan finished with 5 strikeouts in earning her 23rd win of the season. The win was also the 51st career victory for Ryan, who has verbally committed to Notre Dame, and Ryan is on pace to set the career wins record at Hempfield when she returns next year for her senior season.

The expected pitcher’s duel between the two Division 1 recruits Ryan and Balint played out as expected. Balint, the 3-time Gatorade Pennsylvania Softball Player of the Year, came into the title game with spectacular numbers in the pitching circle. Balint recorded 9 strikeouts in the game to finish the season with 371 and upping her career total to 1,322. She allowed only 14 earned runs all season and the 3 walks allowed in the game pushed her season total to 38. Coming into the contest, Coach Kalp wanted to put the pressure on the Avon Grove defense and said afterwards that he told his team as long as Morgan keeps putting up zeros, we’ll find a way to get one across. It turned out the long time coach had a trick up his sleeve, sending up Jordan Bernard to pinch hot in the bottom of the eight which led to Pastor’s game-winning sacrifice fly and Hempfield heading home with the AAAA State Championship trophy. The win for Coach Kalp was the 350th win in his career at Hempfield.

With the shutout victory at Nittany Lion Softball Park, Ryan and the Spartans posted their fifth consecutive shutout. Hempfield, (25-2) did not allow a run during four state playoff games and the last run the Spartans gave up came in a 2-1 win over North Allegheny in the WPIAL Quad Semi-finals. Avon Grove from District 1, making its first appearance in a state title game, finished the season at (24-4).

Scoring Summary:

Avon Grove Red Devils : 0 -0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 =    0 – 1 – 2
Hempfield Spartans : 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 1 = 1 – 1 – 0

Avon Grove Pitching:

Maggie Balint     7 1/3 IP, 1 H, 1 R 1, ER 0, 3 BB, 9 K – LP (24-4)

Hempfield:

Morgan Ryan     8 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K – WP (23-2)