Deer Lakes softball team rallies in 6th for PIAA win
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Monday, June 6, 2022 | 6:56 PM
Deer Lakes right fielder Lydia Guthrie connects with a pitch from Corry’s Haylee Dyne in the first inning Monday.
Lydia Guthrie scores the tying run for Deer Lakes in the sixth inning against Corry on Monday in the PIAA Class 3A playoffs. Guthrie had tripled and came home on Shayne Cerra’s single.
Deer Lakes players shake hands with Corry on Monday, June 6, 2022, in the PIAA Class 3A playoffs.
CORRY — After hitting eight pop-up outs over the first five innings, Deer Lakes resorted to a series of line drives.
The Lancers exploded for five runs in the top of sixth and posted a 5-1 victory over Corry in a PIAA Class 3A opening-round game at Lou Hanna Memorial Complex.
Lydia Guthrie led off with a triple, and sophomore catcher Tia Germanich lined a three-run homer over the left-field fence for what proved to be the decisive runs.
Delanie Kaiser doubled home Anna Bokulich to end the surge.
“We had that one bad inning in the first,” Germanich said. “We call it the Deer Lakes jitters. We figured it out if we hit the top of the ball hard, it’ll go your way.”
Deer Lakes (14-5) will face Bald Eagle in the quarterfinal round Thursday at a site and time to be determined.
Corry, which played on its home field after winning its 13th District 10 softball crown, finished the season 11-10.
The Beavers took a 1-0 lead in the home half of the third when they loaded the bases against Lancers left-hander Maddie Kee. Alyssa Burlew and Reghan Trask walked and were bunted up by Lexy Hasbrouck. Alli Goodwill then was hit by a pitch.
Kee struck out Lexi Frisina, who doubled in the first. The Deer Lakes sophomore almost pitched out of it, but Haylee Dyne hit a comebacker off Kee’s glove to the shortstop. Shayne Cerra couldn’t corral it, and Trask tried to score from second base. Cerra fired a strike to Germanich to end the inning and prevent further damage.
“We could have made a few things happen, better contact, seeing the ball a little better,” Corry coach Allison Williams said of the big opportunity.
In the sixth, Guthrie smashed a hit to right center and headed for third base. She would have been out, but the relay from the outfield was on the left-field side of third base.
Cerra followed with a single. Reese Hasley singled with one out, setting the stage for Germanich.
“Lydia’s been struggling a little bit during the playoffs,” Deer Lakes coach Rick Cerra said. “She picked a good time to get out and hit that triple. Then the bats just started going. Our girls were getting under the pitches. We knew we had to just start hitting.”
The Beavers weren’t going to go quietly. They loaded the bases with one out and the tying run at the plate. But Dyne fouled out to first baseman Jenna Bisegna, and Kee fanned Kiran Bugbee with her 10th strikeout to end the game.
“We kept fighting all year. That’s our big thing this year: not giving up,” Williams said. “We didn’t have heads hanging. We stayed in it. They grew as a team this year, and there’s nothing else I can ask from them.”
Frisina, who relieved Dyne after Germanich’s home run, had a single to go with her early double.
Kaiser had a pair of singles to go with her sixth-inning double after Goodwill made a diving play in short center field.
Tags: Deer Lakes
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