2017 Hometown Softball Recap – Belle Vernon Leopards

By: Bruce Markey
Wednesday, May 10, 2017 | 1:18 AM

In a battle of MSA’s #1 and #2 teams, Belle Vernon defeated Yough 5-4 in 12 innings in a thrilling section finale for both teams at Belle Vernon High School on Tuesday.  The win by Belle Vernon makes the Leopards and Cougars Section 2 Class 4-A Co-Champions with the teams finishing 11-1 in section play and providing the lone loss to each other.

For the largest part of the game it was a pitching duel between BV’s ace junior Bailey Parshall and Yough’s sophomore Kiera Waywood.

In the first meeting between the teams, Waywood outdueled Parshall as Yough won 2-0, but this game it was Parshall who claimed the victory striking out 14 with no walks and allowing only 5 hits to the Cougars. Waywood struck out 10 herself but issued 3 walks and allowed 10 hits in her first loss of the season after 13 wins.

Belle Vernon opened the scoring in the 1st inning when Megan Christner worked a leadoff walk, moved to 2nd on Bailey Parshall’s infield hit and scored on Kourtney Gavatorta’s RBI single to give the Leopards a 1-0 lead after one.

Sophomore Jordan French made it 2-0 in the second when she crushed one over the right center fence for her 5th HR of the season and put Belle Vernon on top by 2 after two.

Yough struck back in the top of the 4th when Hannah Bach singled, stole 2nd, stole 3rd, and scored when the throw from the catcher was errant going into left field. With 1 out, Aubrie Mance reached on an error, stole 2nd and moved to third on another miscue by the catcher. Mance scored the second run of the game for the Cougars on Olivia Miller’s RBI single and the game was tied at 2.

The score remained that way through the end of regulation play and the first ttwo extra innings as neither team could produce a run.

The 10th inning starte with Yough PR Christner running for Hailey Warrick at 2nd base per National Federation rules. She stole 3rd and scored when the throw was wild on the steal attempt giving Yough its first lead of the game. Karlie Clark reached 1st one batter later on another Leopard error and promptly stole 2nd and 3rd with only one out. However Bailey Parshall bore down and got a strikeout and a ground out to the inning giving up only 1 unearned run.

Belle Vernon started the bottom of the 10th with Megan Christner on 2nd base and she was sacrificed to 3rd by Lexie Church. Christner scored on Parshall’s single to tie the game at 3 and that ended the scoring for the 10th inning.

Neither team was able to score in the 11th inning so the game headed to a dramatic finish in the 12th. Yough started with Mance on 2nd and she promptly stole 3rd and scored on Olivia Miller’s sacrifice fly to short right field making it 4-3 Cougars. Parshall gave up a single to Warrick before striking out Westerman to end the inning.

Hannah Legazza started the bottom of the 12th on 2nd for the Leopards and with one out was sacrificed to 3rd by Megan Christner. Lexie Church then ripped a 2 out line drive single to center that brought home Legazza with the tying run and brought up Parshall. Parshall ripped a 1-0 pitch into the left center gap and Church flew around the bases just beating a strong relay throw to the plate for the 5th and game winning run for Belle Vernon.

It is always exciting when these two teams meet. Olivia Miller was stellar in the field for Yough and went 3-4 on the day with 2 RBI. The Cougars were also able to steal 10 bases on Belle Vernon.  Megan Christner had 2 hits and scored 2 runs, Lexie Church had 2 hits, 1 run and 1 RBI and Bailey Parshall was 3-6 at the plate with a pair of RBIs for Belle Vernon.

Parshall ran her record to 16-1 on the season and saw her strikeout totals reach 191 to just 14 walks and was only charged with 1 earned run in the game due to the Leopards 5 errors behind her. Yough falls to 15-2 overall while Belle Vernon upped its overall record to 16-1.