Norwin plays mistake-free softball in win over Pine-Richland

By: Dave Mackall
Wednesday, May 15, 2024 | 10:59 PM

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Brookelyn Kotch has a message for her Norwin teammates.

“Thank you.”

Kotch, who managed just two strikeouts, scattered six hits and didn’t walk anyone, and the Knights’ defense played flawlessly as No. 5 seed Norwin advanced in the WPIAL Class 6A softball playoffs with a 3-1 quarterfinal-round victory over No. 4 Pine-Richland on Wednesday at Gateway.

Norwin (9-10) will meet top-seeded Hempfield in the semifinals Wednesday at a yet-to-be-determined site. The Spartans rallied from a five-run deficit to beat Norwin, 8-5, in the 2023 semifinals.

Kotch breezed through the first five innings and carried a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth before pitching out of trouble after allowing Pine-Richland’s only run on Calle Henne’s one-out RBI single.

She stranded a pair of runners by inducing Mackenzie Gillis and Marissa DeLuca to fly out to end the inning.

“You don’t always have to be the best pitcher to be successful,” said Kotch, a senior right-hander who is committed to Penn State New Kensington. “My field really backed me up here. This was a real team effort, one of our best. We really played as one today.”

Norwin scored single runs in the first inning on Diem Wardzinski’s RBI double after Holy Cross commit Bailey Snowberger led off the game with a walk against Mia Maiola and in the second on Lily Holtzman’s sacrifice fly, scoring Izzy Deering.

The Knights made it 3-0 in the top of the sixth against Maiola, who gave up six hits, walked three, hit two batters and struck out one, when Deering walked, Holtzman reached on an infield single and Maddy Kugler singled home Deering.

“It’s really our first complete game, beginning to end, for sure,” Norwin coach Brian Mesich said. “We played sound fundamentally. We didn’t have any boo-boo plays, like we’ve done more often than not this year. Brookelyn’s hard work didn’t go for nothing.”

Pine-Richland (11-10), whose 8.5 runs per game led Class 6A, didn’t collect any extra-base hits. The Rams were coming off an 11-6 victory over Class 5A No. 1 Armstrong in the final regular-season game.

“Our game is to score lots of runs,” Pine-Richland coach Sam Hartzberg said. “(Kotch) did a good job keeping us off-balance. We didn’t hit the ball. It was just different than what we’ve seen lately.”

Pine-Richland defeated Norwin twice during the regular season, 5-2 and 13-1. The Rams’ offense also erupted in a 31-12 victory over Mt. Lebanon and a 22-14 loss to Class 4A Chartiers Valley.

“I wish we would’ve scored 20 runs today because we’ve done it before,” Hartzberg said. “We just never got going.”

Next up for Norwin is that semifinals rematch with No. 1 Hempfield (18-1), which owns 6-0 and 9-1 victories over the Knights during the regular season.

“We had them 5-0 last year, and they came back,” Mesich said. “But we came back today and beat a team that beat us twice during the regular season, so we’re just going to get out there and get after it. The game is between the ears, and if we can take this confidence with us, we can make it a game.”

Apparently, Kotch was feeling that same confident vibe.

“Anybody can beat anybody on a given day,” she said.

Tags: Norwin, Pine-Richland