FAYETTEVILLE — This was not a play you could draw up, or even practice.
But a very strange situation ended up scoring the go-ahead run for the Chambersburg softball team Friday afternoon and they held off State College for a 4-3 Mid Penn Commonwealth victory at Norlo Park.
Kori Leedy
Let's set the scenario. The Little Lions had taken a 3-1 lead with a pair of unearned runs in the top of the fifth inning. After an out, the Trojans' Karley Skultety and Samantha Paetow hit back-to-back singles up the middle against SC pitcher Addie Harpster.
Addison Gsell then belted a line-drive double to right-center field, scoring both runners to tie the game. A walk to Saleen Null, an out by Harpster and a dropped throw at first base on a grounder hit by Malia Cramer loaded the bases with two outs.
That brought up Sanay Jones, who watched the first three pitches sail out of the strike zone for a 3-0 count. She took the next pitch for a strike.
Harpster's next pitch appeared to be inside and the runners started trotting toward the next base, assuming it was a walk. But, the umpire called it a strike, and as he had been doing all game, made a very delayed signal.
State College catcher Elizabeth Sikorsky threw the ball back to Harpster, knowing it was now a 3-2 count. But the runners kept going. Gsell managed to get around Jones and step on home plate before the Little Lions even realized what was happening.
And there's your eventual winning run.
"Everybody thought it was ball four, so they took off," Chambersburg manager Chris Skultety said. "But I don't think (State College) really knew what was happening. If they tagged out, they were out. It was a crazy play, but I guess it worked out.
Trojan pitcher Kori Leedy then got through the final two innings by facing the minimum of six hitters. She got two strikeouts in the sixth. In the seventh, after a leadoff single by Kennedy Stahl, Leedy started a double play by snaring a line drive off the bat of Gabby McTavish and doubling Stahl off first. She got a strikeout on a changeup to end the game.
Skultety said, "Kori hung an 0-2 changeup (to McTavish), and the girl smoked it, but Kori made the play. The was a huge play. "
Leedy (8-2) gave up 3 hits and one walk in her 4 innings, striking out 7. Starting pitcher Saleen Null went 3 innings, allowing only one hit, but walking 3 and hitting a batter.
Chambersburg (10-2, 5-2 MPC) has now beaten the Little Lions three times over the course of six days, the last two by one run.
Bree Paetow got the Trojans going with a leadoff triple in the bottom of the first and she later scored on a grounder by Sam Paetow.
In the next two innings, Chambersburg had runners on second and third with one out, but Harpster wiggled out of the jams.
State College tied the game 1-1 in the third on a hit batter, two walks and a fielder's choice off starting pitcher Null. They went ahead 3-1 in the fifth off Leedy on an error, and an RBI triple by Sydney Wells, who then scored when the throw back to the pitcher went into SC's dugout.
"We persevered and found a way to win," Skultety said. "We had three straight hits and then that crazy play, and that was enough."
