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With a strong all-around game, the Parry Mc-Cluer High School softball team earned a 9-2 home win over Craig County on Thursday evening in the semi-finals of the Pioneer District tournament..
The second-seeded Fighting Blues (6-2 district), who improved to 11-6 overall, were scheduled to travel to face top seed Covington at the Jackson River Sports Complex on Monday evening for the district title. (See separate story for result.)
Against third-seeded Craig County (7-8, 3-4), the Blues trailed 1-0 in the first inning before scoring five unanswered runs and going on a late offensive surge.
PM and Craig had split the regular-season series, with the Rockets winning 6-3 in New Castle on April 18 and the Blues earning an 8-7 victory on May 8 at PM.
In the semifinals, PM head coach Troy Clark said his team “played a better all-around game. We hit the ball when we needed to. We played good defense.” The Rockets took a 1-0 lead in the first when Annabelle Gregory stole home.
PM struggled a bit at the plate against Craig starting pitcher Kammie Fisher in the first two innings. “It took just a little while to get going,” said Clark. “She did a good job. … We had to adjust. It took us a couple innings to figure her out.”
In the third inning, PM took a 2-1 lead when Gracey Shafer singled on a line drive to center field to bring home Logan Vest and Olivia Julian.
The Blues went up 3-1 in the fifth when Autumn Mundy scored on a groundout by Julian. Later in the inning, Alysa Wheeler singled on a fly ball to left field to drive in two runs, making it 5-1.
Craig cut the lead to 5-2 in the top of the sixth scored on a sacrifice fly to left field by Sara Jones.
The Blues answered by scoring their final four runs in the bottom of the sixth. After Vest and Mundy got on base with hits, Julian brought them both home with a single to right field. Julian then advanced to third before running home on a wild pitch. Scoring the final run was Claudia Coleman, who stole home for the Blues’ final run. Coleman was playing her first game since suffering an injury in the Blues’ 12-10 win over Eastern Montgomery on May 2.
In the top of the seventh, Julian struck out two of the final three batters. Julian pitched a complete game for the Blues, striking out four and allowing six hits, one walk and two runs.
The Blues racked up 12 hits against Craig’s two pitchers, Fisher and Jones. Mundy led PM with three hits, and Shafer had two.
Following Monday’s district championship game, the Blues will next play in the Region 1C tournament. For tournament updates, visit www.thenewsgazette. com.
