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DUBOIS, Pa. – Cassidy Makray pitched her best game of the season, and Clarion-Limestone scored four times in the top of the seventh inning to beat Clarion, 6-2, in the District 9 Class 1A True Second-Place game at Heindl Field in DuBois.
The victory clinched second place in District 9 for the Lady Lions and sends them to the PIAA playoffs for the first time in school history where they will play District 10 champion, Cambridge Springs, Monday, June 7, at a District 10 site.
“It means a lot,” Makray, a senior, said. “I am so excited and thrilled. I am super proud of my team as a whole for pushing as hard as they did.”
Rewatch the game
Makray allowed just two runs on six hits and two walks while striking out six after being named the starter for the winner-move-on, loser-goes-home contest Tuesday. It was Makray’s first start since May 17 and just her second start since the end of April.
“I found out yesterday morning at practice,” Makray said of when she was told she would start. “I definitely needed the mental preparation for it. (I just wanted) to shut down their top five or six batters and keep them kind of on the hands. That is what they struggled with the most, I think.”
Watch Makray’s full postgame interview
C-L’s offense made sure Makray’s effort didn’t go to waste when it took advantage of three Clarion errors in the top of the seventh to break a two-all tie with the four runs.
Abby Knapp had the hit of the game when she singled with the bases loaded and one out. That turned out to be a three-run hit when the ball skipped past Clarion left fielder Mackenzie Aaron allowing the bases to clear and Knapp to go to third. Knapp then scored on a wild pitch.
“Abby Knapp has been a solid player for us all year,” C-L manager Jason Craig said. “We knew what it was going to take the third time against Clarion. We knew it was going to be close. We knew it was going to take timely hitting. I didn’t care who it came from. We just needed someone to get a hit with runners in scoring position, and Abby Knapp came through big right. I’m glad she’s in ninth grade and I will have her for three more years.”
The error on Aaron was the third error of the inning on the Lady Cats and the fourth of the game leading to just one of the six runs against Payton Simko being earned.
The seventh-inning rally started when Brenna Cambell booted Kendall Dunn’s ground ball with one out.
After the Campbell error, Makray hit a ball up the middle that second baseman Noel Anthony was able to get a glove on. But the ball wouldn’t stick in Anthony’s glove – if it had she would have forced Dunn at second – and C-L had runners at first and second. Regan Husted then walked to load the bases bringing up Knapp.
“It’s something we have struggled with all year,” Clarion manager Dan Shofestall said. “We talked out there. We have to get better. It’s not that we didn’t work at it. But we’ve got to get better at it. That’s for sure. We struggled with defense, and we’ve got to get better at it.”
Clarion had rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game in the fifth on a two-out Anthony double to right-center field.
But the inning should have been a lot bigger for the Lady Cats.
With one out, Emily Troese singled to center, and Aaron followed with a single to right that sent Troese to third. But Troese tried to score on the hit, and C-L nailed her at the plate when the throw came into Makray in the circle, and Makray fired to catcher Abby Himes, who blocked the plate to prevent Troese from scoring.
“I didn’t really see it,” Shofestall, who coaches first base, said. “I haven’t talked to (third base coach) Matt Best about it. It happens. They made a good play.”
Anthony followed with the game-tying double after Anthony went to third when a pickoff throw by Himes went down into the right-field corner, and Clarion had runners on first and third with two outs after Best’s popup touched by Makray in fair territory giving Best an infield single.
But Makray got Cambell to fly out to Knapp in center to end the threat.
Makray then worked out of danger in the bottom of the sixth to keep the game tied.
Simko walked leading off the inning, and Aav Kiser singled with one out before both runners moved up a passed ball to give Clarion runners at second and third with just one out.
Makray, though, struck out Bri Forrest and got Troese to pop up back to her to end the threat again.
Watch the strikeout
“I’m not sure if that was a changeup she threw,” Craig said of the pitch that struck out Forrest. “She’s been working on that, and she didn’t throw a lot on them this game. But she threw it at the right time, and it was a good pitch.”
C-L built the 2-0 lead with single runs in the second and third.
In the second, Alyssa Wiant was hit by a pitch with one out and Jocalyn Henry walked.
A wild pitch helped move the runners up 60 feet, and with two outs Frances Milliron hit a grounder that third baseman Kiser waited on and then threw wild to first giving the Lady Lions a 1-0 lead.
In the third, Dunn walked with one out, and with two outs Knapp singled and Wiant doubled to put C-L ahead 2-0.
Clarion cut the lead in half in the third when Forrestt led off by reaching on a strikeout wild pitch, one of three such plays in the game. Troese bunted her to second, and Aaron singled to right to make it 2-1.
Simko was the hard-luck loser. She went seven innings allowing six runs, one earned, on six hits, three walks, and a hit batter. Two batters she on wild pitch strikeouts against her as well, and she struck out nine
Makray helped her own cause by going 2-for-4 with a run scored, while Knapp was 2-for-4 with a run scored and two RBIs.
Aaron was 2-for-2 with an RBI and a run scored for Clarion.
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