DUBOIS, Pa. – It’s over before it really began.
St. Marys came into the 2023 season with dreams of a state title.
The Lady Dutch will never get a chance to even play for one after falling 3-2 to Bellefonte in the District 6-8-9 championship game Thursday afternoon at Heindl Field in DuBois.
“This year was a special year,” St. Marys manager Matt Eckels said. “What’s really tough about it is the finality of it. It’s over. There is no game of softball tomorrow. But they (our seniors) will always be remembered this particular year. They’ve been very good role models, all of them. They are great people, women. They are going to be great when they get in the outside world. The world is going to be a better place for them in it, that’s for sure.”
One play turned out to be the difference in the game for the Lady Dutch.
With Bellefonte leading 1-0 going to the fourth inning, Taylor Brown and Ragan Manning led off the inning with back-to-back singles.
Grace Novitsky then hit hit into a fielder’s choice with Brown out at third before Sienna Barnhart hit a ball that hit off third baseman Kara Hanslovan and bounded into short leftfield for an error that scored Manning from second. When centerfielder Jianna Gerg tried to throw Manning out at the plate the throw was high allowing Novistsky to also score giving Bellefonte a 3-0 lead.
Kendall Young bore down and kept her team in the game by striking out the next two batters to leave the game at 3-0.
Young pitched well in the loss allowing three runs, just one earned, on four hits and a walk while striking out 13.
“Kendall pitched very well today,” Eckels said. “We had a couple of miscues in the field, which gave up two runs. That was something we just couldn’t quite come back from.”
St. Marys tried to mount a comeback scoring its two runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Hansliovan led off with a double with Zoe Romanic pinch running. Gianna Surra followed with a double to center to make it 3-1, and her courtesy runner, Addison Beimel, scored on a two-out single to left by Lindsey Reiter.
Gerg followed Reiter with a single, but Molly Hanslovan popped out to second to end the threat.
The Lady Dutch then got back-to-back two-out singles in the fifth from Kara Hanslovan and Surra, but Avery Eckels grounded out to end the inning.
St. Marys also stranded a one-out single in the sixth, and got two hits in the seventh, including a leadoff single by Olivia Eckels only to see Young’s hard-hit ball go right to shortstop Madison Melius, who was able to double off Eckels at first.
“We couldn’t have that magical comeback one more time,” Matt Eckels said.
The Lady Dutch also had a great chance to score in the third when Reiter doubled leading off and moved to third on a ground out by Gerg. But, she was thrown out at the plate on a grounder by Molly Hanslovan when she got a late break home an d Melius was able to throw her out.
