UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Lexi Berta made something happen.
Also see: DCC Players Have Known for a Long Time this was Championship Caliber Team
In a scoreless game with two outs in the top of the fifth, Berta’s hustling double led to the game’s first run, and DuBois Central Catholic finally captured its first PIAA title with a 2-0 win over Carmichaels in the Class 1A title game Thursday morning at a sun-soaked Beard Field at Nittany Lion Softball Park on the campus of Penn State University.
Watch DCC get its medals
Knowing it might need only one run with the way Rylee Kulbatsky was pitching – the sophomore recorded 15 more strikeouts while allowing just three hits – DCC first base coach Ed Gulvas decided to send Berta to second after her pop fly dropped in front of left fielder Payton Plavi and centerfielder Duski Staggers. And Berta rewarded her coach with a great slide to avoid the tag for a double.
“Ed Gulvas sent her,” DCC manager George Heigel, who announced his retirement following the game, said. “We preach about being really aggressive on the base paths, but that was a little crazy. I think she surprised the shortstop. She (the shortstop) turned around and oh my God, there she is. Ed sent her, and we were very fortunate that she got in underneath the slide.”
Relisten to the YDL Sports Network audio broadcast of the game
Berta said she was just trying to get the ball in play.
“Every time I go up to bat, I am just like hit, hit, hit,” Berta said. “That is what Jordy (Myers), our coach, tells us to always do. I am stepping early, and I hit it. I don’t look at the ball, so I am just running. And (Ed) Gulvas was like go, go, go. I look up and the ball is coming. I am like, ah. It was just hustle, honestly.”
Marina Hanes followed Berta’s double with a single in front of the diving Plavi to bring home Berta.
Photo by Paul Burdick
It was quite the moment for the junior who tore her ACL on Jan. 26 in a basketball game against Ridgway.
But thanks to cutting-edge surgery performed by Dr. Matt Varacallo in DuBois and a lot of hard work in rehab, Hanes was back by the end of April and was fully cleared in May.
“I never thought I would have the game-winning RBI in the state championship game,” Hanes said. “I didn’t even think I would be playing in this game. I’m just grateful to be here. I had to put in a lot of work both mentally and physically.
“I knew (Lexi) was on base, and I knew I had to get her in. I was kind of very calm in the box. I was just like make contact, get her in.”
While it was just one run, it was a huge run for the Lady Cardinals because of Kulbatsky, the missing piece perhaps in DCC winning a title vs. being runners-up in 2019 and 2022.
Photo by Paul Burdick
“I did not talk about the other team this whole district, state championship,” Heigel said. “I did not talk to the other team at all with my players. I tried to get them to understand it was us and not to worry about the other team. Frankly, I knew we had the pitcher that I knew we could do that.”
Kulbatsky was strong from the outset striking out the first two she faced while setting down the first 12 batters she faced before a pop fly single broke up the no-hitter in the fifth.
Even then, following a sac bunt, she struck out a pair to end the threat.
“Nothing phased her,” Heigel said.
After DCC got a second run in the sixth on a Melia Mitskavich RBI triple that scored Jessy Frank to make it 2-0, Carmichaels had its best threat when Alayna Simon reached on a one-out bunt error and Kaitlyn Waggett followed with a bunt single.
But Kulbatsky followed by striking out her circle opponent, Bailey Barnyak, and then got the Might Mikes’s best hitter, Carys McConnell, who came in batting .519 with seven home runs, and 40 RBIs, to pop up in foul territory to the catcher, Frank.
“We have done that a lot this year,” Carmichael manager David Briggs said. “Most of the time, we have been able to generate a clutch hit. We started to make some things happen those last couple of innings We just couldn’t get that one clutch hit to put us over the top.”
Carmichaels got some action going again in the bottom of the seventh on a leadoff double by Ali Jacobs, the only really hard-hit ball off of Kulbatsky.
But Kulbatsky regrouped and got Megan Voithofer to pop out to second baseman Lauren Davidson, with Davidson making a basket catch with her back to the infield and her on the ground.
Kulbatsky then struck out Plavi and Avery Voithofer to bring the title to DuBois.
“I am overjoyed,” Heigel said. “It hasn’t really kind of hit me yet. It’s one of those where it is going to take a little bit. “It’s tremendous.”
Watch a postgame interview with DCC’s Jessy Frank, Lexi Berta, Rylee Kulbatsky, and Kayley Risser.
