Canon-McMillan and West Greene softball teams both needed extra innings to stay alive in the state playoffs Thursday. Abby Allen (CM) and Kiley Meek (WG) each stroked two-run homers in the 10th inning to put their teams into the semifinals. Canon-Mac will play North Penn. West Greene faces DuBois Central Catholic.
Softball Brackets WPIAL PIAA Baseball Brackets WPIAL PIAA
PIAA Semifinals
Monday, June 14
Canon-McMillan vs. D1 North Penn, 1:50 pm at Mechanicsburg High School – WJPA-AM (1450) or Listen Here!
West Greene vs. District 9 champion DuBois Central Catholic, 12 noon at Slippery Rock University
SOFTBALL Quarterfinals — Three times, Neshaminy took a one-run lead on Canon-McMillan in Thursday’s 6A quarterfinal game. Twice, the Big Macs scored a single run shortly thereafter to tie the game. Trailing 3-2 in the 10th inning, Canon-McMillan had had enough. Not only did the Big Macs tie the game, two batters later, they walked off with the win and a berth in the state semifinals. Abby Allen battled to a full count, including a couple two-strike fouls, then crushed a drive over the left-field fence, her second two-run home run of the playoffs as the Big Macs’ bench erupted and met Allen at home plate. Brooke Perri got the win in relief, allowing just one unearned run over six innings of work. The lefty gave up three hits and did not walk a batter.
Canon-Mac looked for a clutch hit most of the day, finding just enough timely hitting to stay close. Elika Mowery singled in Grace Higgins to tie the game in the third. Taylor Eckles lofted a bloop into center, again plating Higgins, evening the score after five. And that’s where it stayed until the tenth when the international tie-breaker rule took effect, putting the previous inning’s last batter on second base to start the frame. Neshaminy tried twice to sacrifice that runner to third and failed before Kylie Siwek doubled in the run with two out in the inning. In the bottom of the tenth, Perri’s courtesy runner Sami Merkle started at second base. Eckles bunted her over and when the throw to first got away, Merkle raced home to tie the game at 3-3. With Eckles at first, Allen twice failed on bunt attempts, falling behind 0-2 in the count. Three balls and a couple fouled off pitches later, Allen drilled a long foul down the left-field line. Neshaminy players took a collective deep breath. On the very next pitch, Allen caught a fastball out over the plate and hit a drive over the fence in left for the win. The hit for Allen was her first in the state playoffs and just her second since her two-run bomb against Norwin in the WPIAL semifinals.
In a back and forth quarterfinal matchup at Slippery Rock, West Greene got a two-run home run in the top of the 10th from winning pitcher Kiley Meek, then held off another rally attempt by Cambridge Springs to win, 6-5. Both teams had leads and late chances to win the game but couldn’t get the final out needed until the Pioneers slammed the door in the tenth.