Pottsgrove pulls off doubleheader sweep of Boyertown, stays in PAC-10 playoff contention

PINE FORGE — There were no two ways about it.

Get swept, and one’s hopes of a PAC-10 Final Four appearance would be dashed.

For Pottsgrove, it was just the boost it needed.

Gabi Ermish pitched a gem in Game 1, striking out 11 in a two-hit effort while Jenna Trythall carried the torch in Game 2, supplying her own dominating effort as Pottsgrove swept Boyertown, 2-1 and 7-2, to stay alive in the PAC-10 playoff race.

“We were struggling for a bit during the season and now we’ve started to come together,’ Ermish said. “We knew we had to come in and win, and we all came together as a team, strung together some hits, played good defense and it worked in our favor.’

Ermish was stellar in the circle as she kept Boyertown batters off balance throughout with a devastating changeup mixed among a rise and fastball among others. She sat six Boyertown batters down looking and worked the minimum in four of the eight innings.

Trythall, who had whiplash after being involved in a car accident a few weeks ago, was in top form in the biggest start of her career. She threw a complete game, allowing six hits and two earned while striking out one. Both of those runs came in the seventh inning after the Falcons had built a 7-0 lead.

“After the accident, I couldn’t catch and I had to go to physical therapy,’ Trythall said. “I came back Monday, and tonight I felt good coming in and I was really confident with my defense behind me.’

The defense was stellar for the Falcons along with the offense.

Ermish finished Game 1 2-for-4 from the plate and scored the game-winning run off a Shauna Maggio RBI single to deep left field as the Falcons came back from a 1-0 fourth-inning deficit. Game 2 featured more offense as Pottsgrove rode a four-run sixth inning to take the series clincher. Three Falcons hitters registered multiple hits in the pivotal Game 2 win with Sydney Schollenberger (two runs), Ermish (two runs) and Cori Dickinson (two runs) each recording two hits.

“The coaches have really been putting the pressure on us, telling us that we really needed to win here,’ Dickinson said. “Our girls really stepped up to the plate. We played excellent defense, picked each other up when we needed to and came through.’

The wins couldn’t have come at a better time for a Pottsgrove squad that saw its playoff hopes fleeting with three straight losses to Methacton and Perkiomen Valley last week. With the latest sweep, Pottsgrove (9-7 PAC-10) pulls into a tie with Methacton with two games remaining. The Falcons face Owen J. Roberts (No. 2 seed) and Upper Perkiomen to close out the season while Methacton has Spring-Ford (which lost 10-0 to Owen J. Roberts Friday) and Perkiomen Valley remaining.

Boyertown (7-9 PAC-10), meanwhile, is eliminated from playoff contention after being limited to eight hits in the two games. The Bears didn’t score in Game 2 until the final inning, where a seven-run deficit was too much to overcome.

Maddie Cottelese led the Bears with two hits along with Becky Marburger.

“They wanted it more than us and that’s what it comes down to,’ Boyertown head coach Brandi Hankins said. “They came out, they played the game well and they got it done. We didn’t.’

Boyertown had built a 1-0 lead after Kody Streeter laced a triple that hit off the 207′ sign in center field, scoring Vicky Schlott. However, the Falcons answered in the fifth after Ermish brought in Molly McGeehan with an RBI single, prompting Maggio’s heroics in the eighth.

he Falcons needed no such heroics in Game 2 as they built a 5-0 lead after six, courtesy of a sacrifice fly by Maggio and singles from Kira Livezy, Carly Wood and McGeehan. The lead stretched to 7-0 before Trythall fumbled a bit in the bottom of the seventh, allowing two runs before getting Schlott to ground out to short to cap off the sweep.

“Jenna was great tonight,’ Pottsgrove head coach Julie Davis said. “I don’t think I’ve seen so many groundballs as I saw tonight. Our team is getting the concept of playing as a team and we’re coming together at the right time.’

And with two games remaining, the Falcons’ resurgence couldn’t have come at a better time.