McCullough goes wild in Vikings’ 9-2 win over OJR
GRATERFORD >> She’s always there when needed.
Monday, with Perkiomen Valley’s game against defending district champion Owen J. Roberts too close for comfort, it was left to Noelle McCullough to answer the call.
Did she ever.
McCullough exploded in her first game back from an illness, pounding two triples for a game-high five RBI as the Vikings avenged last year’s District 1-AAAA Championship loss with a 9-2 victory over visiting Owen J. Roberts Monday afternoon.
That’s one of the reasons why they call her ‘mom’.
“She takes care of us,” PV second baseman Rachel Helverson said. “If you need her she’s always there.”
McCullough provided the necessary punch the Vikings sorely needed. Her first triple — an absolute missile that fired past the glove of the OJR third baseman before rolling into deep left — capped off a three-run fourth inning to make it 6-0 before she cranked a deep blast off the base of the left field fence two innings later to bring in another two runs to make it 8-2.
Two big blasts, two hectic and tiring trips around the bases made for one happy catcher, who missed the past two games due to a sinus infection.
“I was really nervous coming back,” McCullough, a senior, said. “We lost to Owen J. in the district final last year and this is a team that we wanted to get really bad. My offense, personally, hasn’t been very good, so I put in a lot of work over the weekend to try and get better.”
The results were instantaneous, her hot hitting fitting right into a team that has been on an absolute tear of late as the Vikings have scored 22 runs in the past two games after falling for the first time in conference play in more than a year’s time with a 2-1 loss to Pottsgrove last week.
“We’re still here and now we have to defend our title,” McCullough said. “We want to go so much further than last year so that loss was a bump in the road. But we put up 13 against Boyertown and nine against the defending district one champions. That has to say something.”
It spoke volumes.
PV cranked out 13 hits in the win with Ana Bruni and Gillian Barrie leading the way with three hits and three runs apiece. Helverson also swung the hot stick, collecting two hits and two RBI.
“After the loss to Pottsgrove we have so much more energy,” Helverson said. “The past two games we have just come in fired up and we’ve wanted to come out with wins in each of them. We’ve wanted it.”
The loss marked another frustrating time out for Owen J. Roberts, which has dropped two straight after starting the season 3-0. The Wildcats had runners in scoring position with one out in each of the first three innings, each time failing to cash in on the opportunity to score. OJR didn’t score a run until the fifth after already falling behind by six before tacking on another run an inning later.
“That’s a great team,” OJR head coach Jen Beaver said of Perkiomen Valley. “They have a lot of offensive weapons. We were on base a few times early but we just couldn’t get the key hit when we needed it.”
Brianna Smith and Darby Stuart led the Wildcats with two hits apiece, Alissa Vining adding an RBI in the loss.
It just wasn’t enough.
Perkiomen Valley, after a rough going in the first two innings, found its mojo in the third. Bruni’s bunt single and stolen base led off the inning before Barrie reached first on a bunt down the third-base line that never went foul. Kelsey Impink (2-for-3) then put the Vikings on the board with a shallow single to left to score Bruni. Barrie then scored on a McCullough RBI groundout before Helverson’s bunt single scored Impink to make it 3-0.
The fourth provided more fireworks for the Vikings. Bruni reached on another infield single before stealing second. Barrie then reached base on an infield single before Impink walked to load the bases for McCullough. Bruni scored on a passed ball to make it 4-0 before McCullough broke the game open, tattooing an offering off the OJR third baseman’s glove and into deep left to score Bruni and Barrie to make it 6-0 after four.
After OJR made it 6-2, McCullough’s aforementioned two-RBI triple off the base of the fence in left field and Helverson’s RBI sinking liner to right provided the rest of the offense, which was more than enough for the pitching duo of Emily Oltman and Abby Wild.
Oltman picked up the win in the circle, throwing 4 1/3 innings while allowing four hits and one earned. Wild came on in relief and allowed one hit and one earned while striking out three.
Box Score
OWEN J. 2016 (2) AT PERK VALLEY 16 (9)
OWEN J. 2016 AB R H BI PERK VALLEY 16 AB R H BI
Camryn Glenn 4 0 0 0 Ana Bruni 3 3 3 0
Emily Shaheen 2 1 0 0 Gillian Barrie 3 3 3 0
Brianna Smith 4 0 2 0 Kelsey Impink 3 2 2 1
Alissa Vining 3 0 1 1 Noelle McCullough 4 1 2 5
Bridget Guinan 4 0 0 0 Rachel Helverson 4 0 2 2
Casey Walker 2 0 0 0 Abby Wild 4 0 0 0
Rylie Hijosh 1 1 0 0 Haley Streeper 2 0 1 0
Darby Stuart 3 0 2 0 Dueber 1 0 0 0
Nikki MacMullin 3 0 0 0 Ashley Bangert 3 0 0 0
Jordan Sell 3 0 0 0
TOTALS 26 2 5 1 TOTALS 30 9 13 8
OWEN J. 2016 000 011 0 -- 2
PERK VALLEY 16 003 303 x -- 9
LOB--OWEN J. 2016 9, PERK VALLEY 16 7. ERR--Haley Streeper
(2). 3B--Noelle McCullough (2). HBP--Haley Streeper.
SACB--Rylie Hijosh, Emily Shaheen, Gillian Barrie. SB--Nikki
MacMullin, Ana Bruni (3), Gillian Barrie.
OWEN J. 2016 IP H R ER BB SO HR
Alissa Vining 6.00 13 9 9 2 1 0
PERK VALLEY 16
Emily Oltman 4.33 4 1 1 3 2 0
Abby Wild 2.67 1 1 1 1 3 0
PB--Brianna Smith. WP--Emily Oltman. SO--Emily Shaheen (2),
Nikki MacMullin, Bridget Guinan, Casey Walker, Rachel
Helverson. BB--Alissa Vining, Rylie Hijosh, Emily Shaheen,
Casey Walker, Ana Bruni, Kelsey Impink.
