Perkiomen Valley uses 8-run sixth to power past Dallastown

ROYERSFORD >> She couldn’t wipe the smile off her face … and for good reason, too.

Holding a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning, Perkiomen Valley’s Abby Wild flashed some leather on a hard-hit comebacker to the rubber. The ball’s velocity ripped the glove off the junior pitcher’s hand, stayed in her mitt and fell to the dirt by her feet. She reached down, grabbed the ball from her fallen glove, fired to first, got out of the inning and couldn’t wipe her ear-to-ear grin as she jogged to the first-base dugout.

Monday night, there wasn’t too much to frown about for Perkiomen Valley as Wild turned in another sensational performance in the circle while the offense clicked with an eight-run sixth as the Vikings topped Dallastown 10-2 in the PIAA-AAAA opening round at Spring-Ford’s Ram Park.

“My hand was really sweaty, so it just fell off,” said Wild, detailing the wacky play in the third. “I picked it up and threw it to first. I didn’t know if it was an out if the ball stayed in your glove but it was off your hand. When in doubt, throw them out.”

There was no doubt about Wild’s performance in her first PIAA start. The junior scattered six hits and allowed two earned while striking out six and walking two.

“I was moving the ball around, trying to keep it low because the zone was tight,” Wild said.

“She was mixing it inside and outside a little bit,” added Perkiomen Valley head coach Dan McLaughlin. “Her screwball was a little off, it wasn’t moving where she wanted it to go so we moved away from that later on in the game. We weren’t getting a lot of the calls, especially on the outside corner so we had to bring the ball in.”

Of Wild’s 107 pitches, 71 were strikes. She faced little resistance from Dallastown until the later innings, getting out of a dire jam in the fifth with only run across before allowing another run come home in the top of the seventh.

The second run was of little worry. Thank the offense for that.

The Vikings pounded out 10 hits in the victory, which saw multi-hit games from Ana Bruni (two hits, one run scored) and Rachel Helverson (two hits, one run scored). However, it was the tide-turning sixth that did the Vikings wonders, an eight-run inning sparked by some small ball that provided enough cushion, (‘pillows’ as PV calls it) for Wild in the seventh and sent the Vikings into a date with District 2 champion Hazleton at a time and site to be announced.

“Getting all those runs that inning  was pretty nice,” right fielder Gillian Barrie said. “We definitely knew we needed pillows for Abby and small ball is the way to get it done. We forced errors and capitalized on it.”

The sixth inning saw 11 batters come to the plate. Freshman center fielder Jordan Sell got the inning started by reaching via error before Ashley Bangert reached first on a bunt single and Barrie walked to load the bases. Taylor Hamm (who knocked in Barrie with an RBI single in the second to make it 1-0) made it 3-1 as she hit a sharp grounder to the Dallastown second baseman who couldn’t come up with it, allowing Sell to score. Ana Bruni then hit a tailing liner down the left-field line to score Bangert and Barrie before Helverson knocked in Bruni with a sharply-hit grounder up the middle to make it 7-1.

Sell then capped it off in memorable fashion.

With Helverson moved to second after Wld singled to left, Sell, appearing in her first PIAA contest, ripped a change-up from Dallastown pitcher Jaelynn Harbold to straightaway left field, the ball sailing way past the left-field fence for a three-run blast that capped PV’s scoring.

“I never really know if it’s going out once it hits the bat, but this one I had a good feeling that it was going,” Sell said. “It was an inside change-up and I turned on it and put it over the left-field fence”

“Today just felt like any other game,” Sell added about her first PIAA appearance. “I have to think of it that way or else I’ll start to get nervous or anxious which could lead to errors that could cost us. I just have to stay relaxed, which I did, and look what happened.”

NOTES >> Noelle McCullough also finished with a hit in the win. … Sell and Barrie each finished with two runs scored. … Hazleton topped District 3 runner-up Penn Manor 2-1.