Daniel Boone blanked by Marsalo, Twin Valley in District 3-5A quarterfinals

LAURELDALE >> Daniel Boone coach Lee Trythall was on record saying how highly he thought of the Twin Valley softball team.

“Last year I felt they were the best team in the state. They may be better this year,” Trythall said.

Trythall might be right, if Friday’s performance is an indicator. Unfortunately for him and his Blazers, they got an up close and personal account of the Raiders’ excellence.

Senior pitcher Grace Marsalo had two hits and four RBI and threw a two-hit shutout while every Raiders starter reached base in Twin Valley’s five-inning, 11-0 win over Daniel Boone in a District 3-5A quarterfinal at Muhlenberg.

The No. 4 seed Raiders (23-2) advanced to the semifinals where they will face No. 1 seed Lampeter-Strasburg (24-0), set for Tuesday, May 28 at a site and time to be determined.

Daniel Boone (18-5) enters playbacks where it still has an opportunity to claim District 3’s fifth and final state berth in 5A. The Blazers begin that quest against another historically familiar foe – Exeter (17-7) – on May 28 for a spot in a state play-in game on Thursday.

The Raiders also got multi-hit games from Alyssa Genery (3-for-3) and freshman shortstop Alivia Litcher (2-for-3) while the only TV starter that didn’t have a hit was Sophia Marsalo, who instead walked three times.

Twin Valley is out to defend its District 3-5A title with Grace Marsalo leading the way. The Penn State commit who threw a no-hitter in the Berks County championship game was excellent as ever Friday.

While keenly aware of how familiarity can factor into a matchup, Marsalo obviously relishes a challenge.

“They know everything about us, they play against us, know our pitchers, our hitters, but it’s about who wants it more, and I think in this game we wanted it more, 100 percent,” Marsalo said. “They were dead; we were alive.”

“I’m so competitive, so I think I go in and my mindset is, ‘I’m going dominate every girl’ no matter how I’m going to do it, I’m going to figure it out as I go along one pitch at a time.”

Daniel Boone had no answers for Marsalo – only shortstop Dani Hayes and third baseman Liz Nitka had hits – who had two strikeouts in the first inning on the way to eight Ks for the game.

“That’s what you get out of a girl who’s Pitcher of the Year (in Berks County),” Trythall said. “She really made us look silly.”

“It was their night. They played much better than we did. It wasn’t breaks, bad calls, they just played better than we did. They looked like they wanted to be here – and although I didn’t feel this before the game, now that the game is over, it looked like my team didn’t want to be here. It looked like they wanted to be somewhere else.”

The Raiders struck quickly with four runs in the first, turning two early walks into run-scoring hits from Marsalo (two-run single), Bristol Reichard (ground out) and Sophia Palyan (single).

The lead was 6-0 in the second inning on an RBI sacrifice fly by Marsalo and RBI single from Sam Phillips. Boone pitcher Caitlin McCrone (4 IP, 12 hits, 11 ER, 2 K, 5 BB) managed a clean inning in the third but the Raiders were back at it with a five-run fourth inning that brought on the mercy rule when the Blazers went down 1-2-3 in the fifth, made possible by an excellent catch in foul territory by freshman left fielder Madison Garber.

Marsalo is one of only three seniors for Twin Valley, which has gotten key contributions from a few rookies, especially shortstop Lichtner.

“Me and Sammy, as pitcher-catcher, we work great together and I think that’s a really great way to lead a team, with a great pitcher-catcher duo,” she said, “but I think Livy being a great shortstop – she barely ever makes an error – she really is a leader on this team and I’m not afraid to say that. A freshman can be a leader and I think she really leads this team with positivity and aggressiveness and energy.”

Twin Valley turns its attention to L-S, which won their non-league meeting 4-2 on April 18, though Grace Marsalo did not pitch in the game.

“Revenge is the goal next. District title is after that,” she said. “It’s going to be a different game. I faced them last year, but they haven’t seen me yet (this year).”

Daniel Boone meanwhile might have some soul-searching this weekend if they hope to earn the district’s last spot in states.

“It’s a difficult team in that they’re all different personalities,” Trythall said. “There’s always three kids out there that want to be out there playing and will take this loss personally, but there’s three or four where it doesn’t really matter, that this is just what they’re doing for three hours today.

“As a coach it’s difficult to coach when you don’t have 13 kids with the same mindset. You listen to their team cheer and go crazy and you see there are 21 with the same mindset. And I don’t know that we have that yet.”

NOTES >> The former Berks I rivals were in separate divisions this year when Boone moved to Berks II though they did have a regular-season meeting, a 10-5 TV win on March 28. … Daniel Boone and Exeter did not meet this season.