Homers by Alldred, Cerimele boost Owen J. Roberts softball over Perk Valley
BUCKTOWN >> Owen J. Roberts had only three hits on Friday night. But that was enough, as Natalie Alldred knocked a game-tying two-run blast in the sixth and Sophia Cerimele hit a solo shot later in the inning for a 3-2 Pioneer Athletic Conference Liberty Division win over Perkiomen Valley.
Ashlyn Kunkle pitched four strong innings in relief to earn the win for the Wildcats (3-2 Liberty, 6-2 PAC, 7-4 overall). Bella Reedy, who allowed no hits through the first five innings for the Vikings (1-4, 3-5, 5-6) took the tough loss.
Alldred had hit a foul popup to the third baseman and taken a called third strike in her first two times at bat. Then she came to the plate with none out in the sixth after Liza Flavin led off with a flyball single to right to break up Reedy’s no-hit bid.
Alldred fouled back a 1-2 pitch and then hit a long, high fly over the fence in left to tie the score at 2-2.
“I was not swinging at my pitch,” Alldred said concerning her previous at bats. “I was getting too anxious. That at bat, I finally got one that was my pitch. The results were better than the previous at bats.”
“She was upset about the strikeout before,” Owen J. Roberts coach Steve Winnick said. “She came through. That was big.”
Then Cerimele, who had walked twice on full-count pitches, came up with one away and drilled a 2-2 offering out of the park to left to give the Wildcats the lead.
Cerimele had confidence after hitting a hard foul ball to right earlier in the at bat.
“I told her that was a great swing,” Winnick said. “Your eye was on it.”
‘”I was just thinking about my other at bats and that one foul ball,” Cerimele said. “I just wanted to make good contact, obviously.”
Reedy fanned the next two batters to bring her strikeout total to nine, but the Vikings had a runner thrown out by Wildcats catcher Liv Egan for the second out in the seventh inning and the next batter hit a fly to center to end the game.
Perkiomen Valley took the lead in the third when Maci Strechay led off with an infield hit, moved up to second on a bunt by Aubrey Powell and scored on a line drive single to center by Reedy.
The Vikings added a run in the fifth when Ava Boccelli led off with an infield hit, stole second, advanced to third on a grounder and scored on a fly to center by Strechay.
Meanwhile, Reedy walked four batters thought the first five frames, three of them leading off innings. But the Wildcats couldn’t capitalize as they advanced only two runners past first base. Reedy struck out a batter to end the first with a runner on third and left fielder Strechay made a good running catch to end the other threat in the fifth.
“She pitched a great game,” Alldred said. “We were swinging at bad pitches. We were swinging through a lot of pitches we normally hit.”
“Our hitting has been a little on and off,” Cerimele added. “But some players have stepped up like Nat did, and Liv leading off the inning.”
Freshman Grace Przborowsski pitched the first three innings for OJR, allowing three hits and a run. Then Kunkle gave up three hits in four winnings with no walks and three strikeouts.
“Our pitching did a great job,” especially Ashlyn,” Winnick said. “Credit to Nat and Liza starting us off getting on.”
“I think our hitting has definitely been improving,” Cerimele added. “We’ve had lots of hits and good baserunning.”
Results
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perkiomen Valley | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
| Owen J. Roberts | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
|
Perkiomen Valley
|
Owen J. Roberts
|
||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
| Strechay | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Epps | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Powell | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Flavin | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Reedy | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | Alldred | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Smith | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Egan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| E Carosi | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Cerimele | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Hopkins | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Winnick | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Martiello | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Cameron | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Corropolese2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Streeter | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Russo | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Skonieczny | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Boccelli | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Stofko | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A Carosi | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Totals | 25 | 2 | 6 | 2 | Totals | 21 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
E-Epps 2, Flavin. LOB-Perkiomen Valley 4, Owen J. Roberts 4. HR-Alldred, Cerimele. S-Powers. SF-Strechay. SB-Powers, Boccelli, Epps. CS-Boccelli.
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | |
|
Perkiomen Valley
|
||||||
| Reedy (L) | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 9 |
|
Owen J. Roberts
|
||||||
| Przborowski | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Kunkle (W) | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
|
WP-Reedy.
|
||||||
| T- 1:43 |
