Eagles into state final in 2A softball
Jun. 15—PINE GROVE — The Line Mountain softball team had an aggressive goal for its 2021 season.
From day one, the Eagles had their sights set on State College and a state championship berth, despite no state playoff wins, and only one district title in program history.
"It was an aggressive goal," Line Mountain senior pitcher Kya Matter said. "But I knew coming into the season that we had a very talented group."
After Monday's Class 2A state semifinal, Matter seems a bit prescient.
Matter made an unearned run in the top of the first stand up for seven innings against the powerful Williams Valley offense as the Eagles' 1-0 victory at Stump Stadium at Pine Grove High School sends them to their first softball state championship game.
Line Mountain (22-3) will face Ligonier Valley, a 6-1 winner over Union City in the other semifinal, at 11 a.m. on Thursday at Beard Field on the campus of Penn State University.
Coach Butch Fessler didn't back away from the state title talk at the beginning of the season.
"It's all they talked about at practice," Fessler said. "But it focused them, and they practiced with that purpose — to get to the state title game — every day."
And the Eagles said it helped keep the pressure off most of this season.
"We did talk about it a lot at practice, but it helps talking about it," Line Mountain sophomore shortstop Brooke Novinger said. "It allowed us to have fun, and not feel any pressure."
Matter was dominant in the circle, once again, but the righty seemed to take it to a different level on Monday.
Catcher Aspen Walker was injured in the first game against the Vikings, but Williams Valley touched up Matter for her worst outing of the season in the regular-season meeting between the teams. Matter allowed nine earned runs, and a season-high three walks back on April 8.
The Vikings scored 59 runs in their previous four playoff games, but one would be hard-pressed to convince anyone in attendance of those statistics on Monday at Pine Grove.
Matter struck out 19 hitters, and allowed just one ball out of the infield and only four total balls in play.
"My head was pretty blank," Matter said about keeping the one-run lead. "I was just trying to stay in the moment, and take it batter-by-batter.
"And we did it."
The Vikings (21-6) had two chances to score in the game, one in the second inning and one in the fourth inning.
In the second inning, Tori Rabuck beat out an infield single on a ball that had some funky spin on it off the end of the bat. She stole second after Matter recorded the first out of the inning by strikeout. Matter struck out the next two hitters to end the threat.
It was the same situation in the fourth. Alex Bogle led off the inning with a hard-hit single into the hole between shortstop and third — the only bat hit by the Vikings to reach the outfield.
After a strikeout, Bogle stole second, but again, Matter struck out the next two hitters to end the inning.
Matter retired the final 12 hitters of the game after Bogle's single.
The lone run of the game came in the top of the first. Matter led off the game with a grounder to shortstop that was misplayed.
That brought Novinger to the plate, who admitted to being nervous for her first at-bat in the state semifinals.
"I thought I was going to have heart attack," Novinger said with a laugh.
However in the back of her head, the sophomore remembered some success she had previously.
"I had a couple of hits off her the last time," said Novinger, who was 3-for-3 off Williams Valley pitcher Emma Crisswell on April 8. "I just kept that in the back of my head, and I just wanted to keep the momentum going."
Matter stole second during Novinger's at-bat, and the sophomore came up with the biggest hit of the game, an RBI single to give the Eagles the lead.
"I thought she was was going to catch it (in right field), but I was so excited when it fell," Novinger said.
Novinger was thrown out at third after an error on the play, and the Eagles didn't have many chances afterwards for an insurance run of Crisswell.
Cassie Laudenslager had a one-out double in the fourth inning, and was sacrificed to third, but was left stranded by an infield pop out.
Crisswell took the hard-luck loss, not allowing an earned run. She struck out nine and didn't walk a batter.
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PIAA PLAYOFFS
CLASS 2A SEMIFINALS
at Susan Stump Stadium, Pine Grove H.S.
LINE MOUNTAIN 1, WILLIAMS VALLEY 0
Line Mountain;100;000;0 — 1-3-0
Williams Valley;000;000;0 — 0-2-2
Kya Matter and Aspen Walker. Emma Crisswell and Alex Bogle.
WP: Matter; LP: Crisswell.
Line Mountain: Matter, run; Brooke Novinger, 2-for-3, RBI; Cassie Laudenslager, 1-for-3, double.
Williams Valley: Tori Rabuck, 1-for-3; Bogle, 1-for-3.
