Elizabethtown softball holds off Lampeter-Strasburg as L-L League Section 2 stretch run continues

It’s the time of the season when goals are in sight, or reset. A time when teams reach back for that extra gear to get over the top.

Elizabethtown and Lampeter-Strasburg both had incentives impelling them forward Wednesday in Lampeter.

For the Bears it was putting some distance between themselves and the Pioneers, as well as Ephrata, in their quest to nail down the No. 2 seed from Section Two of the Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs.

For the Pioneers, getting their footing after an 0-5 stumble out of the gate, it was securing a return to the District Three Class 4A playoffs, where they are the defending champion.

Of course, only one team would emerge satisfied on this sunny afternoon, and that team was Elizabethtown (10-3 L-L, 12-5 overall).

Taking advantage of some generosity in the field by the Pioneers (6-7, 6-10), and a familiarity with L-S starter Maura Savoca, the Bears opened a four-run lead after an inning and a half and held off a late L-S rally to win 9-7.

“I was really confident going up there,” said Chloe Wilkinson, who drove in four runs with an RBI double, a two-run single and an RBI groundout that capped the Bears’ scoring.

“I was surprised they started (uniform) No. 1 (Savoca),” Wilkinson said. “I think we know her pitches pretty well. The first game we played them — a 10-4 victory — we got hold of her quick.”

The Bears chased Savoca five batters into the third inning Wednesday, ultimately touching her for eight runs, five earned, on nine hits. She walked three and struck out three.

Natalie Hill came on to pitch the final five innings, allowing just three hits and a run, Ava Fair scoring on Wilkinson’s groundout after tripling to lead off the seventh. Leading to the second guess, why not start Hill?

“Last time we played them — an 8-6 win by the Bears — she lost to them, gave up a five-spot in the last inning,” Pioneers coach Earl Rutledge Jr. said. “We just figured we’d go with Maura.

“We just made a couple of errors behind her.”

Fair (3-for-5, 4 runs) doubled to lead off the game, scoring on Keira Davis’ bad-hop single off shortstop Paige Baxter. The real damage came in the next two innings as the No. 8 and No. 9 batters, Cassidy Leitzel and Kaelin Griffin, did what table-setters do, turning over the lineup.

Leitzel and Griffin each reached on an error leading off the second, Griffin on an error on her sacrifice bunt. After Fair reached on a fielder’s choice, scoring Leitzel, Wilkinson doubled in Fair and Astyn Calaman doubled Wilkinson home.

The Pioneers got one back as Hill drove in Chloe Meck in the bottom of the second, but the bottom of the Bears’ lineup instigated another uprising in the third as Leitzel singled and Griffin walked. Fair singled home Leitzel and Wilkinson (2-for-5, 2 runs) singled to center, plating Griffin and Fair.

When Julie Zook stroked the Bears’ fourth hit of the frame, Hill relieved Savoca, who eventually took her place in left field. Hill got Calaman to pop out to second baseman Aubree Morrow in short right, but with Morrow heading towards the outfield, Wilkinson alertly tagged up at third and scored.

The Pioneers chopped into the Bears’ 8-1 lead with Savoca’s RBI infield single and Baxter’s sac fly in the third, but still trailed 9-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh.

Julia Gerard led off the L-S seventh with an infield single and went first-to-third on a passed ball to Savoca. It was a bold, and costly, decision as Gerard aggravated a previous ankle injury sliding into the bag and had to leave the game.

Lilly Kuhns came on to run for Gerard, scoring on Savoca’s single. Savoca stole second as Baxter struck out for the first out and scored when Fair misplayed Meck’s grounder at second.

After a flyout, Izzy King doubled to deep left center, scoring Savoca and Meck, and suddenly things were getting tight for the Bears. Tighter still as first baseman Leah Aldous mishandled Wilkinson’s throw from short on Alaina Brenneman’s potential third-out grounder.

Zook zipped her throw from third to Aldous on Logan Crandall’s grounder to quash the rally and the danger passed.

“We had a lot of fight,” Rutledge said, “We just came up a little short.”

A little short is what it appears the Pioneers will be in their hunt for a district playoff berth, as they currently sit 13th in the 10-team Class 4A field. “We still have a shot,” Rutledge said. “It will probably be on the last day when we find out, like we did last year.”

Meanwhile, with a two-game lead on Ephrata (8-5, 10-5) for second place behind Solanco and two games to play — including the regular season valedictory in Ephrata on Monday — the Bears control their fate.

“We’ve got a couple more games, CV (Conestoga Valley) on Friday and Ephrata Monday,” Wilkinson said. “I think we’re going to be good.”