ANNVILLE — With a winner-take-all game for the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Four softball title ahead of them as they traveled from Fredericksburg to Annville on Monday afternoon, what was the mood on the Northern Lebanon bus?
Quiet and contemplative?
Loud and raucous?
“Everybody was loud,” junior pitcher Lynsie Mauser said. “It was very hype. Everybody was dancing, everybody was singing. We were ready.”
That they were as the Vikings (14-1 L-L, 17-3 overall) defended their Section Four championship — and won their third title in a row, after taking Section Three in 2022 — as Mauser blanked the Dutchmen 7-0.
It was her second shutout of the Dutchmen this season, as she limited them to one hit in a 6-0 victory April 12, also in Annville. In between, the Dutchmen hung a 6-4 loss on Addison Hollenbach in Fredericksburg for the Vikings’ only league loss.
Mauser was razor-sharp in the circle Monday, surrendering two hits: Nia Hafey’s one-out triple in the third inning and Kaci Potter’s infield hit in the sixth. Throwing 83 pitches, 63 for strikes, she struck out 11 and didn’t walk a batter.
“We played a game on Saturday (a 10-0 nonleague loss to Kutztown), and the bats weren’t there,” A-C coach Amber Wagner said. “You can’t win a game with two baserunners, two hits. That’s the bottom line.”
The bottom line from Saturday’s loss was the Dutchmen tumbling from the No. 1 seed, and a comfortable lead, in the District Three 3A power ratings, to the fourth seed. A bad time of the year to go silent at the plate, A-C will likely drop another spot with Monday’s loss.
Throwing fastballs, mixed in with the occasional screwball, Mauser had the Dutchmen (13-2, 15-4) swinging way late, early on. As their deficit rose they started swinging for five-run homers.
“I was really hitting both my spots,” Mauser said, “inside and outside and raising my height.”
The top of the Vikings’ lineup delivered the damage. Leadoff Addison Hollenbach went 2-for-3, scoring a pair of runs. Olivia Shutter went 0-for-3, but scored twice after reaching on a fielder’s choice in the third and an error in the fifth.
Brooke Beamesderfer (1-3) doubled in the Vikes’ penultimate run in the seventh, eventually stealing home to close out the scoring. Cleanup batter Abby Palkovic was 1-for-3, singling in Hollenbach with the game’s first run.
Mauser made it a 2-0 game in the second inning stroking a line drive tight to the right field line. Abby Evans made an effort for a diving catch, but missed. As the ball bounced to the right-field corner Mauser circled the bases for a homer.
Hollenbach led off the third with her second hit, but was forced on Shutter’s fielder’s choice grounder to third. Beamesderfer lived on an error as Shutter rolled into third and, after a strikeout, Addy Kubica reached on another error with both Shutter and Beamesderfer scoring.
Leading 4-0 in the third, with Hafey on third after her triple, Mauser got Danica Setlock to foul out to Kubica at third for the second out, then retired Meda Pulaski on a ground ball to Hollenbach at short.
A one-out error in the fifth inning put Shutter on base. She scored the game’s fifth run on Kubica’s two-out single.
Hollenbach walked leading off the seventh, scoring on Beamesderfer’s double. Beamesderfer took third on a wild pitch and broke for home on a wild pitch to Palkovic.
The ball came right back to catcher Faith Wagner as Beamesderfer froze halfway down the line and began to backtrack. As Wagner threw to third Beamesderfer reversed direction once more, beating third baseman Morgan Long’s throw home, sliding under Pulaski’s tag.
Pulaski deserved a better fate as she allowed just six hits, striking out 13 while walking three. Of the seven runs she allowed, only four were earned.
Asked if winning the title was harder this year, Mauser said, “I definitely think, my first two years, it (section titles) kind of came easy to us. We lost a couple seniors, both years, but (this year) we are a very good team.”
