BROCKWAY — His team was tired, wet, and heartbroken after a loss that ended their season, but Coudersport softball coach Dan Counts made sure to keep things in perspective.
“There’s sixteen teams left in the state,” he said. “We’re one of the sixteen.”
Playing on a rain-soaked Tuesday afternoon at Brockway High School, the Lady Falcons (15-6) fell to the Claysburg-Kimmel Bulldogs (16-7) of District 6 11-5 in the first round of the PIAA Class A softball tournament.
The Lady Bulldogs — who entered the tournament as the runners-up in District 6 — used a potent, balanced offensive attack in the middle innings to overcome an early one-run deficit and pull away from Coudersport.
“I’m extremely proud of the girls and the way in which they compete,” Counts said. “Of course we had a couple downsides, but they’re young.”
“I’m disappointed with the outcome, but overall, the season was pretty successful,” he added.
Coudersport scored the game’s first run in the bottom of the second when, after a pair of singles from Shaelyn Black and EmmaRae Easton, Annie Chambers ripped an RBI double into left-center field.
The Lady Falcons were able to load the bases, and may have scored even more if not for a lineout to second to end the inning.
Those stranded runners proved to be sorely missed in the next frame, as Claysburg put up a four-spot in the top of the third. The Lady Bulldogs would get each of their first four batters of the inning on base, with an RBI double from Justinna Brown (2-for-2) capping off the inning and giving Claysburg a 4-1 lead.
“They’re a good hitting team,” Counts said. “They fought every single pitch, every single at-bat. They made our pitchers throw a lot of pitches and they protected that plate when they had two strikes. They didn’t always hit it overly hard, but they would slap it like a good contact team does.”
Coudy starter Madison Smith (three strikeouts, no walks) would exit the game after the third inning to be replaced by Black. The sophomore southpaw would struggle with her command; a pair of walks plus an RBI triple by Keyara Morgan (3-for-5) would make the score 6-1.
Despite the struggles, Counts was pleased with how neither pitcher gave in to frustration.
“I’m proud of my pitchers,” he said. “Both Shae and Maddie threw well, I thought, just against a good, quality, base-hitting team. They put the ball in play consistently. They didn’t have a lot of strikeouts and they made us work.”
Around the fifth inning, the rain really started to come down, which, combined with less-than-balmy temperatures, made for rather miserable playing conditions.
The rain didn’t seem to bother the Lady Falcons too much, however, as they plated two in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a pair of doubles from Emma Powell (2-for-2) and Joplin Osgood, the latter of which drove in both runs.
“I don’t like to think that the weather played a part because when it was raining, we started playing,” Counts admitted. “We got our momentum up because we pride ourselves on playing in rain and the snow like Northern Tier teams do.”
Claysburg would score three more in its half of the fifth, highlighted by an RBI single by Morgan, to push the lead to 9-3.
Coudy got right back at it, though, as Macy Gleason started the bottom of the fifth with a leadoff single. This brought Black to the plate, who already had notched two singles in the contest. The Coudy pitcher seemed to take out a lot of her frustration from the mound out on the next pitch, which she promptly sent over the left-center field fence for a two-run home run.
Unfortunately, that would be the last bit of offense that the Lady Falcons would muster. Claysburg added two more runs in the top of the seventh to pull away for good. Starter Courtney Garver (two strikeouts, two walks) set down the final three Coudy batters in order to send the Lady Bulldogs on to the state quarterfinals.
Despite the loss, Coudersport’s second-place finish in District 9 and appearance in the state tournament marked its most successful campaign since also finishing second in District 9 back in 2009. Counts believes things will only get better from here.
“We have four seniors… we’ve got everybody [else] coming back next year,” he said “We’ve made it one step further, two steps further than we did last year and these girls believe fully that they’ll go even further next year.”
Counts sees the drive to improve as the biggest reason why the Lady Falcons will be a force to be reckoned with in the future. That drive is evident by the fact that most of the team will be heading right back to the playing field.
“A good portion of my team plays travel ball,” Counts said. “They’re already chomping at the bit to get better.”
“This is a group of girls that I absolutely, truly enjoy coaching because they will work hard to get better and they like one another,” he went on to say. “And it’s been a real pleasure to coach them.”
