Mo Valley stuns Blacklick Valley

By HUGH CONRAD
For The Tribune-Democrat

NANTY GLO May 20, 2008 12:07 am

— A top seed can be a blessing or a curse.
For the Blacklick Valley Vikings, earning the top spot in the District 6-A softball playoffs proved to be a curse.
The ninth-seeded Moshannon Valley Damsels came into McMullen Field on Monday afternoon and unleashed a veritable arsenal, knocking out 19 hits in a 16-9 victory. They added some outstanding defense and a solid pitching performance by junior Jaclyn Sinclair to advance to the second round.
The Damsels (13-6) charged out to an eight-run lead in the first four innings. Blacklick Valley then came to life and put together some solid offense, but Sinclair was tough in the clutch, forcing Blacklick to strand 10 runners in the final four innings.
“(Blacklick Valley) is a very good team, obviously, and I think that in the playoffs, if you play good defense and have good pitching and good hitting, that’s who wins,” Moshannon Valley coach John Murarik said. “We just came after them and after them and after them, and it paid off in the end.”
The Damsels scored a single run in the first and three in the second, adding another run in the third and four in the fourth to build an 8-0 lead before the Vikings could put together a rally. That early performance was what concerned BV veteran coach Bill Zamboni entering the contest.
“Unfortunately, it was the worst fear that I had, the mental approach to it since we are a young team,” Zamboni said. “We didn’t have our composure at first. We needed to get that first out in the first inning, and in the first five innings, and we didn’t.”
That first batter was a problem for Blacklick Valley as leadoff hitter Vanessa Rowley singled in the first and knocked out triples in the second and fourth innings that combined to drive in three runs.
Rowley went 4-for-6 and cleanup hitter Cyndee Sankeny was 4-for-5 with four RBIs.
Down eight runs, the Vikings charged back, scoring twice in the fourth, three times in the fifth, once in the sixth, and three in the seventh.
However, those numbers would have been much higher were it not for Sinclair’s pitching well in the clutch.
“Our kids could have given up, but they came back,” Zamboni said, adding that nine runs would usually be enough for a win. “I never thought that we would give up 16 runs because what has carried us for 20 wins has been our defense and our pitching, and both kind of let us down (Monday).”
The Vikings finished their season with a 20-2 record and a WestPAC championship.
Blacklick had 11 hits, with four players – Allie Garver, Kayla Behory, Lauren Wiegman, and Megan Thomas – each recording two hits.
Zamboni said that he was confident that his sophomore pitcher, Wiegman, would use this experience in her first full season as a starter and pitch well next year.