BRAVES FALL TO BRANDYWINE HEIGHTS IN DISTRICT 3 DOUBLE-A TITLE GAME
Our very own Phil Glatfelter was in Denver on Thursday night for the District 3 Double-A girls’ softball championship, where Pequea Valley was trying to bring home the gold. The Braves settled for silver — but it took a top-notch pitching performance to do it. Here’s Phil’s story from Friday’s New Era:
One pitch and one swing.
That was the difference in the District 3 Double-A girls’ softball title game.
Brandywine Heights pitcher Alyssa Fegely belted a 2-2 pitch deep to left field for a home run in the bottom of the sixth inning, lifting the top-seeded Bullets over No. 2 seed Pequea Valley 1-0 Thursday night at Denver’s Manetas Park.
“We’d been going out, out, out all the time, and we thought maybe we’d catch her sleeping and go inside,” said Pequea Valley pitcher Jess High, a tough-luck loser despite allowing just three hits and striking out nine.
Instead, Fegely, who had two of Brandywine Heights’ hits and reached base all three times, was ready.
“She’s a gifted athlete who … lives to play games like this,” Brandywine coach Don Roach said. “This is when she’s at her best.”
Fegely then set down the Braves (19-4) in order in the seventh for the victory.
“We faced her last year,” Pequea Valley coach Amy Rill said. “She’s certainly one of the best pitchers in the district. We knew it would be a tough game. … You don’t want it to come down to one pitch, but when it does, it hurts.”
Despite the loss, it was another step forward for the Braves, who lost to the Bullets — last year’s PIAA runner-up — in the semifinals last year and missed out on States.
But they’ll be playing at least one more game as the PIAA Tournament begins Monday. Pequea Valley will play District 4 champ Loyalsock at a site and time to be determined.
Coming into this season, High, for one, felt her team had the chance to take the next step.
“We lost three seniors from last year, and all were replaced by very good players,” High said. “I think last year our defense wasn’t as solid as this year. As always, our bats are either on or they’re off. … I thought we would do pretty well.”
The Braves rode High’s pitching to the strong season, but Fegely might have been better. She posted a 22-1 record this season, and was dazzling Thursday, tossing a one-hitter, matching High’s nine strikeouts, walking one and hitting a batter. She didn’t allow a runner past second base.
“We see a lot of good pitchers in the (Lancaster-Lebanon) League, so I wasn’t really concerned about her caliber of pitching being more than we could handle,” High said.
Fegely actually walked the first batter of the game, Tiff Williams, but a foul out on a bunt and two strikeouts ended the inning. Brittany Esh’s two-out bunt single in the fifth was the only hit, and she got to second on a steal. Cayla Fuller was hit by a Fegely pitch to start the sixth and moved up on a groundout.
“After the way we hit in the last game against Hanover (a 7-1 win Tuesday night), I thought our bats would still be hot and we’d keep it going,” High said. “But our bats were pretty cold tonight.”
High also walked four batters, and they contributed to scoring threats in the second and sixth, after Fegely’s leadoff homer. The Bullets got a runner to third in the second and had runners on second and third with one out in the sixth before High struck out the last two batters.
