HAMBURG - After losing two straight league games, Hamburg's softball team desperately needed a win Friday afternoon.
The Hawks got it, 4-3 in a non-league contest with Oley Valley, but not without plenty of anxious moments.
In the seventh inning, the Lynx got runners to second and third with nobody out. They cut the deficit to one run on a sacrifice fly, but the throw home on that play went to the backstop. Hamburg catcher Miranda Shollenberger raced to get the ball, ran back to the plate and tagged out the runner trying to score from second base on the miscue.
Shollenberger's play preserved Hamburg's one-run lead and recorded the second out of the inning. Winning pitcher Paige Lesher got the next batter to pop out to third baseman Rebecca Blatt to end the game.
At the plate, Shollenberger went 2-for-3. Also for the Hawks, Erica Lutz doubled, knocked in a run and scored a run, while Sydney Oberholtzer had a single, an RBI and a run scored.
H.S. Baseball Oley Valley 7 Pottsville 4
OLEY - Darion Jacoby had two hits for Pottsville, but the Crimson Tide fell victim to Oley Valley's four-run sixth inning in a non-league loss to the Lynx.
Pottsville, whose five-game winning streak ended, erased a 3-0 deficit with three runs in the fifth and then took a 4-3 lead in the sixth before Oley rallied to win with four hits in the sixth.
Pete Vaccaro had two hits and Hunter Renninger tripled for Oley, which won its seventh straight game.