EASTON — Without Samantha Curcio’s participation for Notre Dame-Green Pond, Schuylkill Haven’s softball team might have advanced to the quarterfinals of the District 11 Class AA Tournament.
With Curcio, who struck out 12 and hit a pair of two-run singles, Notre Dame-Green Pond ended Schuylkill Haven’s season with an 8-5 victory Tuesday.
“She had a good up pitch and she changed her speeds,” Schuylkill Haven head coach Tim Schweigert said. “They kind of pitched around Emma (Schweigert). She walked two times.”
When Curcio did challenge Schweigert in the seventh inning, Schweigert hit a two-run home run. That also scored Cassidy Svenson, who had singled, and brought the Hurricanes (10-11) within 8-5.
After Sarah Personette followed Schweigert’s home run with her second double of the game, Curcio ended the game with a strikeout.
Notre Dame-GreenPond (12-9) took an 8-0 lead before Schuylkill Haven got to Curcio in the sixth and seventh.
In the sixth, Personnette, Morgan Wagner and Cheyanne Reichert each hit a double to drive home runs, But the inning ended when Alyssa Gerber’s line drive out enabled Notre Dame-Green Pond to double off Reichert.
Errors played a role in each of Notre Dame-Green Pond’s three rallies.
“We played hard. They didn’t give up and battled to the end,” Tim Schweigert said. “The errors really hurt us. ... Most of their runs were unearned.”
District 11 Class AA First Round
At Easton
SH (10-11) 000 003 2 — 5 9 3
NDGP (12-9) 203 030 x — 8 11 1
Svenson and Personette; Curcio and Simkins. W — Curcio. L — Svenson (10-10).
HITS: Schuylkill Haven — Ditzler, E. Schweigert, Personette 2, Wagner 2, Reichert, Svenson 2. Notre Dame-Green Pond — Crimi 2, Carson 2, Simkins, Murphy, Curcio 3, Petrik, Frederick.
2B — Personnette 2, Wagner 2, Reichert, Carson, Simkins. HR — E. Schweigert.
Donegal 15
Hamburg 5
MOUNT JOY — Hamburg’s Erica Lutz went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored, but the No. 16 Hawks fell to top-seeded Donegal in the first round of the District 3 Class AAA Tournament.
In a slugfest, Hamburg cut its deficit to 8-5 with a four-run fifth inning. Lutz had a two-run single and Miranda Shollenberger added an RBI single in the rally.
Donegal, though, answered with a seven-run bottom of the fifth that ended the game by the 10-run rule.
Hamburg recently had two players named to the Berks All-County Softball Team. Lutz, a sophomore first baseman, and junior utility player Rebecca Blatt made the squad.
Daniel Boone senior pitcher Bekah Slattery was named Player of the Year; Twin Valley’s Tony Marsalo won Coach of the Year.
District 3 Class AAA First Round
At Mount Joy
Ham (11-10) 100 04 — 5 6 5
Don (21-3) 052 17 — 15 10 2
P. Lesher and Shollenberger; Yoder and Mummau. W — Yoder. L — P. Lesher (10-10).
HITS: Hamburg — C. Lesher, Lutz 2, P. Lesher, Shollenberger, Strausser. Donegal — Kolenda, Mummau 2, Yoder 2, Orr 2, Witmer 2, Tirko.