TAMAQUA — Without the PIAA’s softball tiebreaker rule, Tamaqua and Notre Dame-Green Pond might have needed lights to finish their District 11 Class AA quarterfinal Thursday.
With the requirement of a runner on second base to begin any inning after the ninth, the game finally changed.
Cailee Murphy’s RBI single in the 11th inning became the difference as eighth-seeded Notre Dame-Green Pond upset top-seeded Tamaqua 3-2 in 11 innings.
The victory advances Notre Dame-Green Pond (13-10) to Tuesday’s semifinals, where they will face North
Schuylkill, a 3-1 winner over Northern Lehigh, at 4 p.m. at Blue Mountain High School.
“There was something missing today. I couldn’t put my finger on it,” Tamaqua head coach Jillian Barron said. “They gave it their all. Offensively, we just didn’t have it today.”
The Blue Raiders (17-7) finished with six hits.
Notre Dame-Green Pond pitcher Samantha Curcio retired three straight batters, two with Tamaqua’s Courtney Hoffman standing at third base, in the 11th to clinch the win.
“I said to myself, ‘Sam, you’ve got to do this. The pitch will go where it has to go, and you’ll be fine.’ And it worked,” Curcio said.
After each team scored a run in the first inning, the game remained tied until the 10th.
Tamaqua lost a golden opportunity in the ninth after loading the bases with one out. The Raiders’ Bailey Pedersen lined back to Curcio for the second out and Bailey Hartung grounded into a forceout at the plate.
The tiebreaker rule began in the next inning.
“Defensively, it’s a pain in the butt,” Barron said. “The littlest mistake can get that (run) in, and that puts a lot of pressure on you offensively, that you have to score that runner in from second.”
In the 10th, both teams succeeded to tie the game at 2-2.
Helped by an error by the shortstop, the Crusaders loaded the bases with one out before Faith Carson plated Jane O’Hare from third with a groundout to second base.
“When we had the bases loaded in the 10th inning, I thought, ‘We’re going to breeze through this,’ ” Notre Dame-Green Pond head coach Jerry Lewis said.
But Tamaqua pitcher Pedersen got Megan Knerr to fly out to center field to end the threat.
In Tamaqua’s half, Hartung got to third base on a wild pitch. She then scored when she beat the throw home after Curcio fielded Lynn Kistler’s bunt and threw to first for the out.
Notre Dame-Green Pond answered with the game-winner in the 11th.
With one out, Knerr scored from second base on Murphy’s single. Curcio then hit a ground-rule double, keeping Murphy at third base. Tamaqua escaped when O’Hare lined to shortstop Kistler, whose throw doubled Murphy off third base.
Despite that defensive boost, Tamaqua was unable to get the game-tying hit in the bottom of the 11th.
NDGP got the 1-0 lead in the first as Megan Crimi singled, took second on a wild pitch and scored on Murphy’s single.
It didn’t take long for Tamaqua to draw even.
In the bottom of the first, Hoffman singled and scored on Taylor Fritz’s two-out single to left field.
From there, Curcio and Pedersen locked up in a pitchers’ duel to the end.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t get our leadoff runner on in this game, and you can’t do anything without getting your leadoff batter on,” Barron said.
The result is Notre Dame-Green Pond will attempt to eliminate a third straight Schuylkill League team Tuesday after beating Schuylkill Haven and Tamaqua in its first two district tournament games.
Thursday’s game was the final game for Tamaqua seniors Hartung, Brianna Wittig, Carly Sassaman and Shayna Dietrich.
“I really didn’t want this season to end because my four seniors, when we started out, started varsity and we were 2-18,” Barron said. “We’ve turned it around and we’ve gotten better each year.
“This year was a really good year for us.”
Game Summary
District 11 Class AA Quarterfinal
At Tamaqua
NOTRE DAME-GREEN POND (3) — Crimo 1b 5 1 1 0, Carson cf 4 0 1 1, Knerr lf 5 1 1 0, Simpkins c 5 0 0 0, Murphy 2b 4 0 2 2, Curcio p 5 0 1 0, Culichia cr 0 0 0 0, O’Hare 3b 5 1 1 0. Petrik rf 3 0 0 0, Whirl ph 1 0 0 0, Frederick ss 4 0 1 0. Totals 41 3 8 3.
TAMAQUA (2) — Kistler ss 4 0 0 1, Hoffman 2b 5 1 1 0, Dietrich 3b 5 0 1 0, Fritz 1b 4 0 2 1, Joseph cf 5 0 1 0, Sassaman c 3 0 1 0, Zehner cr-ph 1 0 0 0, Stauffenberg cr 0 0 0 0, Pedersen p 4 0 0 0, Hartung rf 3 1 0 0, Wittig lf 3 0 0 0. Totals 37 2 6 2.
NDGP (13-10) 100 000 000 11 — 3
Tam (17-7) 100 000 000 10 — 2
E — Notre Dame-Green Pond 0, Tamaqua 1. DP — Tamaqua 1. LOB — Notre Dame-Green Pond 9, Tamaqua 7. 2B — Curcio. SB — Hoffman. CS — Fritz. S — Petrik, Kistler.
NDGP IP H R ER BB K
Curcio W 11 6 2 2 1 9
Tamaqua IP H R ER BB K
Pedrsn L,16-6 11 8 3 2 2 8
HBP — by Curcio 2 (Fritz, Sassaman). WP — Pedersen, Curcio. T — 2:47.