G-A's Ally Brown crushes Shippensburg's hopes

A monster game from Greencastle-Antrim’s Ally Brown propelled the Blue Devils to a 9-5 Mid Penn Colonial Division victory over Shippensburg on Tuesday afternoon. Brown was dominant on both sides of the ball, pitching a complete game while also blasting not one, but two, three-run home runs in consecutive at bats.

Shippensburg (5-2, 2-1 MPC) led for the first three innings after taking advantage of an error and a wild pitch, but momentum swung in favor of the Blue Devils in the bottom of the third inning. With Ship runners on first and second, Greencastle centerfielder Morgan Wagaman made a brilliant catch, which G-A turned into a beautiful 8-4-3 triple play.

“I really think the momentum change was that triple play,” Lady Hounds coach Mike Peters said, “It was a great play by their centerfielder, but right there we’ve got runners on first and second and our cleanup hitter coming up and then all of the sudden the inning's over.”

Greencastle (4-2, 2-1 MPC) tied the game in the next inning, but in the fifth, the floodgates opened. An error and a walk gave Brown runners at first and third and she crushed her first home run of the game to give the Blue Devils the lead. Another walk and then back-to-back doubles from Alicen Hoover (who was 3-for-3) and Liz Ward pushed the lead to 6-1.

Shippensburg still had some fight left. In the bottom of the fifth, a Greencastle error and a double by Morgan Fetter brought the Lady Hounds within 6-4. Fetter was 3-for-3 with one walk and two runs batted in.

But just as Ship had gained a little bit of momentum, Brown sent it packing with a second three-run homer in the sixth that gave G-A a comfortable lead of 9-4. She then finished out the game with seven strikeouts and seven hits allowed.

Even with her domination on both sides, Brown refused to take credit for the win.

“It’s not just me that can win a game, my whole team has to be behind me and they were," she said. "I’m not the one that wins games, our team does.”

Also hitting well for the Blue Devils was Mackenzie Oberholzer, who was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.

Greencastle coach Mark DeCarli said, “Our 1-9 hitters are a tough lineup and the girls know that they can all hit the ball. They know that Ally can pitch a great game and whenever someone isn’t having the best game there's always someone else to make up for it.”