Greencastle's Ally Brown belts walk-off hit again

Greencastle-Antrim's Ally Brown smoked a two-run double that gave the Blue Devils an 11-10 walk-off win over Shippensburg in Mid Penn Colonial Division softball action Thursday afternoon.

G-A (10-4, 6-2 MPC) trailed 10-9 heading into the bottom of the seventh when Brown came to the plate with runners on first and second. The junior belted a ball that one-hopped off the left field fence and scored Hannah Beeler and Jess Root to end it.

"They were pitching me outside all day," Brown said. "So I was definitely looking there. I got a pitch there and hit it well."

Beeler started the winning rally by reaching on an error, Ship's fourth of the game, with one down. Then Root followed with a single before Greyhound reliever Taylor Davidson struck out the next hitter.

"To beat a team like Greencastle, you can't give them extra outs. You have to play tight defense," Ship coach Mike Peters said. "We hit the ball really well today. But you have to get a 'W' when you score 10 runs."

Ship (9-6, 4-3) posted back-to-back four-run outbursts in the third and fourth innings and led 9-2 after the top of the fourth. Emily Wenner keyed the third inning rally with a two-run single and Sami Barmont supplied the big hit in the fourth with a three-run double.

"We came out a little flat and they shocked us with the way that they hit Ally around. She had shut them down twice earlier this season," G-A coach Mark DeCarli said. "We could've folded after that happened, but we didn't. I told the girls that if they want to be a championship team then they needed to put up a fight."

G-A came out swinging in the bottom of the fourth and got back into the game with a six-run rally that sliced the deficit to 9-8. Brown and Morgan Wagaman each plated a pair of runs with singles.

The win, along with Big Spring's 2-1 loss to James Buchanan, leaves the Devils atop the division with just two losses, while every other team has at least three.

Ali Sherman led G-A's 11-hit offense with four base knocks, while Brown and Root each registered two, with Brown knocking in four runs and Root scoring three times.

For Ship, Barmont and Courtney Coy each had three hits and Barmont drove home four runs, while Coy touched the dish three times.