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Littlestown blasts Biglerville, 12-2, to stay undefeated


The Littlestown softball team has zero seniors on its roster and a manager — Henry Wardrop — who is in his first year at the helm. But don't tell the young Bolts squad this is supposed to be a rebuilding season. No need to wait, they're ready to win right now.

Four games into the season, the young Bolts are undefeated (4-0), in first place in YAIAA Division III and have outscored their opponents, 51-5. Wardrop's squad can crush the ball and pitch well. They proved that again on Wednesday afternoon, blowing past Biglerville, 12-2, in six innings.

Juniors Kaitlin Yealy and McKenzie Somers combined to go 8-for-8 at the plate with a home run, two doubles and 4 RBIs. And they combined to pitch six innings, allowing two runs on five hits.

"I hope the confidence is high right now," Wardrop said with a laugh. "They've come out and played well. I'm proud of them."

In the other dugout, there was good news and there was bad news for the Canners. The good news was they snapped a 10-inning scoreless drought and managed five base hits after being no-hit the previous two games. The bad news was it wasn't enough to keep up with Littlestown's offense.

"I told them we can't wait until the fifth inning to start hitting the ball," Biglerville manager Bill Woodward said. "Last week we saw tough pitchers, then Somers threw the ball well tonight. But it took until the second and third time through the lineup to finally start putting the bat on the ball."

Yealy and Somers gave the home team an early 2-0 lead with back-to-back two-out RBI doubles in the bottom of the first.

After Littlestown scored a second-inning run on a throwing error with two outs, Brianna Payne extended the lead to 5-0 in the third with a two-run triple off freshman Katie McCauslin, again with two outs.

"We have to get her a couple more pitches," Woodward said of his freshman pitcher. "Right now, she's limited to mostly just a fastball and curve. The second or third time a lineup comes up against her, they have the timing down."

Yealy, who finished a triple away from hitting for the cycle, crushed a home run to deep center field to jump-start a four-run fifth inning. The ball landed roughly 20 feet beyond the wall in center field.

"I knew it was going out when she hit it," Wardrop said of Yealy's long ball. "In warmups, she was check swinging, and they were still going deep."

Kelsey Dews and Jill Gauthier each added doubles in the fifth, but the Bolts, who were one run short of winning by mercy rule, left the potential game-clinching base runner on third base.

Somers exited before the sixth inning after pitching five shutout innings. The junior struck out five Canners and gave up four hits.

In the sixth, Biglerville loaded the bases and finally broke the scoreless drought courtesy of a Mykayla Herne two-run single.

"Overall, I'm a little disappointed, but we have York Tech tomorrow and we're going to come out fighting," Woodward said. "We're going to come out with a win."

Littlestown 12, Biglerville 2 (6 innings)

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Big, Katie McCauslin, Jordan Miller (6) and Ali Sowers. Lt, McKenzie Somers, Kaitlin Yealy (6) and Amanda Dyson.

SO-BB — Big, McCauslin 3-4, Miller 0-1. Lt, Sowers 5-0, Yealy 1-3; W — Somers; L — McCauslin; 2B — Lt, Yealy, Somers, Vickie Skillman, Jill Gauthier, Kelsey Dews; 3B — Lt, Brianna Payne; HR —Lt, Yealy;