Littlestown hands York Suburban its first loss
The showdown for YAIAA Division III softball supremacy wasn't the hotly contested spectacle it was chalked up to be.
York Suburban made four key errors, and Littlestown made them pay by lashing 14 hits and plating 7 unearned runs in a 12-3 win Thursday afternoon.
McKenzie Somers led the way for the Thunderbolts (7-0, 6-0) with two hits and three RBIs, and she also pitched five strong innings for the win.
Kaitlin Yealy smacked a three-run homer, and Vickie Skillman, Amanda Dyson and Emily Lanahan recorded two hits apiece for Littlestown.
"Last year, we had a big season, and we have everybody back," Yealy said. "We want to do more, and better. We want a District 3 title."
York Suburban (6-1, 5-1) opened the door for the Bolts in the first inning with a throwing error and a dropped pop-up.
Dyson and Sowers looped opposite-field RBI singles to right field, and Kelsie Dews brought home another run on a fielder's choice bunt back to the pitcher.
The error bug bit again in the third when Yealy reached on a dropped pop-up in short right field.
With two outs, Lindsay Dews singled. Skillman followed and worked a 2-0 count before ripping a hard skimmer that shot past the pitcher and into center for two runs. Lindsay Snyder added an RBI single to make it 6-0.
Suburban struck back with three in the fourth with RBIs from Emily Myers and Alexis Jury
Littlestown played three more in the bottom half of the inning. Michaela Yealy reached on a leadoff error, then scored on Lanahan's double to the wall in left-center.
"We need to clean up our fielding," Suburban head coach Jen Weitzel said. "The fielding was very sloppy today, but I think (the team) will be strengthened by this. I think it was more of a wakeup call."
Suburban began to mount a rally in the fifth inning when the Trojans trailed 9-3. With one out, Zoe Prats reached on an error, and Olivia Eytcheson doubled to the wall in right-center.
Aly Golden followed with a difficult short fly ball to right field. Jill Gauthier charged, caught the ball, and threw on the money to the catcher Dyson to double up Prats trying to score.
Yealy put the game away with a three-run homer to left in the bottom of the fifth.