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Greencastle bests James Buchanan in 8 innings


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Despite putting up five runs in the top of the first inning, the Greencaslte-Antrim softball team knew James Buchanan wasn't going to go down easy.

And similar to the top of the opening inning, the Rockets came in and put up four runs of their own - setting up what looked to be a very long game.

James Buchanan came back to force extra innings, but Greencastle's bats came through in the eighth to put away an important Mid Penn Colonial Division game Tuesday, 8-6.

The Blue Devils scored twice in the top of the eighth after putting five runners on base. Ally Brown hit a double to left field to bring in Morgan Wagaman for the eventual game-winning run, then later came home on a passed ball for a cushion.

Brown went 4-for-5 and came in to close out the game in the seventh inning to earn the win.

"Every game she hits the ball well, but she's just seeing a big ball right now," Greencastle coach Mark DeCarli said. "We always count on her for the clutch hit and she came through again."

Greencastle (9-4, 5-2 MPC) had the edge early, with a 6-4 lead in the fifth inning, but James Buchanan (7-4, 2-4 MPC) had momentum. With Taryn Miller in the circle for the first time, and strong defense behind her, the Rockets kept the game within reach.

And in comes Charity Miller.

Miller smashed a two-run home run over the fence in right field to tie the game at six in the bottom of the fifth inning.

"I've been here six years and that's the first time I've seen one go over the right field fence, and that cleared the fence by a long way," James Buchanan coach Troy Pittman said. "That was one of the hardest-hit balls I've seen. And it tied the game. I thought we had the momentum and we had a chance in the last inning, we just couldn't get that big hit."

"We were just trying to stay positive, pumped and focused," Miller said. "When we were down it didn't really feel like we were down. We knew we had a lot of work left to do and we could still hit."

With the win, Greencastle takes a solid hold on the Mid Penn Colonial division with a 5-2 league record.

"We had to prove our point to be at the top (of the MPC) to even be competitive and this just hit the nail on the head," G-A's Alicen Hoover said. "It shows that we are in it to win it and the Devils are back."