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Delone Catholic shakes off loss to beat York Suburban


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A day after losing by five runs to rival Littlestown, Delone Catholic responded with a 7-4 victory against York Suburban in YAIAA softball action on a chilly and windy Wednesday afternoon in McSherrystown.

The game was scoreless into the bottom of the fifth before Squirette pitcher Cassie Rickrode helped her own cause. Rickrode hit a two-run triple just over the outstretched glove of Suburban right fielder Susan Lloyd that chased home Katie Laughman and Shelbee Holcomb after they had smacked back-to-back two-out singles.

Mikayla McCleaf followed with an infield single to score Rickrode that pushed the lead to 3-0.

Suburban (7-5, 7-3 YAIAA III) sliced the deficit to 3-2 in the top of the sixth. Brooke Day came home on an error, and Emmy Turybury touched the dish following a passed ball . The visitors had a chance to tie the game before Rickrode induced a groundout and lineout to strand the tying run at third.

Delone (9-4, 8-2 YAIAA IV) tacked on four runs in its half of the sixth. Lauryn King blasted a two-run homer down the left-field line. Rickrode ground out to score a run, and Lori Sheaffer singled home a run for a 7-2 lead heading to the seventh.

Turns out, the Squirettes needed those runs. The Trojans got a run home on Lloyd's groundout and another on Day's run-scoring single before Rickrode got Turybury to ground into a fielder's choice to end it.

Rickrode went the distance on 113 pitches, 83 of them strikes, and allowed two earned runs and seven hits with seven strikeouts and two walks.

"Cassie kept the ball down well, and that's been a problem for her in some of our losses," Delone head coach Don Smith said. "We knew that we were facing a good team today, and it took us until the fifth and sixth innings to finally put enough hits together to score."

Delone threatened in the bottom of the first with a trio of a singles, though one runner was thrown out trying to steal. And the Squirettes had at least one runner on base in every inning against Trojan hurler Olivia Eytcheson.

"Littlestown has a pitcher (McKenzie Somers) that throws hard, and so does Suburban," Smith said. "So our bats were ready to hit against a fast pitcher. That's not always the case. Sometimes we'll face a slower pitcher one day and a fast one the next or vice versa. And that can be hard a little hard to adjust to."

Suburban's best chances to score before the sixth came in the second and third innings when the Trojans stranded two runners in each frame.

Delone collected 14 hits on the afternoon, receiving three from Holcomb and two each from Sheaffer, McCleaf, Rickrode, Laughman and Shayna Rider. Rickrode knocked in three runs, and Holcomb scored twice.

The Squires return to action Friday with a YAIAA IV matchup at home against winless York Catholic at 4:15 p.m.

Delone Catholic 7, Suburban 4

York Suburban0000022—470Delone Catholic000034x—7142

YS, Olivia Eytcheson and Emmy Turybury. DC, Cassie Rickrode and Lauryn King.

SO-BB — Eytcheson 2-2. Rickrode 7-2; W — Rickrode; L — Eytcheson; 3B — DC, Rickrode; HR — DC, King.