Heartbreak for Delone: Squirettes' season ends in walk-off fashion

Brandon Stoneburg | GameTimePA

</p><partner-banner util-module-path=elements/partner class=spacer-large min-height=600 fluid outstream momentum></partner-banner><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>With one swing of the bat, Kaya Swanek sent her Holy Redeemer teammates racing onto the field in jubilation. They mobbed her at first base after Morgan Bienkowski touched home plate, securing a third-straight walk-off win for the resilient Royals.</p><p>Seeing another team celebrate at the end of the game is a crushing feeling that's all too familiar to Delone Catholic. The Squirettes saw it almost exactly a year ago today when Central Columbia knocked them out of the PIAA quarterfinals. It was happening all over again on Thursday and again, it was Delone Catholic that had to watch another team move on to the Class AA state semifinals.</p><p>As Swanek's base hit rolled into the outfield grass, the Squirettes' heart dropped.</p><p>"I really can't tell you how I felt," senior Shayna Rider said, fighting back tears.</p><p>After Delone pitcher Cassie Rickrode, who had given up just two earned runs in the last four games combined, managed to strand the go-ahead run at third base in three consecutive innings — including a bases-loaded jam in the sixth — her magic ran out in the bottom of the seventh.</p><partner-inline util-module-path=elements/partner class=spacer-large placement=native-article_link sizes="[[300, 250], [3, 3]]" min-height=250 fluid outstream></partner-inline><p>Rickrode got the Royals' leadoff batter out, but the next three hitters reached base. First, Bienkowski singled up the middle. Then Jennifer Ringsdorf reached when Katie Laughman, who had not committed an error all postseason, overthrew MiKayla McCleaf at first base. Both runners advanced on the error, and with one out and a base open, the Squirettes elected to intentionally walk the Royals' No. 3 hitter, bringing Swanek to the plate. On the first pitch, she ripped a single up the middle and ripped the hearts out of the Squirettes, who would have advanced further than any team in program history with a win.</p><partner-banner util-module-path=elements/partner fluid bottom lazy class=spacer-large min-height=390 outstream></partner-banner><partner-inline util-module-path=elements/partner placement=native-article_link sizes="[[300, 250], [3, 3]]" min-height=250 fluid outstream></partner-inline><p>"To keep going, you need some breaks to go your way, especially in this kind of game," Delone Catholic manager Don Smith said. "And today they didn't. It's that simple."</p><p>Smith was upset about three calls he believed umpires missed earlier in the game that negatively affected the Squirettes. Smith said it affected his strategy in the final inning, when he wanted to place five defenders in the infield for a possible play at home plate. Smith, however, was out of field visits for the contest — teams are permitted two per game — and couldn't align his defense from the dugout or confer with the umpiring crew.</p><cta-atoms-container-inline util-module-path=elements/cta class=spacer-large></cta-atoms-container-inline><p>The final inning was a polar opposite of the first three, when Rickrode limited the Royals to just one hit — a harmless infield single with two outs in the third.</p><p>"I thought she (Rickrode) pitched pretty good because that's a good hitting team over there," Smith said. "You make a mistake and they'll take advantage of it and that's what they did."</p><partner-banner util-module-path=elements/partner fluid bottom lazy class=spacer-large min-height=600 outstream momentum></partner-banner><p><iframe width=560 height=315 src=https://www.youtube.com/embed/VqdOvp6nTSQ frameborder=0 allowfullscreen></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Rickrode got the scoring started in the top of the first inning, when she hit a towering fly ball to the warning track in center field. The two-out, RBI-double scored Shelbee Holcomb, giving Delone an early 1-0 lead.</p><p>The Squirettes added an unearned run in the fourth thanks to three Royals' errors. McCleaf reached base when the second baseman dropped a fly ball, then advanced on a throwing error. Lauryn King came up and laid down a sacrifice bunt, and McCleaf scored on another Holy Redeemer throwing error.</p><p>That's when things started to unravel for Delone, however. Olivia Mennig and Kristen Coffay each drove in a run with back-to-back extra-base hits in the bottom of the fourth, but the Royals left the go-ahead run at third. Holy Redeemer's leadoff hitter reached base in the fifth, but Rickrode struck three straight batters out, stranding the runner at third again.</p><partner-inline util-module-path=elements/partner class=spacer-large placement=native-article_link sizes="[[300, 250], [3, 3]]" min-height=250 fluid outstream></partner-inline><p>"We weren't worried, we thought we would get some hits and come back," Rider said of the team's mentality after the Royals scored twice. "But we just didn't get those timely hits."</p><partner-banner util-module-path=elements/partner fluid bottom lazy class=spacer-large min-height=390 outstream></partner-banner><p>The Royals threatened again in the sixth when they loaded the bases, but Rickrode induced a groundout to end the inning. The Squirettes' 7-8-9 hitters went down in order in the seventh, opening the door for the Royals to walk off with a win. And they did just that.</p><p>The Squirettes fought back their emotions as they walked off the field for the final time this season to an ovation from the Delone faithful.</p><p>"From how we were playing at the beginning of the season, just to get here (is impressive)," Rider said. "It's amazing knowing that we made it this far."</p><h3 class="articleBodyHeadline wordpress-header">Holy Redeemer 3, Delone Catholic 2</h3><blockquote>Delone Catholic1001000—251Holy Redeemer0002001—383</blockquote><p>DC, Cassie Rickrode and Lauryn King, HR, Kristen Coffay and Abby Shorts</p><p><b>SO-BB —</b> DC, Rickrode 5-2, HR, Coffay 4-0;<b> W —</b> Coffay;<b> L —</b> Rickrode;<b> 2B —</b> DC, Rickrode, HR, Coffay;<b> 3B —</b> HR, Olivia Mennig</p><partner-banner util-module-path=elements/partner fluid bottom lazy class=spacer-large min-height=390 outstream></partner-banner><lit-timestamp class="column ten-column no-gutter spacer-small" slot=timestamp publishdate="2015-06-05 01:40:38 +0000 UTC" updatedate="2015-06-05 01:40:38 +0000 UTC"></lit-timestamp><style>html a.nsb-link,html .primary-content a.nsb-link{box-shadow:0 0;cursor:pointer;height:var(--spacer-twentyfour,24px);margin-right:var(--spacer-twentyfour,24px);text-shadow:none;width:var(--spacer-twentyfour,24px)}a.nsb-link span{max-width:0;overflow:hidden;position:absolute;visibility:hidden}.nsb-svg{height:var(--spacer-twentyfour,24px);width:var(--spacer-twentyfour,24px)}.nsb-twitter-button{fill:var(--social-twitter,#4099ff)}.nsb-email-button{fill:var(--color-dove-gray,#787878)}.nsb-facebook-button{fill:var(--social-facebook,#3b5998)}.nsb-sms-button{fill:var(--color-ui-green,#008c33)}.nsb-svg.gallery{fill:var(--color-ui-white,#fff)}</style><div class="spacer-small column ten-column no-gutter"><a alt="Post the article to your Facebook Timeline" class="nsb-link nsb-facebook inline-flex" data-size=large onclick="fireNavShareAnalytics('facebook');" rel=noopener target=_blank><svg class="universal-low nsb-svg nsb-facebook-button" view-box='0 0 24 24'> <path d="M12.6143832,21 L3.99346182,21 C3.44462725,21 3,20.5550968 3,20.006476 L3,3.99345411 C3,3.44469364 3.44469709,3 3.99346182,3 L20.006608,3 C20.5552331,3 21,3.44469364 21,3.99345411 L21,20.006476 C21,20.5551667 20.5551632,21 20.006608,21 L15.4197395,21 L15.4197395,14.029408 L17.7594454,14.029408 L18.1097832,11.3128446 L15.4197395,11.3128446 L15.4197395,9.57849053 C15.4197395,8.79198274 15.6381418,8.25600363 16.7659836,8.25600363 L18.2044917,8.25537504 L18.2044917,5.82565895 C17.9557072,5.79255313 17.1017938,5.71858885 16.108332,5.71858885 C14.0343128,5.71858885 12.6143832,6.98457234 12.6143832,9.30945332 L12.6143832,11.3128446 L10.2686707,11.3128446 L10.2686707,14.029408 L12.6143832,14.029408 L12.6143832,21 L12.6143832,21 Z"></path> </svg><span>Facebook</span></a> <a alt="Tweet about this article" class="nsb-twitter nsb-link inline-flex" data-size=large onclick="fireNavShareAnalytics('twitter')" rel=noopener target=_blank><svg class="universal-low nsb-svg nsb-twitter-button" view-box='0 0 24 24'> <path d="M21,6.77573131 C20.338616,7.07692308 19.6265188,7.28060672 18.8795563,7.3716143 C19.6423666,6.9035753 20.2276809,6.16143012 20.5034337,5.27735645 C19.7892235,5.71072589 19,6.02600217 18.1568938,6.19501625 C17.4849445,5.45937161 16.5245642,5 15.461701,5 C13.4236661,5 11.770206,6.69555796 11.770206,8.78656555 C11.770206,9.08342362 11.8019017,9.3716143 11.8652932,9.64897075 C8.79609086,9.4907909 6.07554147,7.98483207 4.25303751,5.69122427 C3.93502377,6.2524377 3.75330164,6.9035753 3.75330164,7.59696641 C3.75330164,8.91007584 4.40517697,10.0693391 5.39619651,10.7486457 C4.79186476,10.7302275 4.22134179,10.5579632 3.72266244,10.276273 L3.72266244,10.3228602 C3.72266244,12.1581798 4.9957739,13.6890574 6.68621236,14.035753 C6.37665082,14.1245937 6.05018489,14.1690141 5.71315372,14.1690141 C5.47543582,14.1690141 5.24300053,14.1462622 5.01796091,14.1018418 C5.4881141,15.6056338 6.85103011,16.7009751 8.46751189,16.7302275 C7.20390914,17.7464789 5.61067089,18.3521127 3.88114105,18.3521127 C3.58320127,18.3521127 3.28843106,18.3347779 3,18.3001083 C4.63444268,19.3726977 6.57633386,20 8.66085578,20 C15.4543053,20 19.1679873,14.2307692 19.1679873,9.22643554 C19.1679873,9.06175515 19.1648177,8.89707476 19.1584786,8.73564464 C19.8800845,8.20151679 20.5066033,7.53521127 21,6.77573131"></path> </svg><span>Twitter</span></a> <a alt="Email this article" class="nsb-email nsb-link inline-flex" onclick="fireNavShareAnalytics('email')" rel=noopener target=_blank><svg class="universal-low nsb-svg nsb-email-button" view-box='0 0 24 24'> <path d="M3,5.8757627 C3,5.39209232 3.39269552,5 3.8926228,5 L20.1073772,5 C20.6003592,5 21,5.40389442 21,5.8757627 L21,18.1242373 C21,18.6079077 20.6073045,19 20.1073772,19 L3.8926228,19 C3.39964084,19 3,18.5961056 3,18.1242373 L3,5.8757627 Z M12,11.09375 L3,6.74107143 L3,8.48214286 L12,12.8348214 L21,8.48214286 L21,6.74107143 L12,11.09375 Z"></path> </svg><span>Email</span></a></div><script> (function () { let route = window.ga_data.route, headline = route.headline || document.title, url = route.url, sponsoredText = (route.sponsoredSeries || route.sponsoredStory) ? 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