Dragons roll to T-V title

Besides having 13 hits, the Dragons earned eight walks against Edmeston pitcher Megan Lawrence, who also had six wild pitches in a 17-2 loss to Schenevus in the Tri-Valley League softball championship at Red Dragon Field.

"We've had a plan since the beginning," Schenevus coach Jen Pier said. "(We) stick to the plan, and 90 percent of the time it's worked for us. We're planning on going right to states. We've got everything mapped out and maybe it's lofty but hey, you know, shoot for the stars and if you miss the stars, at least you're up there."

Lawrence (13-4) had trouble finding the strike zone right away, consistently missing high and other times making life difficult for catcher Jennifer Norton by throwing the ball in the dirt.

"We had a lot of mental mistakes," said Edmeston coach Brian Burgess, whose 13-5 team had its three-year run as T-V league champions ended. "We needed to put the ball in play more and get more runners home. We didn't do that and we just had a lot of errors tonight. When Schenevus gets ahead in a game like that, you can't make errors."

Stephanie Keaney bunted to Lawrence, whose throw to first was dropped by Brittanie Becraft. Keaney moved to second and stole third. After winning pitcher Jessica Bentley struck out, Nicole Dulkis hit a liner off Lawrence's glove. Lawrence picked up the ball and threw it low to Becraft. The throw went into right field, scoring Keaney and moving Dulkis to third. Dulkis then scored when third baseman Susanna Johnson missed a pickoff attempt from Norton to make it 2-1.

Holli Oberacker followed with a walk and stole second. She took third and scored on back-to-back wild pitches to make it 3-1.

The Dragons made it 4-1 in the third inning. Marion Murphy got hit by a pitch, stole second and took third when Norton's attempt to get Murphy went into center. Kelly Tiderencel then bunted, but Lawrence's throw was, again, dropped by Becraft, allowing Murphy to score.

The Dragons put the game away in the fourth when they sent 10 batters to the plate and scored six runs.

Keaney walked and stole second on the first pitch to Bentley. Keaney then stole third and scored on Bentley's hit to right to make it 5-1. Dulkis followed with a single to move Bentley to third. Dulkis then stole second.

Oberacker made it 7-1 when her grounder to Johnson was cleanly fielded, but threw the ball in the dirt in front of Becraft, allowing Keaney and Dulkis to score. Oberacker advanced to second and moved to third on Lawrence's fourth wild pitch.

Murphy had an RBI single to center to score Oberacker. On the play, the ball dropped in front of Stefanie Cornnell, who attempted to scoop the ball, but it hit off her mitt and went behind Cornnell, allowing Murphy to reach third.

Maura Harrington followed with an RBI single to left, scoring Murphy to make it 9-1. Pinch-runner Mikayla Bookhout stole second and moved to third on Tiderencel's single to left. After Tiderencel stole second, Bookhout scored on Jayme Bentley's sacrifice bunt for a 10-1 lead.

"She was up a lot tonight," Burgess said of Lawrence, who struck out seven and gave up 12 earned runs. "She was having some trouble throwing strikes."

"Once we got behind, she couldn't mix her pitches and she didn't have a chance to do that tonight," Burgess said. "That kind of hurt her too."

"My thing is, Stop us'," Pier said. "I'm going to put the pressure on you and if you stop us, well, then good for you. Until you do, it's run."

Oberacker, who Pier said is the only remaining member of Schenevus' last league championship team, went 2-for-4 with two RBIs, four runs, a triple, a walk and a stolen base. The senior leads the team in batting average this season.

"The whole team came out to play today," said Oberacker, who just missed a grand slam when her 215-foot fly ball was caught about five feet in front of the fence by center fielder Cornnell in the second inning. "Everyone came together as a team. We never let up. We hustled every pitch. It didn't matter (what the situation was)."

Jessica Bentley (7-0) allowed two runs on six hits. She walked six and struck out none.

"With the long breaks in between innings, I would either be in (the dugout) cheering for my teammates or if the inning lasted too long, I would come back (behind the dugout) and I would throw some pitches underhand and overhand and just keep myself loose between innings," Bentley said. "Defense definitely helped today."

Schenevus, ranked 17th in the state in Class D, is the No. 4 seed in the Section Four Class D Tournament and will host No. 13 Gilbertsville-Mount Upton at 4:30 p.m. Friday.

Johnson had two hits for Edmeston, which is ranked No. 20 in the state and is seeded sixth in sectionals. The Panthers host No. 11 Laurens at 4:30 p.m. Friday.

Megan Lawrence (L,13-4) and Jennifer Norton. Jessica Bentley (W,7-0) and Marion Murphy. 2B _ Brittanie Becraft (E), 3B _ Holli Oberacker (S), Kelly Tiderencel (S).

Photos

Star photo by Julie LewisSchenevus- Kelly Tiderencel is safe at first base Friday as the ball bounces off the glove of Edmeston first baseman Brittanie Becraft in the third inning of the Tri-Valley League championship game at Oneonta State. Schenevus won its first title since 2004 with a 17-2 victory.