(Note: This story is an abridged recap. For a full story with quotes from Coach Alan Pifer, an inning-by-inning recap and lots of photos, pick up a print edition of The Spirit on Tuesday!)
Monday afternoon -- on a day that felt more like early-season softball weather than the PIAA semi-finals -- the Lady Chucks stayed hot, belting four extra-base hits and holding a hard-hitting Mt. Pleasant team to one run in the PIAA AAAA semi-finals to earn a 3-1 win and advance to Friday's state championship game.
Offensively, the Lady Chucks saw Kylee Lingenfelter and Sarah Weaver hit back-to-back two-out home runs in the bottom of the third inning, then added one more in a three-hit fourth that saw Kendal Johnston double, Toya Jones single and Abby Gigliotti add an RBI double to make it 3-0. Madison Stonbraker and Grace Aikens also added singles on the day.
On the other side of the book, Lingenfelter limited Mt. Pleasant to three hits -- two singles in the fifth and an RBI double in the sixth -- and allowed no earned runs. She didn't walk any, and she fanned a total of 12. Punxsy's defense also made some stellar plays, including a nice running catch to end the first inning by Jones.
Punxsy will play next on Friday with the state championship on the line. Monday's other semi-final -- in the Eastern portion of the bracket -- was postponed to Tuesday due to weather. Punxsy will play the winner of that game on Friday at 1:30 p.m. at Penn State University.