Pennsville falls

Senior Softball Stars drop World Series opener, but prove they belong to be here

SENIOR SOFTBALL LL WORLD SERIES
At Roxana, Del.
Monday’s scores
Canada 10, Southeast 0
Delaware 8, Pennsville 5
Central 8, West 4
Southwest 11, Latin America 1

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

ROXANA, Del. — The Pennsville All-Stars faced perhaps the most daunting opener in the Senior Softball Little League World Series Monday night and although they didn’t win it they hung in there all the way to the end.

The Eagles faced the host team and runner-up from last year’s World Series on national TV and gave it all it could handle.

Delaware District 3 of Lower Sussex handed Pennsville its first loss on any level in this year’s tournament, 8-5, but needed to score three runs in the bottom of the sixth and hold off an Eagles’ charge in the seventh to make it happen.

Before the bus pulled out of Pennsville over the weekend, manager Chris Watson said this game would be a litmus test to determine if his team belonged in the stacked international World Series field.

Their play for the most part and the bounce they exhibited coming out of the dugout after the game said they passed the test.

They stunned the home crowd by taking a 2-0 lead on Jess Bretz’ two-run single in the third. They fell behind 5-2 in the fourth, but tied it 5-5 on Kylie Harris’ two-run single in the top of the sixth.

‘I think that was like our jitters game; we got it out,’ Harris said. ‘They’re a great team and we’re running behind them the whole time. We were able to keep up with them. They had good, timely hits – they just hit the ball – and that’s when you’ve got to tip your hat. It wasn’t a bad game, so I wasn’t upset at all. That was actually the most fun I’ve had playing in a long time.’

’We can compete with every team here,’ Bretz said. ‘I think we definitely belong here because we’ve been working for it for over a year.’

Bretz also returned to the circle after having command issues in the regional. Watson said he was going to work Bretz into the game and she came in behind starter Kloi Tighe to start the fifth.

Although she walked the first three batters she faced, Bretz got out of the jam without a run scoring on a pop up in the infield and a catcher-to-first double play. In real time it looked like Harris missed the plate after fielding the nubber and firing on to first, but she said she touched it and a replay review confirmed the call, keeping it a 5-2 game.

Tighe pitched four innings, allowing eight hits and five runs. Bretz gave up four hits, five walks and three hits in her two innings.

’The really bright side of the whole thing, the silver lining, is that Jess Bretz is back locating again,’ Watson said. ‘It took a couple batters to get warmed up and then she started hitting her spots. I’m really excited about that because now we’re deeper pitching-wise than we were before the game started.’

’I think I would’ve done a little better if I would’ve warmed up a little bit before because my spins weren’t working as well as they usually do,’ Bretz said. ‘But it felt good getting back in my groove and it feels good now I know I have Kloi’s back. It was a good ego boost to be back in the circle and to be throwing strikes.’

While Delaware didn’t score when it loaded the bases, Pennsville filled them up the following half-inning on three straight walks and capitalized on them. The first run scored when Delaware booted Tighe’s grounder in the infield and two batters later Harris laced her game-tying single into right field.

‘That just shows the resiliency they have,’ Watson said. ‘Over and over and over again they battle back. They don’t give up. They keep on moving the bats and putting runners in scoring position and bringing them in. It’s a solid team. We play with a lot of confidence.’

Pennsville needed a shutdown inning from Bretz, but Delaware’s lineup was just too strong. The Tribe parlayed four hits and a couple walks into the margin of victory.

Sophie Scurci singled home pitcher Cierra Lewis with the go-ahead run and Katie McHale provided some insurance with a two-run double. Scurci went 4-for-4. Lewis was 3-for-3 with a homer and two RBIs.

The Eagles didn’t back down. They loaded the bases in the seventh on Bella Farina’s one-out double and back-to-back two-out walks. But Lewis, a right-handed with good velocity, got the game-ending out on a fly to right.

The game was just the start of pool play for Pennsville. It plays the Asia-Pacific champion from The Philippines Tuesday at 8 p.m. the top four teams in each pool advance to the knockout rounds.

’We’re right in the mix,’ Watson said. ‘They (Delaware) were one of the competitive teams here and they usually are. It shows us we’re also right in the mix and we can compete with everybody that’s here. That’s what it looks like

’They know we’re very much alive and we very much belong here. We can play with these teams.’