Tamaqua holds off Northwestern

Tamaqua will have its share of growing pains during the early part of the softball season.

But the way it played Wednesday afternoon against Northwestern, the Blue Raiders have made a big step forward.

Tamaqua coach Jill Barron is confident her team is going to mature down the road, but after holding off a late Tiger rally, the outlook could be changing faster than she expected.

After taking an early lead, Tamaqua had the patience to stave the rallying Tigers for a 10-6 non-league win.

The Raiders (4-2) built a 7-1 lead in the second inning, then watched as the home club chipped away.That’s when the maturation started to surface as Tamaqua managed to hold on for the decision.

“Our motto has been ‘we don’t start to hit and score until the fifth and sixth innings,” joked Barron. “I was happy that we got a good start today.”

Northwestern (3-2) put up the first run on a Molly Mitman single and Morgan Farthing triple. But the Raiders erupted to score seven times in the second inning. Jen Fredrickson and Jada Shellhammer both laced triples in the rally while Miranda Chinchar, Jane Kupchinsky, Lexi Thomas and Bryn Clifford all singled.

“They got that early lead, and we had our backs to the wall,” said Tiger coach Josh Zimmerman. “Our girls could have very easily tucked their tails between our legs… but they had a lot of fight in them.”

That showed in a four-run fifth that featured three walks, and singles from Ashley Sisco, Oliva Stofflett, Adana Funk and Kylie Zentz. Sisco and Stofflett drove in runs with their hits, while Brynn Balliet picked up an RBI on a sacrifice fly.

However, Shellhammer wiggled out of trouble by getting a strikeout, which turned out to be the last rally the Tigers had left.

“We left the bases loaded, had we gotten a hit there it could have been a completely different ball game,” said Zimmerman.

After that, Shellhammer came back to record the final six outs without any further damage.

“We’ve had a lot of new faces, but we’re starting to gel,” said Barron. “We have a lot of sophomores starting and also start a freshman, so we’re trying to get acclimated. Personally, I think our bats are strong from top to bottom.”

BLOWING IN THE WIND … What seemed like constant blustery winds didn’t make for idea playing conditions, as the winds whipped up a lot of infield dust and at times affected the pitchers.

HIT PARADE … Tamaqua had 10 hits, two each from Kupchinsky, Beere, Chinchar, Shellhammer and Fredrickson. Northwestern slapped out nine hits. Farthing and Sisco each had two singles, while Mitman, Emily Akelaitis, Zentz, Funk and Stofflett all had one hit.

Tamaqua 070 020 1 – 10 10 1

Northwestern 101 400 0 – 6 9 0

Shellhammer and Frederick; A. Akelaitis and E. Akelaitis. W – Shellhammer. L – E. Akelaitis