The phrase, “it was over before it started,” was never more true than in Wednesday’s Bellwood-Antis and Northern Bedford match-up. The Lady Panthers had scored a run in the top of the first inning on April 3, the day the game had originally been scheduled for, before rain halted the game in the bottom of the first.
Thanks in large part to Northern Bedford hurler Brooke Over, the Lady Panthers had all the runs they would need before they even took the field Wednesday.
Over struck out 11 while yielding only two hits and never allowing a runner past second base in Northern Cambria’s 13-0 victory over Bellwood-Antis.
“Over is only a sophomore and is an outstanding pitcher,” Bellwood-Antis Manager Alex Sitman said. “That’s what we need to see if we are going to get better and compete. Seeing pitching like this is only going to help us.”
Bellwood-Antis pitcher Courtney Hamer, making only her second pitching appearance of the season a day after the Lady Blue Devils’ other pitcher, Emily Derr, threw over 150 pitches, kept Bellwood-Antis in the game until the sixth inning.
Hamer, who walked 14 in her first trip to the mound this season, once again struggled to find the strike zone, but managed to work around nine walks in her first four innings of action to keep Bellwood-Antis close, down 5-0.
In the sixth inning, the walks, coupled with three defensive lapses, led to an outburst of eight runs that gave the Lady Panthers a 13-0 lead. Brittany Bowser walked and scored twice in the inning, and Felicia Amick capped off the rally with a bases loaded two-run single.
Despite being down only five runs as late as the fifth inning, the Lady Blue Devils never came within striking distance of Northern Bedford. Pam Weyant was the only Lady Blue Devil to reach second base and did so twice after walking.
Bellwood-Antis had their best chance to score in the bottom of the first when Weyant walked and went to second on a one-out single by Christine Pfahler, but Over got two strikeouts to escape the jam. Leah Snyder registered the Lady Blue Devils’ only other hit with a line drive to left in the fifth inning.
“They are a good team,” Sitman said. “Over was throwing some risers that the girls were cutting high on; she’s a quality pitcher, but at the end we started to put some balls in play, and that’s a real positive we can take from these games where the other team has a dominant pitcher like that.”
The Lady Blue Devils will likely get another taste of a dominant pitcher today when they travel to Bishop Guilfoyle for scheduled 4 p.m. start.
Miranda Merilli, the Lady Marauders’ top pitcher, is the probable starter. Merilli just missed a shutout in Bellwood earlier in the season, allowing a run with two outs in the seventh inning of a 6-1 Bishop Guilfoyle win.
Northern Bedford 13 Bellwood-Antis 0
NORTHERN BEDFORD – Hammel, 3b, 3-2-0; Kilgore, 2b, 3-2-0; Bowser, cf, 1-3-1; Amick, ss, 3-1-1; Clark, lf, 3-0-2; Sparks, pr, 0-1-0; Barton, c, 4-1-1; Van Der Paer, ph, 1-0-0; Over, p, 4-1-0; Detwiler, 1b-rf, 3-1-0; Cottle, rf, 0-0-0; Marinski, 1b, 2-1-1. TOTALS 27-13-6.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Weyant, cf, 1-0-0; Baldauf, ss, 2-0-0; Pfahler, 2b-1b, 3-0-1; Askey, c, 3-0-0; Putt, dp, 2-0-0; Derr, p-2b, 2-0-0; Riley, lf, 2-0-0; Brown, 3b, 2-0-0; Snyder, rf, 2-0-1; Hamer, 1b-p, 0-0-0. TOTALS 19-0-2.
Northern Bedford 102 028 13-6-0
Bellwood-Antis 000 000 0-2-3
RBI: Bowser 2, Amick 2, Clark 2, Barton 2, Over, Hammel, Detwiler.
SO: Over 11, Hamer 6.
BB: Over 2, Hamer 13, Derr 1.
WP: Over LP: Derr.
