Warriors capture marathon
Ellwood City 000 100 000 000 000 00 – 1 7 0
Susquehannock 001 000 000 000 000 01 – 2 13 4
The aftermath of Susquehannock’s thrilling 17-inning win the PIAA Class AAA quarterfinal win over Ellwood City shows a lot of zeros in the scoring line.
Actually, that is just a long scoring line.
Yet surviving was just that on a day when pages in scorebooks were filled past capacity or new ones had to be started.
It was nearly 2 ½ games and three hours worth of incredible play in high humidity in the mountains of Centre County.
The pitching from Susquehannock’s Megan Sheaf (19 strikeouts) and Ellwood’s Katelyn Yoho was superb.
Senior shortstops Erin Clary of the Warriors and the Wolverines’ Ciera Damon, who will play at Pitt next season, put on fielding clinics.
Ellwood first baseman Lindsey Scialdone was the best at scooping low throws I have ever seen at the high school level.
Warrior coach Dave Pollick noticed too, pointing the near the first base bag after the game.
“See all those marks in the dirt there? Those are all throws she dug out,” he said.
Wolverine catcher Samantha Santillo - the only Ellwood player to have two hits off of Sheaf - was overcome by heat exhaustion, to the point of vomiting before warm-ups going into the bottom of the 17th. Yet, she stayed in the game.
It was a game that no one wanted to leave, yet someone had to win and Susquehannock did the Southern School District proud with its performance as the Warriors remain alive in the hunt for a second consecutive championship.
The team is now 12-0 when a loss would mean the end of its season in the last two years, even with several of the components being different. Heck, the 2008 squad starts three freshmen, Katie Swade, Carly Mickles and Chelsea Shockey.
Sophomore Connie Fike drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 17th. To the joy – and relief – of those of us on hand.
More might have been thrilling, but possibly cruel at the same time.
