Finally.
Pushing across the go-ahead marker with no one out in the top of the 10th inning — and stranding the potential game-tying run at third base in the bottom half — Lower Dauphin squeezed past Greencastle-Antrim 3-2 in a Mid-Penn Conference softball semi Thursday at wind-swept Central Dauphin High School.
Sam Gorman’s run-scoring double chased home Emily Lingle with the go-ahead run for the Falcons (17-4), who earned a spot in the Mid-Penn title game and a date with Commonwealth Division co-champ Cumberland Valley at Hershey.
Gorman finished with four hits and two ribbies in five trips for the Keystone Division champs. Maddie Lilliock and Shelby Alcorn each added two hits for LD.
Ava Bottiglia, who came on in the fourth inning to relieve starter Tiff Grubb, recorded the victory after scattering five hits and fanning nine in seven innings.
Ally Brown worked all 10 innings for GA (18-2), which entered Thursday’s game riding a 14-game winning streak. She walked one and whiffed four.
Michaela Ensminger collected four of GA’s nine hits, while Brown backed her own cause with three singles. Ashlynn Schaeffer chased home both Blue Devils runs — and ended Grubb’s outing — with a fourth-inning single.
ROUNDING THIRD
Locked in a 2-2 duel that appeared headed for even more bonus softball, LD opened the top of the 10th inning with Lingle parked on second base. Moments later, Lingle was in high-speed motion and scoring easily with the go-ahead run once Gorman blasted Brown’s first offering to deep right center.
While Gorman was tagged out trying to stretch her two-bagger into three, Brown conceded a single to Maddi Kotchey before working out of additional trouble.
The Blue Devils immediately put Bottiglia in a jam in the bottom half of the 10th, as Katie Gelsinger’s sacrifice moved Morgan Wagaman to third base. Bottiglia, though, fanned Brooke Zeger and got Ensminger on an infield pop to end the threat.
And the game.
LD took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on Gorman’s run-scoring single — Lilliock opened with a base knock and moved to second on a wild pitch before racing home on Gorman's ground single up the middle — then added a second run in the fourth on Alcorn’s RBI single.
Alcorn’s base hit plated Kayla Holl, who reached on a one-out fielder’s choice and swiped second before wheeling home on the two-out rip.
The Blue Devils finally reached Grubb in the bottom half of the fourth, evening the score at 2-2 on Schaeffer’s two-run single to left. Zeger opened the frame with a walk, then raced to third on Ensminger’s laced double down the right-field line.
And that’s where it stood until the 10th, when the Falcons finally broke through.
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