FAYETTEVILLE — On April 20, Chambersburg played Mifflin County in softball and won 11-0. Huskies pitcher Madison Wolfgang was touched for 11 hits, 11 runs (5 earned), four walks and seven strikeouts.
But that was back when the Trojans were averaging 12.3 runs per game and racing to a 12-0 record.
On Thursday afternoon at Norlo Park in a Mid Penn Commonwealth game, Mifflin County turned the tables and so did Wolfgang. She allowed only three hits and one run, walked one and struck out 11 in a 2-1 victory over Chambersburg. That was against the Trojan team now averaging 1.5 runs in their last five contests.
Chambersburg (13-5, 9-5 MPC) has now lost five of its last six games and tumbled from No. 1 in the District 3 power rankings to at least No. 5 and will likely miss a first-round playoff bye.
“I’m out of quotes and ideas,” Trojan coach Chris Skultety said. “This is surreal.”
Chambersburg had runners on in every inning except the seventh and stranded a runner in scoring position in four innings. The only run came in the sixth: Sam Paetow blooped a ball into right field that bounced past Sophie McCurdy’s try for a diving catch and turned into a triple, and Ashli Ganoe performed a squeeze bunt to score courtesy runner Lauren Allison.
Other than that, Wolfgang was able to tame the Trojans with a steady diet of pitches on the outside corner. The only well-hit ball was a single up the middle by Alyssa Brechbill.
Skultety said, “We can’t even get a bleeder to fall in. We’re just stuck and we can’t get out. We’re giving different people a chance, and we’re trying to push all the buttons, but we just haven’t been able to get a big hit in the last six games or so.”
Kylee Miller once again pitched a fine game for Chambersburg … except for one pitch. She gave up only three hits, walked none and fanned six. She even got out of a bases-loaded, one-out threat in the top of the first inning after her team made three consecutive errors.
But in the top of the sixth, Miller threw a first-pitch fastball down the middle to Mifflin County’s Dakota Hershberger, who belted the pitch on a line over the fence in left field to make it 2-0. Arika Henry had opened the inning with a single.
In her previous at-bat, Hershberger also picked on the first pitch and hit a shot into left-center that appeared to be going out. But the wind held the ball up a little and Kenzie Boyd flew in from leftfield, dove and made the catch before rolling into the fence. On the home run, she plowed into the fence again, but that ball was too far.
Skultety said, “You can’t throw one down the middle to that girl — I think she has seven home runs — but I can’t put anything on Kylee. She was really good again.”
The Trojans, who were missing two starters (Hannah Runk and Sophie Fetterhoff) with concussions, have one more game to get things turned around before the District 3 playoffs begin May 23. They play at Waynesboro on Friday.
Categories: Chambersburg, Softball
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