Carter Reid of Greencastle-Antrim slides into home to score the first run of the game Wednesday. The Blue Devils edged Northern 2-1 in 9 innings. The Polar Bear catcher is Kade Kitts (photo by Darby Sells).

BASEBALL
Greencastle-Antrim 2, Northern York 1: A ringing double over the centerfielder’s head by Carter McCauley in the top of the ninth inning proved to be the game-winner for the Blue Devils, who beat Mid Penn Colonial rival Northern on the road Wednesday afternoon.

“This was just an unbelievable game to be a part of,” G-A coach Eric Shaner said. “It’s one of the best I’ve seen. The players played extremely well on both sides — there was great defense and pitching, and both teams had missed opportunities. A lot of respect both ways.”

Jace Szaflarski delivers a pitch for Greencastle in a 2-1 win over Northern on Wednesday. Szaflarski allowed only 3 hits and an unearned run in 7 innings (photo by Darby Sells).

Greencastle (11-4, 7-4 MPC), which won its sixth straight game, took a 1-0 lead off Polar Bear ace Timmy Bonin in the sixth inning. Carter Reid walked, stole second base and came in to score on a base hit by Aidan Grudzinski.

G-A starter Jace Szaflarski allowed only one hit through six innings. In the seventh, Northern got two hits and scored the tying run on a two-out passed ball on a slider in the dirt.

“Jace was just four pitches from his limit at that point,” Shaner said. “He managed to get a grounder to end the inning three pitches later. He just made big pitch after big pitch, and that’s what we needed.”

In the top of the ninth, Grudzinski led off with a single and he raced home when McCauley sent his shot to deep center.

Szaflarski allowed 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5 in 7 innings. Adam Horst (4-1) got the win with two innings of 1-hit relief, with 3 strikeouts.

“We just got one extra hit in a big spot — that was the difference,” Shaner said. “This was a great character win — I couldn’t be prouder.”

SOFTBALL
Greencastle-Antrim 10, Northern York 6: The Blue Devil offense was hot early in the game and added some key insurance runs late and G-A captured a Mid Penn Colonial showdown game over the Polar Bears at home Wednesday afternoon.

Annika Gaus

Greencastle (13-2, 10-2 MPC) is now tied with Northern (13-3, 10-2 MPC) for first place in the Colonial with two games left.

“That was a great win … huge,” Blue Devil coach Mark DeCarli said. “Everything is working together for us right now.”

G-A scored two runs in the first, four in the second and one in the third and led 7-0 until the sixth inning, when the Bears finally got to Sophie Layton for five runs.

DeCarli said, “The girls were swinging the bats and hitting the ball hard from the word go. We were up 7-0, then Northern got it to 7-5. I told the girls not to panic and to get some insurance runs, and that’s what they did.”

The Blue Devils retaliated with three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Caroline Logsdon hit a one-out single and stole second. Makayla Jerin singled, then Meadow Gambacurta hit an RBI double. Emma Broadwater hit a sacrifice fly and the final run scored on a base hit by Abby Stouffer.

Logsdon and Annika Gaus each went 3-for-4, with Logsdon having 2 RBIs and Gaus 3 stolen bases. Jerin and Gambacurta each had two base hits and a pair of runs batted in. Logsdon and Sydney Orndorff hit triples.

Layton (6-0) went the distance on just 65 pitches (45 strikes), giving up 9 hits, 1 walk and 6 runs.

“Sophie had good control and the defense behind her was exceptional again,” DeCarli said. “She hung tough.”