Greencastle

Greencastle softball steamrolls through 1st round

GREENCASTLE — Just about everything went right for the Greencastle-Antrim softball team.

That allowed the Blue Devils to produce a comfortable 10-0 victory over Susquehannock in six innings in a first-round District 3 Class 5A playoff game at home on Monday afternoon.

Abby Stouffer

Greencastle (18-4), the No. 6 seed, will play in the quarterfinals Thursday at No. 3 seed South Western (19-1). The Mustangs beat Palmyra 9-4 in the first round.

“That was the kind of first-round game we wanted,” G-A coach Mark DeCarli said. “Now we’ve got to win Thursday (to qualify for the state tournament). I don’t know much about South Western, but if we play the way we have been — and we’re playing well — we’ll have a good shot.”

The Blue Devils got started early, scoring a run in the first inning, and then blowing the game open with five runs in the second inning. Alexis Jones cracked a triple that plated two runs in the that inning.

Two more runs in the third inning put Greencastle within one run of ending the game on the 10-run rule, but it didn’t score again until the sixth. At that point, Meadow Gambacurta blasted a triple and came home when an error was made on the play.

“The offense was clicking,” DeCarli said.

Alexis Jones

The Blue Devils cranked out 12 hits, including two each by Sydney Orndorff, Gambacurta, Annika Gaus, Abby Stouffer and Jones.

Stouffer had a double and a triple and drove in two runs. Jones had three RBIs and Orndorff and Makayla Jerin each had two runs knocked in.

“Stouffer has been more patient at the plate and is swinging at strikes,” DeCarli said.

That took the pressure off pitcher Sophie Layton (9-0), who went the distance with a four-hitter. She struck out two and walked two.

DeCarli said, “Sophie was on again, and she worked through a little bit of an injury. Her changeup was working well, and she worked through the two errors we made.”

For the Warriors (12-9), Hailey Harbin slapped her way to a 3-for-3 day at the plate.

Categories: Greencastle, Softball