UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn-Trafford put together three doubles in the top of the seventh inning to score two runs, and that was the difference in a tight PIAA Class 5A Softball Championship game.

Greencastle-Antrim was unable to get its vaunted offense going against Warrior pitcher Allyson Paulone and suffered a tough 2-0 defeat at Penn State’s Beard Field on Friday evening.

Kiersten Swain

The Blue Devils finished the season with a 22-4 record, while P-T was 24-3.

Greencastle coach Mark DeCarli said, “The girls played well, especially on defense; we just didn’t get the hits we needed. Penn-Trafford is a quality team, but I’d have lost a bet if you said we’d give up only two runs and not win the game.”

Until the seventh inning, sophomore pitcher Kiersten Swain was lights out for Greencastle. To that point, she had allowed only two hits and a walk, retired the first 11 Penn-Trafford hitters (8 on fly balls, 3 on strikeouts) until Cam Ponko’s two-out double in the fourth, and only one baserunner had advanced past first base.

But in the seventh, with one out, Guiliana Youngo smacked a double to right-center field. Swain retired the next batter for the second out, but No. 7 hitter Liz Welsh sent a pitch to right-center that reached the wall on one hop and scored Youngo for the game’s first run.

The next batter, Ella Mains, who had sent rightfielder Kaidyn Zimmerman nearly to the wall for a tricky out in her previous at-bat, lined a ball into left-center that scored the insurance run, making it 2-0.

“I think on the first two of those hits, she had an 0-2 count on the batter and just missed her spot,” DeCarli said.

“They hit a lot of balls hard, but we were making plays on them. Our outfield made some nice plays, especially that catch by Zimmerman, and we weren’t hitting the ball that hard. (Paulone) was throwing a lot of balls up in the zone and we were swinging and not squaring them up.”

The normally potent Greencastle offense did not show up Friday. Zhen Reuter led off the bottom of the first with a single and reached third on a steal and fielder’s choice, but was stranded.

Erika Hoover hit a hard grounder off Paulone’s glove for an infield single in the second, but P-T turned a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. In the fifth, Kylie Kerns was hit by a pitch, but never got any further. In the sixth, Paiton Gordon reached on an error, stole second with two outs, and was stranded.

Zimmerman bounced a base hit past the shortstop with one out in the seventh inning, but Paulone retired the last two batters routinely, on a pop-up to the third baseman and a grounder to shortstop.

Paulone allowed just three hits and did not walk a batter. She needed only 70 pitches in the game, and 50 were for strikes. She induced five pop-ups to the infield and quite a few weak ground-ball outs.

“We just couldn’t string any hits together,” DeCarli said. “I’m proud of the girls for the season they had. You can’t take that away from them. We are No. 2 in the state and that’s something you can’t be ashamed of.”

NOTES: Penn-Trafford won its second PIAA title; the other came in 2019 … The Blue Devils were in the final for just the second time; the other being a 1-0 win over Bethlehem Catholic in 2009 in 8 innings … G-A is now 9-8 in PIAA playoff games in 10 appearances in the state tournament … The Warriors are 11-3 in six appearances … Greencastle was held to 3 or fewer runs in only 5 games this season.

The game was delayed first by a 20-minute rain delay during the previous game, the 3A final, then that game went a PIAA-record 13 innings before Pine Grove beat Bald Eagle Area, 4-3 … Instead of a 4 p.m. start, the 5A game began at 6:10, then took only 1:35 to play … “It was a long day, with a lot of sitting around … it wears you out,” DeCarli said. “But Penn-Trafford was in the same situation, so I don’t think it was a factor.”