Tough to swallow

By Lisa Byers

July 20, 2008 11:37 pm

— CORRY — The Mid-East/Cochranton Junior League softball team had some pretty lofty expectations coming into this season, sporting nearly every member from its 2007 squad that finished within just a run of advancing to the state tournament.
The unfortunate thing about big expectations, however, is they can often lead to big disappointments. Such was the case for MEC.
MEC fell just short of the Section 1 Junior League title Sunday for the second year in a row, falling to host Corry, 5-2.
MEC’s season comes to an end with the loss. Corry, meanwhile, advances to the state tournament in Berwick. Corry won the state title last season and wound up finishing second at the East Regional.
“Last year we lost because of a calculator; this year we lost because of a lack of performance,” MEC coach Mike Dickson said. “We had an opportunity … We had our destiny in our own hands. We win the game, we pack our bags and head out Wednesday.
“But we didn’t do that. It’s just real disappointing. Real disappointing.”
MEC went into yesterday’s game not only trying to win the Section 1 title and its berth to the state tournament, but to avenge Thursday’s 9-4 loss to the host club. And things started out pretty good for MEC in that quest.
Lindsay Hasbrouck led off the championship game with a sharp single up the middle, stole second and advanced to third on a groundout by Emily Merritt. She scampered home on a sacrifice fly by Kellilyn Dickson that was caught in foul territory in left field.
For a while, it appeared that run would be all MEC would need with Emma Parker pitching another outstanding game for the pink and black. But eventually things started falling apart for MEC.
And it all began when Emily Lewis drew a lead-off walk to start the fourth inning. MEC retired the next two batters — the second of which was called out after reaching on a single for not returning to first base when the pitcher had the ball in the circle. The single allowed Lewis to advance to third base.
But with two outs, Tricia Lambert worked another walk off of Parker and rounded the bases in an effort to draw a throw and allow Lewis to score. MEC got Lambert in a pickle and appeared to have her back at first, but the throw was in the dirt, allowing Lewis to score the tying run.
Lambert scored the go-ahead run on an RBI single by Morgan Woodin.
Corry added an unearned run in the fifth inning for the eventual game-winner. Lewis reached on MEC’s second error of the inning and later came around to score on a groundout by Jaynee Corbett.
“We quit after the first inning,” Dickson said. “That is very uncharacteristic. It’s tough to swallow.”
Shelby Liller added an RBI triple and Ashley Chase an RBI single to cap the scoring for Corry in the sixth inning.
MEC did put up a fight in its final at-bat with Gretchen Herzberger drawing a leadoff walk. Parker then roped a single into left field that was misplayed by the left fielder allowing Herzberger to score and Parked to slide into third base with one out.
That was as close as MEC could get.
“We’re up here,” Dickson said raising his arm above his head, “and then all of a sudden we just lose focus. It’s a tough pill to swallow. We had high hopes.”
MEC finished with just three hits off Corry’s pitching duo of Brittany Zajac and Allison Williams. Two of those hits came off the bat of Hasbrouck.
Liller and Corbett were each 2-for-3 for Corry.

Lisa Byers can be reached at 724-6370, ext. 277 or by e-mail at lbyers@meadvilletribune.com.