Lady Rockets advance to WPIAL final four
Celeste Van Kirk
Jefferson-Morgan鈥檚 Cait Dugan winds back before unloading a pitch to a Sewickley Academy batter in Monday鈥檚 WPIAL Class A quarterfinal playoff game at Trinity Middle School.
Jefferson-Morgan鈥檚 Jasmine Demaske slides safely across the plate in Monday鈥檚 WPIAL Class A quarterfinal playoff game against Sewickley Academy at Trinity Middle School. (Photo by Celeste Van Kirk)
NORTH FRANKLIN TWP. 鈥� Jefferson-Morgan came into Trinity High School鈥檚 softball field with a chance to advance to the WPIAL Class A semifinals.
The Lady Rockets left with a smile after a 3-1 win over fourth-seeded Sewickley Academy behind the arm of junior pitcher Caitlyn Dugan.
Dugan picked up the win for Jefferson-Morgan, allowing one unearned run on just one hit in a complete game. Dugan helped herself on offense, going 2-for-3 with two bunt singles, a stolen base, a run and an RBI.
Because Jeff-Morgan鈥檚 offense only scored three runs 鈥� 12 fewer than it did in last Tuesday鈥檚 15-1 first-round win over Rochester 鈥� head coach Richard Rush felt Dugan carried her team to a win.
鈥淏est game Cait鈥檚 ever pitched,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ur pitcher kept us in the game. I鈥檇 hate to say it, but our pitcher won the game. We needed to hit better. We missed some opportunities.鈥�
Dugan agreed with her head coach鈥檚 sentiment.
鈥淚 would say (it was my best game),鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying some new things, so it worked out definitely.鈥�
The Lady Rockets drew first blood in the top of the first inning.
Dugan鈥檚 first bunt base hit scored Jasmine Demaske. Three batters later, Dugan came around to score on a passed ball to make it 2-0, and two batters after that, Autumn Gustovich did the same to push the lead to three.
Sewickley Academy picked up an unearned run in its half of the fourth on an infield single by Alina Mattson, which scored Alyssa Winters. That would be all the scoring for Sewickley Academy, however, as Dugan allowed just two base runners the rest of the game.
Alexis Barlock took the loss for Sewickley Academy, allowing three runs on just one hit while also throwing a complete game. Jeff-Morgan got a win despite five errors, one of which led to its only run.
The Lady Rockets met section rival and top-seeded West Greene in the semifinals on Wednesday at the same field (see greenecountymessenger.com for results of that game).
Rush鈥檚 squad was facing the defending champion Lady Pioneers for a third time this season. West Greene won the first two meetings by a combined score of 23-0.
鈥淲e already played them twice. We know what they鈥檙e like,鈥� Rush said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a tall task.鈥�