McGowan's Wins Softball Championship in Nail-Biter

McGowan's Pizzaland's team won the Monroe Women's Softball Championship over Rivalry Sports Grille 12-9 at Wolfe Park Wednesday night, in a game that went down to the wire.

McGowan's players wielded hot bats from the start, jumping out to a 10-1 lead, before hanging on in the bottom of the seventh.

Rivalry scored four runs to draw within 12-9, but with two outs and the bases loaded, McGowan's pitcher Barbara "Doc" Fischetti got Janet Kerr to fly out to left center to preserve the victory, and the championship.

"I'm just excited," said Kim Cassia, McGowan's coach. "The girls played their hearts out. They played as a team."

Rivalry was the regular season champs with an 11-1 record, that included a perfect 3-0 against McGowan's.

"We beat 'em when it counted," Cassia said.

Rivalry Coach Theresa Denham had made the defensive play of the game, charging hard for a fly ball and reaching down and catching it in the webbing of her glove just before it hit the ground.

"I'm very proud," she said of her team. "We came back a lot of times before, including the past couple games, and tonight we came up short."

Mary Martinek got things going for McGowan's in the top of the first when she singled to left and later scored on Fischetti's ground out.

Rivalry answered right back in the bottom half of the inning.

Lee Bradford belted a triple and scored on Denham's RBI single to knot the game at 1-1.

McGowan's began to pull away, scoring three runs in the second.

Rivalry struggled in the field, bobbling a ground ball and dropping two fly balls before Theresa Breinger doubled in two runs for McGowan's. Patty Fogle knocked in another run with a single — increasing McGowan's lead to 4-1 lead.

Fischetti kept Rivalry off the scoreboard in the bottom of the second and McGowan's piled on six more runs in the top of the third.

Teresa Papalia smacked a home run to left, making it 5-1.

Kimmi Dayton later drove in a run with a single to center. Jobi Murphy hit a grounder that just skipped past the second base bag allowing Lori Knouse to score.

It was 7-1 with one out when a controversial call delayed the game.

Diane Keogh hit a bloop fly ball just over the infield and the umpire called the infield fly rule for the second out. But Dayton had taken off from second base and did not get back when the play was called an out.

Rivalry's fielders considered Dayton out and trotted off the field. But Cassia walked out to the infield to talk to the umpire and Denham joined them. After a heated argument, the umpire said Dayton was not out and Rivalry's fielders had to go back out onto the field.

McGowan's batter, Diane Rivera, immediately capitalized, crushing the ball for a three-run homer, staking her team out to a 10-1 lead.

By rule, a team is limited to scoring no more than six runs in one inning with the exception of the final inning, so the home run ended the top of the third.

It wasn't until the bottom of the fourth when another runner crossed home plate.

Donna Russo hit a grounder and made it to second base when the throw got away from the first baseman. She later scored on a sacrifice fly from Lee Bradford as Rivalry clawed back with a run to close to gap to 10-2.

Jan Freddino and Fischetti led off the top of the fifth with back-to-back singles for McGowan's.

Knouse flied out deep to center and Freddino tagged up, headed for third and scored on a wild throw making it 11-2.

Rivalry continued to scratch back in the bottom of the fifth.

Geraldine Valentine reached first when her fly ball was dropped in center field, then Val Culberton singled.

An error on a ground ball loaded the bases.

Pam LaPorta knocked Valentine in with a base hit to center. Then Janet Kerr delivered an RBI single to score Culbertson and it was 11-4.

Joan Leavitt, who had reached base on the error earlier in the inning,  scored on a sacrifice fly from Monica Bonczek making it 11-5.

Rivalry pitcher, Leavitt, made quick work of McGowan's line up in the top of the sixth, but Fischetti shutdown Rivalry in the bottom half of the inning.

Martinek reached base on an infield single in the top of the seventh and went on to score on a sacrifice fly by Freddino, giving McGowan's insurance with a 12-5 lead — three outs away from the championship.

In Rivalry's final turn at bat, Sheree McSally grounded to second, but hustled to beat out a throw for an infield single. The ball got past the first baseman and McSally made it to second.

Bradford followed with an RBI single to center to cut McGowan's lead to 12-6.

Denham hit a fly ball that was dropped in left field.

With runners on first and second, Christine Cooney flied out to right and Bradford tagged up and made it to third.

Deb Gustafson belted a single to score Bradford and it was 12-7.

Valentine grounded out to second, but Denham scored making it 12-8 with two outs.

Culbertson reached first on an error by the shortstop and Valentine made it to second.

Leavitt singled to center to bring Valentine in and it was 12-9 with runners on first and second.

Fate seemed to be on McGowan's side when LaPorta hit a ball that died a couple feet in front of home plate and barely stayed fair. She reached first and the bases were loaded.

Kerr came to the plate and represented the potential winning run. But Fischetti got her to fly out to left to end the threat.