Pittston’s Tori Para slides into home plate to score the first Pittston score against Tunkhannock Monday afternoon.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatcj
Pittston out fielder Maura Mihalk catches a fly ball as Tunkhannocks Ella McNeff tries to run to first base in the opening inning of play Monday in Tunkhannock.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatcj
Tunkhannock third baseman caught a fly ball in the fourth inning against Pittston Monday.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatcj
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatcj
Tunkhannock’s third baseman makes a throw to first base in the fifth inning to put out Pittston’s Bella Giardina Monday afternoon in Tunkhannock.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatcj
First, Pittston Area completed a season sweep of defending champion and 2021 state finalist Tunkhannock.
Then, the Lady Patriots protected their unbeaten record while the Lady Tigers slipped again, putting an end to the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 softball race and clinching the title.
Pittston Area is 12-0 in the division, with two games remaining, and 15-0 overall for District 2’s best record. Tunkhannock is 9-3 and 12-4.
The Lady Patriots still rank third in the ratings race for seeds in what shapes up as District 2’s toughest playoff bracket, Class 5A. Abington Heights, the district’s other unbeaten team, and once-beaten defending champion West Scranton went into Saturday with higher ratings than Pittston Area.
Pittston Area has outscored opponents, 174-19, and has not allowed anyone closer than three runs. The Lady Patriots have outscored the last nine opponents, 105-13, since beating Tunkhannock, 5-2, in the first meeting.
Pittston Area 11, Crestwood 0
Gianna Adams struck out 14 while scattering eight hits in the shutout Thursday that would have clinched at least a tie for first place for Pittston Area, which wound up taking the title outright when Dallas scored five times in the bottom of the seventh to knock off Tunkhannock, 8-7.
Sage Weidlich had two hits, including a home run, and scored three times.
Ava Callahan had three hits, including a double, and drove in three runs.
Kallie Booth doubled, singled and scored three times.
Pittston Area 16, Wilkes-Barre Area 3
Sage Weidlich led a 16-hit attack that included six extra-base hits Wednesday when Pittston Area defeated Wilkes-Barre Area in five innings in a WVC Division 1 game.
The Lady Patriots scored multiple runs in the first through fourth innings and did not need to bat in the bottom of the fifth to win the game on the 10-run rule.
Weidlich went 3-for-3 with a double, triple, four runs scored and three runs batted in.
Kallie Booth also had three hits while Skylar Borthwick also drove in three runs.
Ava Callahan, who doubled and singled, and Booth scored three times each.
Borthwick had a homer and single.
Tori Para struck out nine in a five-hitter. She also scored twice and drove in two runs.
Nanticoke 11, Wyoming Area 1
Wyoming Area lost Tuesday’s home game in six innings, dropping to 2-4 in the Division 2 of the WVC and 2-9 overall.
Kayla Leo had two hits for the Lady Warriors.
Pittston Area 9, Tunkhannock 1
TUNKHANNOCK — Pittston Area received an outstanding pitching performance from Gianna Adams and two-run homers from Tori Para and Marina Antal in the third inning as the Lady Patriots defeated Tunkhannock in a battle of the WVC’s top Division 1 teams.
Adams missed the first game with Tunkhannock because of an injury. She made up for lost time Monday.
The sophomore struck out 10 — recording her 200th strikeout of her career in the process — and retired the final 13 batters of the game. The Lady Tigers hit only five balls out of the infield and, on one of them, right fielder Kallie Booth threw to first for the out.
“Myself and the whole team were really hungry,” Adams said. “We wanted to come out here and really wanted to keep doing what we do and keep playing like we do.
“I felt good. It’s was like unreal. Just being out there is unreal every game. You really see it when you get injured a little bit and you get to see your team play without you. You get even more hungry.”
Like the 5-2 victory over Tunkhannock on April 15, Pittston Area got off to a good start. Booth led off the game by getting hit by a pitch, moved to third on Para’s single and scored on an error. Para crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly by Ava Callahan for a 2-0 advantage.
Pittston Area made it 6-0 in the top of the third. Para rocketed a two-run homer to right-center field and two batters later Antal hit hers to nearly the same spot.
“The girls are swinging good right now,” Pittston Area coach Frank Parente said. “We all know the game, the ups and downs with hitting. Sometimes you’re on, sometimes you’re not. The last few weeks we’ve been swinging good sticks.”
Tunkhannock got a run back in the bottom of the third when Hannah Jones singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch. The Tigers had runners on the corners after Emily Schultz was hit by a pitch, but she was their last base runner of the game. Adams got a strikeout to end the threat and pitched perfect innings from the fourth through the seventh.
Tunkhannock’s other hits were a double by Schultz in the first inning and an infield single by Ella McNeff in the third.
Pittston Area finished off its scoring in the sixth as Sage Weidlich hit an RBI triple and Bella Giardina and Callahan followed with consecutive RBI singles a bit later.
Para went 3-for-3 and scored twice.
Giardina had two hits and Booth scored twice.
