NANTICOKE — For the first three innings Friday night, the Pittston Area softball all-stars had their offense on simmer. One run in each of those three innings.
The situation boiled over in the fourth and fifth innings.
Pittston Area scored three runs in the fourth and four more in the fifth to defeat Mountain Top 10-0 in the District 16 Major Softball championship game at Nanticoke Area High School.
Pittston Area used power hitting sprinkled with some small ball to defend its title. Up next is the Section 5 tournament at North Pocono’s Dandy Lion Little League, beginning Wednesday and continuing through July 7. Pittston Area will enter that tournament having outscored six District 16 opponents 78-4.
“We’re excited,” Pittston Area manager Bill Kroski said. “I think we have a battle-tested team. We’ve been in some big tournaments over the past 12 months. They are focused and we’re on cruise control right now. They just want to be there. They want to be there every day at practice.”
Lydia Luvender had a triple and double to account for two of the team’s five extra-base hits and also scored three times. Ainsley Lear had a triple and two RBI. Ava Thomas, who threw a one-hitter, had a double. Sophia Laudato had a two-run triple.
“This might have been the game we hit the ball the hardest,” Kroski said. “We were hitting the ball right at them at the beginning of the game. We always have that one or two big innings in a game. Throughout this whole tournament we’ve had that.
“This game it happened a little later, but I felt it was a matter of time before balls would start dropping.”
Luvender doubled and eventually scored on a single by Payge Pesotini in the first. A little small ball produced another run in the second. Luvender tripled in the third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Lear.
Pittston Area then doubled its lead to 6-0 in the fourth. Thomas led off with a double and later scored on an error on a bunt by Danielle Budzak. Laudato added her two-run triple.
The offense kept going in the fifth, ending the game via the 10-run rule with one out. Izzie Kroski led off with a single and Luvender followed by reaching on a fielder’s choice. Both came home when Lear tripled into the left-field corner. Pesotini then reached on an error, scoring Lear. Sara Basile ended the game by dropping a single down the right-field line.
Alexx From tripled in the fourth for the only hit by Mountain Top, which did manage to load the bases in the first.
Thomas struck out five and walked two. She had two hits.
Pittston Area 7, Plains 0
JENKINS TWP. – Ava Thomas threw a no-hitter with 10 strikeouts and Giovanna Bobbouine put the offense in motion with a two-run triple as Pittston Area defeated Plains 7-0 in a Tuesday semifinal game.
Thomas retired 10 of the last 11 batters, ending the game on a strikeout.
“She was on tonight,” Pittston Area manager Bill Kroski said. “When she hits her spots, she’s really effective. She just locates her pitches so well. Tonight was one of those nights where she maybe didn’t have her best velocity, but her control was there.”
Pittston Area scored in the first, then added three runs in the third when Bobbouine tripled in the first two and scored the third. It added three more runs in the fourth.
Pittston Area 8, Mountain Top 1
Izzie Kroski went 3-for-3 and scored twice June 23 when Pittston Area completed a 4-0 run through the round-robin portion of the tournament with a victory over Mountain Top.
Payge Pesotini and Ainsley Lear had two hits apiece for Plains.
Ava Thomas got the win for Pittston, giving up one earned run on three hits with eight strikeouts. Giovanna Bobbouine and Thomas doubled for Pittston.
DISTRICT 16 8-10-YEAR-OLD
Pittston Area 16, Mountain Top 7
Pittston Area will also play for District 16’s other softball title after going 2-0 in the three-team, round-robin to land a spot in the final. It will play the Mountain Top-Hanover winner July 7 at Northwest.
Winning pitcher Andrea Colon launched a grand slam to lead the victory. She also struck out nine.
Hannah Beekman and Ava Basile each singled and drove in a run.
Pittston Area 20, Hanover 1
Pittston Area needed just three innings to put away the win in Tuesday’s tournament opener.
DISTRICT 31 MAJOR
Northwest 9, Greater Wyoming Area 3
Northwest defeated Greater Wyoming Area for the second time, taking Monday’s semifinal after winning the first meeting by a single run.
Back Mountain 12, Greater Wyoming Area 1
Back Mountain, which went on to complete an unbeaten run through the tournament Friday, won the final round-robin game of the three-team tournament June 22.