ALBRIGHT STUDIO/For The Express Clinton’s Layla Brumbaugh attempts a tag against Williamsport Area’s Piper Fox as Williamsport Area’s Charlotte Beiter looks on at home in the top of the first inning of Thursday’s District 12 minor softball winners’ bracket final.

Entering Thursday evening’s District 12 minor softball contest, Clinton’s coaches and players were all quite aware of how potent of a team Williamsport Area has. WALL, which features players from Williamsport and Montgomery, cruised past Jersey Shore in the first round, 15-0, and then beat Loyalsock, 13-0.

It was more of the same on Thursday, as WALL’s offense was clicking again en route to a 17-2 win against Clinton to advance to Tuesday’s District 12 championship game.

Clinton plays today in an elimination game against Jersey Shore at Montoursville at 5:45 p.m.

“We knew it would be tough. we knew they had good pitching and everything. It wasn’t anything too new for our girls,” Clinton manager Chad Warren said. “I think we probably should have hit a little better than we did. I thought we could hang with them if we played on all cylinders.”

Williamsport didn’t waste time putting runs on the board. It took just three batters for WALL to score a run when Brooklyn Dietrich — who finished the game 4 for 4 — had an RBI single into shallow left to bring in Brnylee Engel, who opened the game with a walk. Lucia Montoya then had an RBI single a batter later to bring in Kaydence Matlack for a quick 2-0 lead. By the time the first inning was over, Williamsport built up an 8-0 lead.

ALBRIGHT STUDIO/For The Express Clinton’s Unity Plowmanfields a ground ball in the top of the second inning against Williamsport Area on Thursday at South Williamsport.

“Any time we can get out on teams, we feel we have the pitching and the defense. We’re an older team with a lot of experience, so if we can get out on a team and score some runs, we feel it puts the pressure on them because we know we can play defense and get out of innings,” Williamsport manager Lamar Ballard.

Clinton responded with a run in the bottom of the first inning, doing something no team so far in the district tournament has been able to do: score against WALL.

Unity Plowman reached by being walked with a full count and stole second base. With two outs, it was Tori Peters who delivered an RBI single into shallow right which allowed Plowman to score to cut the deficit to seven.

Clinton had multiple runners reach base, and scored twice, something that Warren noted were positives to take away from the loss.

“The fact we put a few runs on the board and teams they played haven’t is a good takeaway, so is the fact we did get some runners on base,” Warren said. “Those are some positives for our girls to hold their heads high and move onto the next game.”

ALBRIGHT STUDIO/For The Express Clinton’s Unity Plowman slides into second base to beat the throw to Williamsport Area’s Piper Fox in the first inning of the District 12 minor softball winners’ bracket final on Thursday at South.

Williamsport scored at least one run in each inning. In the second, Dietrich reached to start the inning with a single to shallow left and stole second before eventually scoring on a wild pitch after Montoya reached on a walk. After Dietrich scored, however, Layla Brumbaugh proceeded to strike out three consecutive batters to end the inning as WALL took a 9-1 lead through two.

For Ballard, the key to Williamsport’s offense — which has outscored its three opponents in districts 45-2 — has been simply seeing the ball.

“We hit a lot in practice, I have to give all the credit to my other coaches Marcus Montoya, Brad Engel and Brock Matlack,” Ballard said. “We’ve just been hitting and we got a pitching machine out a couple practice so the girls get used to seeing the speed. But we’re doing our best to get the girls confidence swinging.”

Williamsport out-hit Clinton, 9-1. Clinton’s lone hit came from the bat of Peters in the first inning which drove in a run. Montoya also was solid in the circle, striking out 10, including the final four batters of the game in order. WALL also didn’t allow a ball to leave the infield.

“One of our best drills, coach Brock and Marcus call it the star drill, which is all throws and flips and it’s all working on going to the ball and fielding the ball,” Ballard said. “I think we do that every practice and it’s really helped our girls come a long way. Catching that ball and being confident and making plays.”

ALBRIGHT STUDIO/For The Express Clinton’s Zaylie Warren swings at a pitch in the bottom of the second inning against Williamsport Area during Thursday’s District 12 minor softball winners’ bracket final at South Williamsport.

While WALL did win by a large margin, Ballard knew that Clinton had a solid team and would be tough to beat.

“We knew they would come in and had a pretty decent pitcher, she was solid. We knew they’d play defense. They have a really good softball program over there, their 11-12s just won the district championship, so we knew they were coming in with some talented girls,” Ballard said. “We knew we had to be sharp. We didn’t think this was our sharpest game tonight, but I think we’ll be ready come Tuesday for the championship.”

Williamsport increased its lead in the third inning by scoring five runs, all coming with two outs. After Engel reached on a bunt single, she was driven in by Matlack who ripped a stand-up RBI triple to the fence in center-right field. Dietrich reached on a single and two errors allowed two more runs to cross the plate. WALL then scored three more in the fourth.

“We’re blessed to have some really talented girls at the top of the lineup, and have some really disciplined hitters at bottom of lineup that draw walks and get on so it allows those girls at top to drive them in,” Ballard said. “Once we put it all together — which I don’t think we’ve played our best softball yet — I think once we really get to hitting and everybody’s contributing in one way or another, we’ll be a really dangerous team.”

A handful of errors and small miscues hurt Clinton throughout the game, something Warren agreed with following the loss.

ALBRIGHT STUDIO/For The Express Clinton’s Kaylyn Sanders swings at a pitch in the third inning against Williamsport Area during Thursday’s District 12 minor softball winners’ bracket final at South Williamsport.

“Lot of miscues and we probably walked a few more than they did too, which makes a big difference,” Warren said.

Warren and the rest of his coaching staff believe Clinton will bounce back from Thursday’s loss and respond well in Friday’s elimination game.

“I think we will. We did some mock games before the season started and they weren’t good, but the girls turned around in their first game and acted like nothing happened,” Warren said.

Lucia Montoya and Brynlee Engel. Layla Brumbaugh, Tori Peters (4) and Gianna Ginery. W: Montoya. L: Brumbaugh.

Top WALL hitters: Brynlee Engel 2-3, 2 RBIs, BB, 3 runs; Kaydence Matlack 2-3, 3B, 2 RBIs, 3 runs; Brooklyn Dietrich 4-4, 2 RBIs, 4 runs; Lucia Montoya 1B, RBI, run; Valerie Beiter 2 BB, run; Piper Fox, BB, HBP, 2 runs. Top Clinton hitters: Tori Peters 1-2, RBI; Zaylie Warren RBI; Unity Plowman BB, run; Keira Scrimshow BB, run.

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