ALLEGANY — All the way to the last plate appearance, the Allegany-Limestone softball team made its at-bats count in Thursday night’s 14-2 sectional quarterfinal win against Newfane.
Facing a full count, Kennedy Honeck fouled off multiple strikes before finally finding one she liked, and sent a single over the leaping shortstop’s glove to drive in a run. Leading 8-2 after the top of the sixth, the Gators scored six runs in the bottom of the inning to win by the 12-run rule and advance to the Section 6 Class B semifinal.
The Gators (15-5) scored their 14 runs on 11 hits and made good use of eight walks with six Newfane errors. They showed patience and discipline at the plate, forcing Newfane pitcher Emma Schaughnessy to throw 150 pitches.
“It’s very important,” A-L coach Kaelyn Arnold said of her team’s quality at-bats. “We’re battling, and we’re scoring on two outs every time it seems like. We get two outs and we start rallying, which is great to see. So it’s not just no outs or one out, it’s two outs. We’re making things happen, which is really good. Especially right now going deep into the playoffs.”
Gators pitcher Kailey Truman, a junior, shined amid the cloudy, rainy conditions. Truman took a no-hit bid into the sixth inning and finished the day with a two-hitter. Of the 18 outs she recorded over six innings, 16 were by strikeout. She walked five.
“She’s starting early and we’re getting ahead in the counts and that’s really, really helping her,” Arnold said. “I mean, she’s doing a great job and she’s working her tail off right now for us. She’s doing everything we’re asking.”
Honeck led the A-L offense, hitting 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. Maddie Kahm and Summer Rhow both tripled while Kaylin Lemon doubled. Peck (RBI, two runs), Rhow (run, two RBI) and Kailey Truman (two runs, two RBI) had two hits each while Kahm scored two runs and drove in two RBIs.
The lineup was productive even in innings when hits were hard to come by. A-L got a 3-0 lead after the first inning on just one hit (Lemon’s double), a walk and two errors. In the fourth, the Gators added four more runs on three hits and two walks.
“Like I told my girls, there’s different pitchers, we faced a little bit faster from last game to this game and it’s how we adjust,” Arnold said. “We’ve gotta adjust early. We didn’t do that right away but we adjusted at the very end, so that helped us out a little bit. But especially when we’re playing next week we’ve got to go right away depending on if it’s a fast pitcher or a slow pitcher.”
Schaughnessy struck out four batters. Only six earned runs were allowed of the 14 runs A-L scored against her.
Newfane (6-14) scored both of its runs in the top of the sixth. Bailee Patcyk recorded the Panthers’ first hit and Kimberly Schmitt hit a two-run double with two outs to get the No. 14 seed on the board.
But the Gators closed the door with a six-run bottom of the sixth on five hits, a walk and an error.
“Overall, we did the job,” Arnold said. “We got the job done and that’s all you can ask for in the playoffs. A win’s a win here.”
After two playoff wins on their home turf, the sixth-seeded Gators will hit the road for a semifinal next week against a familiar foe. A-L visits No. 2 Fredonia on Tuesday. Fredonia, the CCAA Div. I champions, defeated A-L twice in the regular season, 9-0 and 5-1, and took a quarterfinal Thursday night over No. 7 Wilson 13-1.
After a strong regular season, winning 13 games, what has Arnold learned about her team through the first week of the playoffs?
“I know I’ve said it a thousand times but just the resiliency,” she said. “Like I told them, every team’s coming and they want to win, so we’ve just got to fight and every game’s a battle.”
