About a month ago when the Pitt-Bradford softball team was
suffering with a 2-14 record, you would’ve bet the ranch and a
couple of your children the Lady Panthers would never see the happy
side of .500 or head coach Tina Phillips would get her 100th win in
the year 2007.
Don’t look now but the Lady Panthers are currently 17-15 and
Phillips has reached the century mark in coaching victories after
Pitt-Bradford swept a 9-6, 5-0 non-conference doubleheader from
visiting Grove City College on Monday.
“It was nice to get the 100th win today on our home field,” said
Phillips, who is in her fourth season (100-46-1) at Pitt-Bradford.
“Who would have thought when I took over four years ago that we
would do some many great things and have such success. That speaks
a lot about the players who have played and play now in this
program. It was a nice way to finish the final home game for Cat
(Catrina Retterer), Jamie (Keane) and Kristy (Zavinski). They have
been with me since day one.”
The Lady Panthers fell behind 2-0 in the first inning of the
opener on a two-run single by Andrea Settle off Zavinski, but the
hosts moved in front 3-2 in the home half on a tremendous three-run
blast by LeeAnn Kramer.
“LeeAnn’s homer was a shot,” Phillips recalled. “Something
traveling that far needs a stewardess on it.”
The lead was short-lived as the Wolverines plated four more runs
in the second on an error, a two-run single by Kristen Hughes and
an RBI single from Kristy Bogusz.
“We had to get the rust off the first couple of innings,”
Phillips admitted. “We didn’t come out really sharp or focused on
defense and some errors hurt us early. But we settled down and just
kept battling.”
Pitt-Bradford chipped away at the deficit with two runs in the
third on an RBI double by Nicole Ewings and a run-scoring single by
Keane, and then tied the contest at 6-all in the fourth on a wild
pitch.
In the fifth a sacrifice bunt by Keane moved runners into
scoring position, and then a couple of errors and Tori Sanchez’s
double gave the Lady Panthers a 9-6 advantage.
Zavinski allowed four hits and no runs over the final five
innings to improve to 9-8 on the season.
“Beast (Zavinski) settled in and did a better job of keeping
them (Wolverines) off the bases,” Phillips noted. “Cat (Retterer)
made some great catches for us in center.”
Freshman Jillian Kreitzer (7-7) then blanked Grove City (8-22)
on four hits in the nightcap.
The Lady Panthers tallied one in the third on an RBI double by
Kramer, two more in the fourth on a two-run single by Sanchez and
then plated their final pair in the fifth on RBI base hits by
Kreitzer and Tiffany Washington.
Kreitzer retired the final 10 batters to complete the sweep.
“Jill (Kreitzer) did a nice job of keeping them off balance with
her off-speed stuff,” Phillips stated. “They (Wolverines) have a
decent lineup and they hit the ball hard. We played with more focus
and intensity in the second game. We need to tighten things up on
defense come this weekend in the conference tournament.”
The second-seeded Lady Panthers (14-4) will travel to top-seeded
La Roche College in Pittsburgh on Friday for the Allegheny Mountain
Collegiate Conference tournament.
