Friday, May 28, 2010

Miracle season ends

There were a lot of firsts for the Columbia softball program this year. First 10-win season; first winning season; first District Three playoff appearance and win.
But Thursday and Friday because of Mother Nature and a pretty good pitcher named Megan Greiss, "High Tide," finally stopped.
The Tide saw its dream season end at Muhlenberg High School following a 5-0 loss in the quarter-final round of the District Three Class AA playoffs to Kutztown.
The game started Thursday night, weathered two lighting delays, but not a third and ended tonight.
While the weather was a factor in the game, the biggest factor was Greiss, a talented all-league perforers in Berks County.
Thursday night, she retired all 12 batters she faced nine by strikeout.
Friday, Jenna Plastino and Emily Detz got big hits off Greiss, but she struck out nine of the final 15 batters she faced, ending the night with 18 strikeouts. The only non-strikeouts came from Ahslyn Phillips, who popped out to end the first; Emily Groft, who was thrown out at first on a bunt attempt in the thitrd and Lexi Eckman, who fouled out in the fourth.
Greiss didn't walk a batter and rrely ran a full count.
Plastino hit the first pitch she saw on Friday night for a solid single to left and in the sixth, Detz crushed a double over the head of the leftfielder. Other than that, it was tough for the Tide.
Detz also had a pretty good two nights on the mound for the Tide. She finished with seven strikeouts and wasn't hit that hard. She gave up four hits for the game, just two of them were solid hits.
What hurt the Tide was its fielding. They had five errors in the game and all five Kurtztown rubswere unearned.
In the second, Detz struck out the side, but left the inning trailing 1-0. A throwing error on a bunt and a bloop hit gave the Cougars their first run.
In the third, the Cougars went up 3-0, on two errors and a solid single to left.
In the fourth, Kutztown went up 4-0 on another Tide error on a bunt.
That was Thursday.
Friday Kutztown's fifth run came on another Tide error.
Columbia finished the season with a 14-8 record.

Weekend events

Here is a reminder support weekend Columbia events:

* Fourth Friday at various art galleries in downtown Columbia from 5-9 p.m., tonight.
* Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce's 10th annual River Run, 8:30 a.m., Route 462 Bridge. Registration at Wrightsville Elementary School 7:30 a.m. More than 430 runners have already signed up.
* Tri-County All-Star football game, 7 p.m., tomorrow night, Manheim Central High School. Columbia senior Brandon Felus is playing in the game.

Is this what we want?

Traveling around this week, noticed wash being hung to dry on a front porch of an area neighborhood. Is this something we need to see in town?

New banners are installed

In case you haven't noticed in downtown Columbia, the Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce, with the assistance of the borough's highway department, has erected street banner promoting upcoming chamber events on Locust Street. This banner promotes next month's Antique, Art and Craft Show, sponsored by Province Bank. There are a number of stands still available by contacting the chamber at 684-5249.