A lesson learned in loss

The Columbia girls’ softball is young, with a lot of inexperience at the varsity level.


There’s no denying that through the first seven games of the season, they’ve done well, winning six of those games.

For the first time in school history, the rest of the Lancaster-Lebanon League is taking notice.

Through the first half of Section 4 play, the Tide went 5-0, beating a couple of traditional powers.

Friday afternoon at Glatfelter Field, coach Brad Brubaker’s team started crossover play with a game against Lampeter-Strasburg, one of top teams in Section 3.

And it was a dandy of a game, with the Pioneers holding off the Crimson Tide for a 2-1 win.

Columbia is 5-1 in league play and 6-2 overall. Monday, the Tide travels to Manheim Central for another tough non-league game.

The difference in this one was that the Tide, despite an 11-strikeout performance by junior Emily Detz, didn’t come up big in the field and two runners thrown out at the dish attempting to score.

The Pioneers scored first. Their lead-off batter tripled just wide of the glove of Tide right fielder Emily Nobile. Despite striking out the side in the first, the Pioneers got the jump in the scoring column, scoring on a passed ball.

Columbia got its first chance to score in the third when Allison Michener reached on an infield hit and moved to third on a stolen base and a ground out. With two outs, Emily Groft worked a walk to give the Tide two base runners, but Vallesa Carollo was called out on a questionable third strike call to end the threat.

With two outs in the fifth, the Pioneers reached Detz for another run, capitalizing on a solid single to right, two stolen bases and a little infield nubber that went for a hit.

At that points, the two runs looked big for the Pioneers as the Tide wasn’t doing much at the dish.

But in the fifth, the Tide got something going.

With one out, Nobile reached on a bunt hit and Detz with a single to right, allowing Nobile to scurry to third and Detz eventually ending up on second. A golden opportunity for the Tide. Next up was Groft, who bunted, but Nobile was gunned down at the plate, keeping the Tide off the board.

After a scoreless sixth, this one went down to the final three outs.

Michener led off the seventh with a solid single to center and pinch-hitter Kayla Lambert came off the pines to rip a gapper to left-center scoring Michener. All the sudden, it was 2-1 with no one out and the top of the order up.

Rather than give up a big hit to the Tide’s best player Detz, L-S threw four balls out of the strike zone, with one problem. Ball four sailed wide of the plate past the L-S catcher, allowing Lambert to move to third.

With the game on the line, Groft hit a hard liner to second, which was caught and nearly doubled Detz off first. With one out, Carollo hit one to third, but Lambert was cut down at the plate. Still, there was at least one more chance for the Tide, but the comeback ended when Jenna Plastino popped out to end the game.

Despite the loss, the Tide still leads Section 4, just ahead of Pequea Valley and Annville-Cleona.