Tide girls win with fifth inning rally

While coaching third base prior to the start of the bottom of the fifth inning and his team locked in a tie game with Tulpehocken, Tide coach Brad Brubaker asked for anyone listening – “how does water get to the second floor?” He answered “pressure.”


And that’s what the Columbia softball team did turn up the pressure in their half of the fifth inning, plating four runs en route to a 6-2 District Three Class AA playoff win at Garrett Park in Willow Street.

The Tide now advances to the quarter-finals of the Class AA tournament against Berks County power house Kutztown on Thursday at a site and tie to be announced early Wednesday.

So what did the Tide do to up the pressure and win their first-ever district playoff game?

They took advantage of some wildness of three Tulpy pitchers, who threw in the inning got some big hits.

Emily Groft opened the big frame with a four-pitch walk off Tulpy starter Jenna Daub. The walk finished Daub’s hot afternoon. She was replaced by Heather Koenig, who was greeted with a ground ball to short off the bat of Emily Detz and Groft easily beat the throw to second and the Tide had an inning going.

After Alexis Eckman sacrificed the two runners over, Ashlyn Phillips worked another walk to juice the bases. Jenna Plastino then drilled a Koenig pitch to left for a two-run single.

Vallesa Carollo continued the inning with a well placed bloop hit over first, which ended the afternoon for Koenig. She was replaced by southpaw hurler Bailee Shies, who was able to get out Allison Michener on a pop out.

She couldn’t get out Kayla Lambert, who ripped a double to center, scoring Marina Benavente, who was running for Phillips and Plastino.

Now that Columbia had a huge 6-2 lead, it was up to Detz to shutdown Tulpy down on the mound.

Outside of a weak double off the bat of Tulpy’s Ashley Rank, which glanced off Michener’s leg and face at short and two walks in the seventh, Detz was able to shut Tulpehocken down.

For the game, Tulpy had just one solid hit off Detz. That was in the second inning when Rank crushed a triple to left. She scored with two outs when Sarah Wise got a bloop hit just over the glove of Groft at second.

Tulpy used a couple of bloopers in the fourth to take a 2-0 lead. Daub led the inning off with a blooper to right and Rank followed with a well placed hit over first. Daub scored on an infield out and Detz was able to get out of the inning.

Columbia, who was limited to one hit over the first three innings, finally rattled Tulpy starter Daub.

Phillips ripped a solid single to left to start the inning and Plastino reached on a four-pitch walk. Carollo then walked to load the sacks. Michener then crushed a single to center to tie the game.

It looked as though the Tide was about to break the game open.

But it didn’t happen.

Kayla Ortman batting for Lambert crushed a ball to shortstop, who booted the ball. The Tulpy shortstop did recover to force Carollo at third, but in the confusion over whether the ball off Ortman’s bat was caught or not, Michener started going back to first from second and got caught in a rundown and was tug out, basically ending the inning.

Detz allowed five hits for the game, but only one of them, Rank’s triple was a screamer. She struck out nine and walked two.