District 11 Softball: Williams Valley stops rival Minersville in Class AA final
Williams Valley players and coaches celebrate their 7-2 victory over Minersville on Tuesday night in the District 11 Class AA championship game at Susan Y. Stump Field. (Photo by Bob Lipsky)
PINE GROVE — Everybody knows about Williams Valley’s powerful bats, doubles and triples clubbed off the fence and tape-measure home runs that no ballpark can hold.
Well, the Vikings can beat you with speed, too.
Williams Valley used aggressive baserunning to manufacture runs and rode the complete-game pitching of Sage Smeltz to a 7-2 victory over Minersville in the District 11 Class AA championship game Tuesday evening at Susan Y. Stump Field. The Vikings won their second straight district crown and the 14th in program history.
They advance to the state tournament, which begins Monday. Williams Valley (21-2) will travel to District 3 champion Halifax at a time to be announced.
“It’s an old-school rivalry, renewed a little bit here,” Williams Valley coach Ryan Underkoffler said of meeting Minersville. “A win against them always feels good. … We threw a couple extra wrinkles in there that they haven’t seen before. We stayed aggressive on the bases, got crucial hits when we needed to, just Williams Valley softball.”
The Vikings stole six bases without being caught and went first-to-third or second-to-home six more times. They had 12 hits — all singles — but all of that running produced plenty of offense to defeat Minersville (10-12).
Leadoff batter Ella Kobularik found herself in much of that action on the bases. She went 3-for-4 with a stolen base and scored two runs. Once, while stealing second, Kobularik went first-to-third on a groundout to shortstop.
“I’m exhausted right now. I’m not going to lie,” Kobularik said with a laugh. “Stealing bases is obviously a great feeling. When there’s an opportunity to take an extra base when they throw it when they shouldn’t, that’s the best feeling ever.”
Williams Valley struck with a first-inning run for a 1-0 lead. After Sage Smeltz reached on an error, courtesy runner Jasmine Hechler stole second and scored on Quin Smeltz’s bad-hop RBI single.
In the third, the Vikings broke the game open with a four-run outburst. Kobularik raced second-to-home on an error; Audrina Fry rapped a two-run single; and Ally Underkoffler added an RBI single to extend Williams Valley’s lead to 5-0.
“That’s always our game plan. Get up early and coast from there,” Ryan Underkoffler said.
Sage Smeltz, who already holds the school record for career RBIs and career strikeouts, became No. 1 in two other categories. She recorded her 147th career hit — and infield single no less — to pass Rayanne Hawk for the school record. And with her 47th career pitching victory, Sage Smeltz passed Stevie Unger for the Vikings’ career lead.
Smeltz allowed nine hits and two runs while striking out seven and walking one.
Bella Rizzardi went 3-for-4 and scored a run for Minersville. Sara McGrath added an RBI double as the Miners tallied single runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
By then, though, Williams Valley counted down the outs to clinch another district crown.
“It’s amazing. We all played together from little on up,” Kobularik said. “We all trust each other. We all have a great bond. No matter what, we have each other’s back. It’s just amazing playing together every single day.”
