PIAA Softball: Smeltz hurls no-hitter in Williams Valley’s Class AA first-round win
Williams Valley's Sage Smeltz pitches against Halifax during a PIAA Class AA first-round game Monday at Halifax Area High School. Smeltz pitched a no-hitter in the Vikings' 3-0 victory. (Photo by Bob Lipsky)
HALIFAX — Everybody knows Williams Valley’s softball team can win games by bashing hits all over the diamond.
The Vikings proved they can win big games with pitching and defense, too.
Senior Sage Smeltz tossed a no-hitter, her fielders backed her up with strong play, and Williams Valley got just enough offense to eliminate Halifax 3-0 on Monday in a PIAA Class AA round of 16 game at Halifax Area High School.
With the win, District 11 champion Williams Valley (22-2) advances to Thursday’s quarterfinals to meet District 1 champion Bristol (18-1) at a site and time to be announced. Bristol moved on by routing Philadelphia Academy Charter 15-0 in three innings.
In a fast-moving game, Smeltz struck out 12 and walked two. She retired 21 of the final 22 batters she faced, including 1-2-3 innings in the second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Smeltz needed 94 pitches in the gem, 59 of them for strikes. Throwing harder than usual on a bright, sunny, 73-degree June day, Smeltz mixed her locations well and even threw a few changeups for strikes.
“The sun makes everything better,” Smeltz said with a smile.
District 3 champion Halifax (12-11) hit exactly two balls out of the infield all day. Madison Roland came the closest to a hit, rapping a sinking fly ball to center field to lead off the seventh inning. Kayla Hand, though, raced in and made the catch to preserve the no-hitter.
Smeltz acknowledged she wasn’t thinking about a no-hitter during the game.
“Not really,” she said afterward. “I was just focusing on getting outs. … It’s not really on my mind.”
The way the game started, a no-hitter seemed to be the furthest thing from anyone’s mind.
In the bottom of the first inning, Halifax’s Bebe Roland led off with a walk. Briea Barcavage dropped a sacrifice bunt, and both runners were safe when Williams Valley made an errant throw to second base. Smeltz got Kenzie Readinger to ground out, then struck out the next two hitters to get out of the jam and keep the Wildcats off the scoreboard.
Williams Valley, meanwhile, didn’t exactly tear the cover off the ball against Roland, a crafty right-hander with a live fastball.
The Vikings did put the ball in play enough to scratch out the few runs they needed to win.
In the top of the second, Quin Smeltz hit a ball to shortstop that got misplayed for an error. Audrina Fry followed with a single to right field. Smeltz went first-to-third on the hit, then scored when Halifax’s relay throw to third base sailed out of play. Fry ended up on third base on the error and scored on Olivia Hand’s RBI groundout to make it 2-0.
“We wanted to be aggressive early, see what we could do on the bases,” Williams Valley coach Ryan Underkoffler said. “We didn’t get enough baserunners. That’s what we typically rely on.
“Give credit to Halifax,” the coach added. “They made some nice plays out there, kept us off the bases and held us to three runs.”
Williams Valley loaded the bases with one out in the fourth inning but didn’t score.
