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Monday, April 29, 2024 | 9:21 PM
Jeff Helsel | Mon Valley Independent
Jeannette pitcher Grace Stein stuck out 12 against Frazier on Monday.
Jeff Helsel | Mon Valley Independent
Jeannette’s Abigail Shaw rounds third base during Monday’s game against Frazier.
Jeff Helsel | Mon Valley Independent
Jeannette’s Mackenzie Lewis reaches for the throw as Raylyn Gallik backs up the play against Frazier on Monday.
Emilia Bednar wasn’t sure what to expect when she stepped to the plate in the top of the eighth inning Monday in a battle of unbeaten softball teams at Jeannette.
Maybe a walk. Maybe a hit.
Whatever the case, the junior catcher from Frazier was ready to do anything to help her team win. She just knew she wasn’t going to make an out.
“I wasn’t that nervous,” Bednar said. “In seven years of travel (softball), I learned to block it all out. At that moment, it was just me and Grace (Stein).”
When she wasn’t intentionally walked to load the bases with two outs like her coach was expecting, Bednar took a rip at a two-strike pitch and delivered a clutch RBI single as No. 3 Frazier clipped No. 5 Jeannette, 5-4, in extras to take over sole possession of first place in Section 3-A.
“When it got to two strikes, I shortened it up,” Bednar said of her swing. “I got the bat on it.”
Bednar went 4 for 4 with a double and two RBIs to pace Frazier (9-0, 9-0), which needed a couple of innings to adjust to Jeannette sophomore pitching ace Grace Stein to stay unbeaten.
Coming in, Frazier had scored 106 runs and allowed only two. Jeannette had given up only seven runs all year.
“Grace Stein is the real deal,” Frazier coach Don Hartman said. “She’s a great pitcher and a great person. We have the utmost respect for her. We haven’t played a nonsection game, and the pitching in our section isn’t that strong, so we knew she would be tough with her movement. We had to get through the lineup with her and adjust. Jeannette is a tough place to play.”
Jeannette (10-1, 9-1), which hadn’t played a game of this magnitude in a decade — dozens of fans who filled the bleachers and lined up in lawn chairs behind the outfield fence proved that — committed five errors and left the bases loaded twice.
“We beat ourselves,” said Jeannette coach Tubby Stein, who never had been to extra innings after leading with the Jayhawks. “We have some first-year girls, and I think the nerves got to them. Frazier is a good team. We had (Bednar) down 0-2, but I probably should have intentionally put her on. Yeah, I should have.”
Stein was on her game in the much-anticipated matchup, striking out 12, but Commodores freshman Addison Hiles held her own.
Hiles fanned 14, ringing up back-to-back K’s to end it, the last with the bases loaded. Sophomore Abigail Shaw had doubled to the fence in center but was left stranded.
Stein scattered eight hits, but only two runs were earned. Hiles allowed 10 hits, but the Commodores did not commit an error.
“We have immense trust in our pitcher,” Bednar said. “We had to make some adjustments with Grace because of her spin. We hadn’t seen her since last year.”
Frazier rallied from a 3-1 deficit, tying it in the fourth on back-to-back doubles by sophomore Jayanna Ciferno and Bednar.
The Commodores scored two runs on off-target throw-down attempts by Jeannette, the second giving them a 4-3 edge in the sixth.
Jeannette clawed back to make it 4-4 in the bottom of the inning on a run-scoring single by Shaw.
Hartman intentionally walked Stein, who is just as dangerous most days with her bat, but Jeannette left the bases loaded.
He also walked Stein in the eighth.
“If there was a base open, we’re putting her on,” Hartman said. “We weren’t going to give up a hit to her there.”
Both teams left a runner stranded in the seventh.
Junior Grace Vaughn, who went 2 for 4, led off the eighth with a double over the center fielder’s head. She moved up on a passed ball and, after two K’s, scored on Bednar’s single.
“We had some uncharacteristic play from our defense, but we were able to to get some bunts down,” Hartman said. “We wanted to get runners on base and put pressure on their defense.”
Shaw finished 3 for 5 with a pair of doubles, and Stein also had three hits for Jeannette.
Senior catcher Addyson Stout had an RBI.
“Maybe our girls needed that,” Tubby Stein said of the setback. “We’re going to see them again next Monday. Maybe next time we’ll (play sharper) and come out on top. It’s been awhile since we had a game like this up here.”
Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at [email protected].
