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Williamsport major softball wins D12 title

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Williamsport Area Little League major softball players celebrate their 12-1 win in four innings over Montoursville in the District 12 championship at Elm Park on Thursday.

Just like a rerun in a movie, the veteran group of Williamsport Area Little League was able to put up big runs and hold off Montoursville in a 12-1, four-inning game to capture the District 12 major softball title Thursday night at Elm Park.

Both teams matched up in the championship game after a 15-2 Williamsport win on Sunday over Montoursville, and Montoursville defeating Clinton, 10-9, on Tuesday in the losers’ bracket final. Montoursville came out with a different approach having the outfield heavily shifted to left field, but that did not stop Williamsport from making the little adjustments of its own.

Nataya Abdul-Hakim, Kendall McAnelly, and Aubrei Blair started off the game with a double, and two singles and got Williamsport out to an early 1-0 lead.

Ally Chilson and Abby Robertson followed that up with RBI singles for a five-run first inning. Maura Moore then was able to settle in and stop the bleeding to throw out Maria Montoya on a bunt attempt, Laila Robertson struck out and Kaelyn Sennett grounded back to Moore for the final out.

“(Montoursville) brought in pitchers we haven’t seen so we made some adjustments,” Williamsport coach Rick Robertson said. “The girls were able to hit the ball into some gaps and play some small ball to get a couple bunts down and we got a some runs across early.”

Just like it did through the district tournament, Williamsport hit the ball hard and played stingy defense behind Kendall McAnelly in the circle. McAnelly gave up just three hits on 46 pitches. Montoursville’s offense could not find a gap or solid contact all game as its only run was an RBI double to the left field fence off the bat of Izzy Gush in the second inning.

“The girls came into the dugout after that first inning and I told them to stay in the game,” Montoursville coach John Stahl said, “(Williamsport) put up five runs, we can do the same.”

But that ideology never came to fruition. McAnelly was keeping Montoursville hitters off balance by working every part of the strike zone that produced easy ground balls, or routine pop flys for the defense.

“Williamsport did a really nice job (Thursday) night and they will certainly represent the area going into the section tournament.” Stahl said.

It looked like Montoursville was going to keep Williamsport off of the board in the second inning as Moore got Kaelyn Senett to ground out, and Abdul-Hakim was caught stealing second after she reached on an error, but a two-out walk, an error in center field and an RBI single from Chilson put two more runs across and Williamsport inched closer to the mercy rule as it went up 7-0.

“They do a really good job at hitting the ball from top to bottom of the line up,” Stahl said, “They made the adjustments and we weren’t able to make plays on them.”

Williamsport’s bats stayed hot in the third when Montoya lead off with a walk and scored on Robertson’s triple to the right field which Montoursville kept empty from the shift. Two batters later, McAnelly put Williamsport up for good to induce the 10-run rule with a two-RBI double just over the the outstretched glove of Eyer by the center field fence.

“This is a veteran group. The girls come and battle every night and everyone is playing well,” Robertson said. “We try to get runs in every inning. Sometimes it works, sometimes it dosen’t, but tonight they were focused.”

Williamsport 524 1–12 8 0

Montoursville 010 0–1 3 4

Kendall McAnelly and Natayah Abdul-Hakim, Abby Mahon. Maura Moore, Alexa Stahl (2), Izzy Gush (4) and Bianca Signor. W–McAnelly. L–Moore.

Top Williamsport hitters: Natayah Abdul-Hakim 2-4, 2 2B; 2 runs, RBI; McAnelly 2-2, 3 RBIs, 2 runs, 2 BB, 3 SB; Laila Robertson 1-3, 3B, RBI, run. Top Montoursville hitters: Izzy Gush 1-2, 2B, RBI; Madi Eyer 1-2; Alexa Stahl 1-2.

Next game: Williamsport vs. District 24 winner, at Old Lycoming, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.

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