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Reeder continues to produce from bottom of Williamsport lineup

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Williamsport’s Kylie Seagraves is safe at home as DuBois catcher Sarah Henninger goes for the tag on a passed ball in the first inning Wednesday at Elm Park.

Sam Reeder is hitting nearly .500 and has plenty of home-run power. That was evident when she nearly put one over the centerfield fence in the bottom of the second inning Wednesday at Elm Park.

But what may be surprising is Reeder bats ninth in Williamsport’s lineup. That’s not a mistake, though.

After a few early games came down to the ninth batter in the lineup, Williamsport coach Chase Smith wanted his best hitter in that spot. Reeder fought it at first and didn’t exactly want to be last in the lineup, but she’s embraced it. Wednesday it came down to the ninth batter in the lineup once again and Reeder delivered.

Reeder got hold of the first pitch she saw in the bottom of the seventh to lead off the inning with a single down the left-field line. The Williamsport senior used her speed to move station to station on a steal and a bunt before a wild pitch allowed her to scamper home with the go-ahead run.

That decisive run held up as the Millionaires posted a 6-5 victory over DuBois (6-7, 5-2 Central Penn) to give Williamsport (10-3, 6-0) the Central Penn League title.

“It’s a good feeling. It was one of our many goals throughout the year,” Smith said. “The league’s a little strange because it’s not with local teams, so girls have trouble understanding how important it is to win the league. … That’s one of the things that we wanted to check off of our list. We have a few other bigger goals in mind, but it’s one of the stepping stones to get there.”

Reeder is one of Williamsport’s fastest players and once she’s on base, Smith and his coaches know she’s more than capable of moving around the bases and can easily get home if she’s on third for a passed ball or wild pitch.

“It’s a little bit more bang-bang than we would have liked, but we have faith in her. As a senior, she’s the best baserunner that we have,” Smith said. “She makes really good decisions, we would never question anything she does. We knew she was going to score there.”

Reeder knew once the ball got past DuBois catcher Sarah Henninger she was heading home.

“Our backstop’s pretty big, so if it’s a wild pitch, it’s pretty much automatic to get that run in,” Reeder said.

The go-ahead run came an inning after DuBois tied the game when Taylor Smith hit an RBI single into right field to drive in Henninger, who led off the inning reaching on an error. DuBois trailed 5-0 after the first two innings and had to slowly chip away as the game went on.

Williamsport started with a four-run outburst in the first inning with two hits and four walks. The Millionaires were led by Kylie Segraves, who went 3 for 3 with two RBIs and a run scored, and Katie Meale, who was 2 for 3 with an RBI, walk and run scored.

Nicole Belton had Williamsport’s only extra-base hit when she drove a double into right field in the second inning.

“It’s kind of been what we’ve done all season. We get the nice solid lead and then we kind of have a lull. We have lacked that killer instinct. If we’re up 4-0 or 5-0, we want our mentality to be ‘let’s get five more and get out of here,’ not let’s let them chip away to the point where we have to worry again,” Smith said. “We’ve let teams chip away and that’s something we’re very concerned about going into the playoffs and we want the killer instinct.”

DuBois struggled in those first two innings, stranding five runners and going 1 for 5 with runners in scoring position before its offense came alive in the top of the fourth inning.

“I said keep your heads up. We battled back, that’s a good team, we knew could hit the ball. We knew we’d have to match them hit-for-hit. I would have liked to have got some of those runs first couple innings. We stranded five baserunners in the first two innings and, on a good team, you can’t do that,” DuBois coach Denny Nosker said. “Obviously came down to the wire and they got a run in the sixth and we didn’t. I’m proud of them. We’re very young. My pitching staff is all sophomores and freshmen, most of girls out there are freshmen and sophomores. Things are going to get better, they just got to remember that.”

The Beavers had five hits in that fourth inning to start chipping away at Williamsport’s lead and DuBois scored all four runs with two outs. The Beavers had a string of four consecutive hits with two outs to bring in its runs, including a huge single into left by Smith which brought in Maddie Smith and Lauren Walker to cut the deficit to 5-4.

Two innings later, it was Smith that tied the game at 5-5.

DuBois had success at the plate, as Maddie Ho (3 for 4, run), Lauren Walker (2 for 4, run), Smith (2 for 4, three RBIs) and Saige Weible (2 for 4) all had multiple hits.

Despite the fact DuBois rallied and chipped away at the deficit to eventually tie it, Williamsport never panicked and kept focused.

“We knew coming in that they’re a team that comes back, so we were ready for it,” Reeder said. “So when they scored those runs, we knew we had to hold them those next couple innings and get a run in somehow.”

Lynna Robertson didn’t allow DuBois to do any damage in the bottom of the seventh inning. She forced a three-up, three-down inning on just eight pitches. Robertson ended with six strikeouts.

Coming into the game, Nosker knew that Williamsport’s offense could hit from top to bottom with no real weak spots and wanted to prevent Williamsport from extending its bats and driving the ball deep.

“We tried to basically saw them off, bringing inside fastballs a lot to try to get them to hit off their hands. They’re a good hitting team, we faced them before,” Nosker said. “For the most part, we did a good job putting spin on the ball, coming inside, popping them up a little bit, hitting some grounders to our infield. Our infield played well.”

DuBois did out-hit Williamsport, 13-9.

Williamsport 6, DuBois 5

DuBois 000 401 0 — 5 13 0

Williamsport 410 001 x — 6 9 2

Saige Webiel and Sarah Henninger. Lynna Robertson and Kalindi Maggs. W–Robertson. L–Weibel.

Top DuBois hitters: Lauren Walker, 2-4, run; Taylor Smith, 2-4, 3 RBIs; Saige Weible, 2-4; Maddie Ho, 3-4, run. Top Williamsport hitters: Nicole Belton, 2B, 2 runs; Katie Meale, 2-3, BB, RBI, run; Kylie Segraves, 3-3, 2 RBIs, run.

Records: DuBois (6-7, 5-2 Central Penn), Williamsport (10-3, 6-0 Central Penn).

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