TIM WEIGHT/Special to the Sun-Gazette Central Mountain’s Camdyn Weaver warms up during Monday’s PIAA Class 5A playoff game vs. Penn Trafford. The Wildcats won in six innings.

MILL HALL — If Monday afternoon’s game marked the last for Central Mountain on its home field, the Wildcats saved the best for last. Behind superb pitching and defense from senior Adalynn McKeague and the Wildcats (14-5), Central Mountain clinched a spot in the PIAA Class 5A quarterfinals after McKeague threw a four-hit shutout in a 10-0, six inning win over the Penn-Trafford Warriors at home.

The win serves as Central Mountain’s 15th, including their second consecutive, and the Wildcats will play the winner of Armstrong and Greater Latrobe. On Thursday at a site and time to be determined. McKeague got the Wildcats going early with two, first inning strikeouts before Central Mountain’s offense clicked in the bottom of that inning with five runs on three hits, batting through the entire order.

That inning set the tone for McKeague to throw a 12-strikeout masterpiece that simply inspired her teammates to rack up 12 hits in the batter’s box, and more importantly, hold Penn-Trafford to just four hits scattered throughout the course of four different innings.

“It was a great way to go out, I think they played very well. I told the team when I went out there, there was no part of the game I was disappointed in or really thought we didn’t perform well. I thought we played very solid,” Central Mountain coach Fred Caldwell said after the win.

McKeague, who surpassed 500 strikeouts for her career and another 100 for the current season, has recently been in and out of the lineup with an injury. In what could have been her final high school game, and all throughout these playoffs, she’s shown no signs of letting that injury bother her.

The all-time Central Mountain strikes leader was magnificent in just about every inning she pitched. She gave up one hit in the first, third, fourth and sixth innings, but each time she gave up those hits she stranded the runner each time with at least one strikeout.

She had at least two strikeouts in four of the six innings she pitched, including a game-high three consecutive strikeouts in the top of the second inning where she essentially shut down any momentum the visitors wanted to use.

“It’s no secret that Addy has been struggling with some nagging-type injuries but to see her pitch like that today it’s really perfect timing for us,” coach Caldwell said. “The defense played solid.”

The Wildcats could have played until the seventh inning and closed out the big playoff win with a complete game but freshman Camdyn Weaver, who is typically McKeague’s relief pitcher and pinch-hit for Sophie Mitchell in the fourth and sixth innings, hammered a solo shot to right field to move the score to 9-0 with one run left until the mercy rule.

With no one on base, lead-off sophomore hitter Cirstyn Watson hit a booming double to centerfield. On the ensuing at-bat, senior center fielder Madisyn Wian smoked an RBI double that scored Watson to close out the game with a mercy rule, allowing the Wildcats to advance.

Central Mountain junior right fielder Taylor Doyle has made an impact on both sides of the field throughout the season but has stepped up in a big way during these playoffs. Against DuBois last Tuesday Doyle had two hits. On Monday she again made noise, but this time in a bigger way. Doyle made a team-high three hits, going 3 for 4 with two RBIs and one to spark the Wildcats in the nine-hole of the lineup. In the first inning she hit a two-RBI single that scored Aubrey Eiler and Madison Hardy after Hardy hit a two-run double of her own. In the bottom of the third inning Doyle hit a single to left field before smacking one last single and scoring off of a Cora Myers hit in the bottom of the fifth.

“She’s picking it up. Her twin sister Ava plays, and they are true carbon copies of each other, but she’s out with an ankle injury,” coach Caldwell explained. “Taylor has been doing a great job.”

In Central Mountain’s last outing against DuBois, the Wildcats tallied 17 hits for the third time this season. It’s shown Central Mountain’s relentless hitting once it gets its bats going but the hits come in ebbs and flows. The Wildcats had a strong first inning but died down in the second, third and fourth, allowing the Beavers to make a comeback.

Central Mountain knew it couldn’t do that against a state-caliber Penn-Trafford team who was eyeing a win after winning a league consolation game to make the state tournament. The Wildcats learned from their mistakes from six days ago by scoring runs in the fourth and fifth innings before closing it out in the sixth.

“Against DuBois we did kind of the same thing. We scored five runs and then went on a three-inning lul. So we really talked about that, not letting that happen and winning every inning and the team did a good job,” coach Caldwell said. “The team did a good job staying focused and up in the dugout.”

Central Mountain’s mercy rule shutout may come as a surprise, especially given this team’s loss to South Williamsport before the regular season concluded. The Wildcats defeated South Williamsport last year during the regular season, though, and Central Mountain’s younger core of the team was sitting at home this time of year after losing their first round state tournament game at home.

While the confidence is still high for this program mixed with a plethora of seasoned juniors and seniors and talented freshmen and sophomores, the Wildcats are going to get back to work. Central Mountain will get back to what got them to this point in hopes of continuing what’s been a magical but fun journey so far.

“What I told the girls is to remember to never get too high or get too low,” coach Caldwell said. “Stay grounded in the middle. It feels really good after a win like this, but you want to fight that tendency to think we’re way up here. We’ve got to realize we’re still in the middle of the pack, we still got to work harder. So we got to do all the little things that we’ve been working on and we’ll be fine.”

Central Mountain 10, Penn-Trafford 0

(6 INNINGS)

Penn Trafford 000 0000-0 4 1

Central Mountain 500 122x-10 12 0

Allyson Paulone, Hailey Pokrant. Adalynn McKeague. W: McKeague. L: Pokrant.

Top Central Mountain hitters: Cirstyn Watson 2-3, 2 runs, 2BB; Madisyn Wian 2-5, 2B, run, RBI; Cora Myers 2-3, run, 2 RBIs; Madison Hardy 1-2, 2B, run, RBI, 2 BB; Sophie Mitchell 1-2; Taylor Doyle 3-4, 2 RBIs, run; Camdyn Weaver 1-2, HR, run, RBI. Top Penn-Trafford hitters: Cam Ponko 2-3; Bella Rubbe 1-2, BB; Erin Drotos 1-3.

Records: Central Mountain (15-5). Next game: Central Mountain vs. Armstrong/Latrobe winner at site TBD, Thursday.