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UNBELIEVABLE RUN: South’s sensational season comes to end in state championship game with loss to Neshannock

By Chris Masse 8 min read

STATE COLLEGE -- One look at the South Williamsport crowd could have left one confused Thursday afternoon.

The scoreboard said Neshannock defeated South, but in the minds and hearts of all those blue-clad fans who flooded Beard Field at Penn State, the Mounties cannot lose. And, really, in the grand scheme of things, South won mighty big despite that final score.

Neshannock rallied from a run down in the fifth inning and repeated as Class AA state champions, downing South, 8-3. Providence-bound pitcher Addy Frye homered in a second straight state final and struck out 12. Still, the Mounties pushed a team which is 100-1 the past four seasons as hard as anyone has all year and became the first to hold a lead against it beyond the third inning.

And look at what South did this season, as well as the last four years. The Mounties became the first team in program history; the first area team in the 2000s to reach consecutive state finals, while winning four consecutive district crowns and 18 games.

That state title banner just eluded South's grasp, but what the Mounties achieved will echo long into the future.

"This group of seniors, we've exceeded expectations," shortstop Gianna Goodman said. "I'm so proud of each and every one of us."

"No regrets. We gave 100 % at every practice. We took more swings than necessary. Always doing the extra stuff," first baseman Abby Lorson said after going 2 for 3 with a run. "We really put a lot into it to get here today."

In their final game, seven decorated seniors, along with reliable juniors Emma McLaughlin, Mikaiya Hills and Maddie Pinkerton unloaded their entire arsenal pursuing the program's first state championship since 2003. All this against a heavily-favored opponent, featuring four Division I recruits and which entered on a 51-game winning streak.

South erased a 1-0 first inning deficit, took a 2-1 second inning lead and held it until the fifth, coming within in eight outs of winning the state crown. South hurt afterward that it did not win, but it also took comfort knowing it was not defeated, getting some timely hits, receiving stellar pitching from Alizabeth Schuler and adding in some fantastic defensive plays.

"I know it's a loss on the board, but I got to play with my best friends my senior year and got to play a sport I love in a state championship," right fielder Sage Lorson said after belting a deep double and making two outstanding catches. "It feels like a win even though it's a loss."

"They played their hearts out. They left it all on the field and that's all you can ask for, and it's a shame we came up a little short, but they fought to the last pitch," South coach Tom O'Malley said. "I wouldn't expect anything different. That's just the way they are."

Neshannock mercy-ruled South in last year's final, but the Mounties longed for a second chance and did everything possible to seize that opportunity. They did not flinch after Frey's two-out first inning home run but the Lancers up, 1-0. Instead, Goodman led off the bottom of the first with an infield single, after falling behind 0-2, before Mikaiya Hills was hit by a pitch.

Frey struck out the side from there, but Goodman ignited the team with her lead-off hit and helped provide the spark which South turned into flames an inning later.

"That was very important, to get on that first at-bat," Goodman said. "It sets the tone, it gets our energy up and puts a little pressure on their defense."

South continued applying pressure the next inning. Sage Lorson nearly went yard, slamming a lead-off double off the right field wall. Moments later her cousin Abby brilliantly executed a little thing and turned into a huge sequence.

After smashing a home run in her previous at-bat last Monday in the state semifinal win against Williams Valley, Abby Lorson hit a proverbial "Little League" home run by just pushing the ball a few feet from home. Lorson dropped a perfect a bunt in no-man's land between the first base line, plate and pitching circle. She hustled down the line for a single and when the hurried throw went off the mark, Sage Lorson scored from second. The right fielder then threw home but nobody was there and when the ball went into Neshannock's dugout, Lorson came home from second and South led, 2-1.

It was just the third time all season and the first time in 23 games that an opponent took a lead against Neshannock.

"It was great. I was rounding third and going home and I didn't know what happened," Sage Lorson said. "In the dugout I was like, 'Abby, what did you do?! I know you did great but what happened?'"

"A bunt normally isn't in my toolbox. I don't think I bunted all season but to lay one down in the state championship was a really great feeling," Abby Lorson said. "I knew I just had to move Sage whether it was a sacrifice or a base hit. It felt really good getting it down."

Schuler and her defense kept the good vibes going. Sage Lorson made a sensational hustling snow cone catch down well into foul territory beyond the right field line in the fourth inning, while McLaughlin twice made fantastic catches on line drives which looked like sure hits, the second time producing a double play which helped end a bases-loaded, no-out threat.

And Schuler contained a powerful offense, allowing just one earned run. The Bloomsburg-bound senior had Neshannock off-balance most of the day and threw just 37 pitches through the first four innings. She also induced 11 ground outs with standout third baseman Kendall Cardone stopping seven and producing seven assists during a four-inning stretch. Schuler won 19 playoff games in the circle the last four years and in her final game, she went out on her shield.

"She does that every game. She's one of the hardest workers I know," Sage Lorson said. "She produces the contact for us to make plays."

The fifth inning was not without controversy. O'Malley said the second base umpire told him the ball contacted the runner, who reached on a one-out error, going from first to second on Brenna Frengel's game-tying RBI single in the fifth inning. That umpire, however, was overruled and South was denied a second out.

Two batters later, Jaidon Nogay hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly which put Neshannock up, 3-2. However, the Goodman, fielding the cut-off throw, made an alert throw and Cardone appeared to clearly tag her out before her hand reached the bag. Instead of a third out, and being down just one run, the call opened the door for Gabby Quinn to hit a three-run double as the Lancers moved ahead, 6-2.

Not that South let those sequences faze it. The Mounties continued fighting and Schuler led off the bottom of the sixth with a two-strike single before Lily Reidy followed with another two-strike single. Cardone's sacrifice fly cut the deficit to, 6-3, and Lorson made it three two-strike hits that inning, belting a two-out single which put runners on the corners.

Pinkerton then fought back and drove a two-strike pitch deep into center field. It landed just a few feet from the warning track but Nogay made the inning-ending catch.

That inning highlighted what allowed South to hit as well as anyone against Frye, who closed her high school career 59-0. Frye struck out 12 but no strikeouts came easy as South repeatedly fouled off two-strike pitches and made her work. Frye threw 109 pitches, including 70 through the first four. There also were some loud outs, including Pinkerton's long drive, and Emily Holtzapple was robbed of a fifth inning lead-off single by a brilliant catch from second baseman Frengel who caught it in shallow right field.

"We hit it well. That (Pinkerton) ball gets in the gap and we're down just a run. It's a game of inches and it seemed like they got the inches there later in the game," O'Malley said. "We were executing well and if she (Frye) isn't the best pitcher we've seen this year, she's right up there. We did a good job trying to make her work."

Work is what defined South the last four years. The Mounties excelled on and off the field, and it was those qualities, maybe more than the wins, which all those South fans enjoyed most.

"I can't say enough about the girls. I'm just proud to be associated with them; proud to be their coach," O'Malley said. "They gave you everything they had; everything in the tank."

Neshannock 100 050 2―8 10 3

South 020 001 0―3 7 3

Addy Frye and Gabby Quinn. Alizabeth Schuler and Lily Reidy. W―Frye. L―Schuler.

Top Neshannock hitters: Brenna Fremel 2-2, RBI, 2R; Quinn 2-4, 2B, 4 RBIs; Miley Anderson 2-4, 2R; Jaidon Nogay 1-3, 2 RBIs; Frye 1-2, HR, RBI, 2 BB. Top South hitters: Abby Lorson 2-3, R; Gianna Goodman 2-4, SB; Schuler 1-3, R; Reidy 1-3; Sage Lorson 1-3, 2B, R; Kendall Cardone RBI.

Records: Neshannock 26-0. South 18-6.

Starting at /week.