http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/
FROM KEITH GROLLER
Sometimes I wonder if anybody reads the Groller's Corner blog.
The Whitehall softball team assured me they read the blog on Tuesday and they weren't happy about what they read.
I predicted a 5-1 Emmaus victory over Whitehall in their first-round District 11 4A game at Pates Park.
And when the Green Hornets grabbed a 4-1 lead after two innings, that prediction looked good.
But Emmaus didn't score the rest of the way and Whitehall scored four times in the fourth inning to take the lead and held on for a surprising 5-4 win.
The No. 11-seeded Zephyrs (11-10) will meet No. 3 seed and Colonial League champ Bangor at 4 p.m. Thursday in the Slate Belt.
Meanwhile, No. 6 seed Emmaus (15-7) which lost a 1-0 heartbreaker to Parkland in last Thursday's LVC title game, had its season end after losing for the second time this season to the Zephs.
Freshman Kay Solderitch allowed four runs and six hits over the first two innings, but then blanked Emmaus on just three hits the rest of the way in picking up her first district win and the program's first district win since reaching the district finals in 2011.
"We just kept battling and pushed through it," Solderitch said after striking out nine and walking four. "We just kept our heads high. We beat Emmaus 2-1 before and we had confidence even when we got down 4-1. I realized that I had my defense behind me and threw strikes and knew the defense would make the plays. I have a great catcher [Regan Bortz]. I love my team. I can trust them with anything."
Whitehall took a 1-0 lead in the top of the frist when Solderitch led off with a double and scored on Abby Nguyen's two-out single.
Emmaus seemed to take control with two runs and three hits apiece in both the first and second innings. Claire Harris singled and scored in the first and she doubled in a run and scored another in the second. Harris scored when Morgan Patterson was hit with a pitch with the bases loaded.
From there Solderitch settled down.
Solderitch had a sacrifice fly in the decisive fourth inning when Whitehall got singles by Julia Solderitch and Rachel Spanitz and took advantage of two errors and a misplay on a third strike.
Up one, Solderitch got the last 12 outs to protect the lead.
The key inning for her was the sixth when Emmaus got singles by Kristi Morello and Harris to put two on with no one out and the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 hitters coming up.
Solderitch calmly got Rachel Brown on a popup to first and struck out Miryah Palko and Marcks to end the inning. She then capped off her performance by working around a one-out walk in the seventh.
"My kids didn't like seeing they were predicted to lose 5-1," Whitehall coach Alexis Berg-Townsend said. "They took that to heart. They know they're a talented team and when they play together, we can win. I'm so proud of them for how they battled throughout the game.
"We were tight early and it took them awhile to get into their groove. You don't expect a young team to come back when they get down by three runs in the first round of districts, but they did."
Whitehall 100 400 0 -- 5 7 1
Emmaus 220 000 0 -- 4 9 2
K. Solderitch and Bortz; Marcks and Krasnansky.
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