DISTRICT 2-4 SOFTBALL: West Scranton drops Class 6A final to Williamsport

EDWARDSVILLE — Errors proved West Scranton’s undoing Wednesday afternoon.

Williamsport took advantage of three errors to score seven unearned runs as the Lady Millionaires beat the Lady Invaders, 9-1, in the District 2-4 Class 6A Subregional softball final at Wilkes University’s Ralston Athletic Complex Softball Field.

Emma Vollman and Katelyn Solomon, the top two hitters in the Williamsport lineup, each drove in three runs and pitcher Ashlyn Robinson limited West Scranton to one unearned run and six hits with eight strikeouts. The Lady Millionaires (18-3) advance to the PIAA Class 6A tournament and will face the No. 3 seed from District 3 in the first round Monday.

Even though it lost and had its season end, West Scranton (12-10) still is the District 2 champion.

Neither team scored in the first two innings, but Williamsport jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third.

After plunking Vollman in the helmet with a pitch to open the bottom of the first, West Scranton pitcher Kaleiah Connor retired the next eight batters.

But with two outs in the bottom of the third, Vollman got her revenge. She sent a 1-0 pitch over the left-center field fence for a home run to give the Lady Millionaires a 1-0 lead.

Kaleiah Connor got the next batter, Cannode, to hit a fly ball to the outfield. However, the ball was dropped and Cannode raced to third on the error. Brenna Beck followed with an RBI single.

West Scranton threatened in the top of the fifth. A leadoff single by Brianna Connor ended a streak of eight straight retired by Ashlyn Robinson. A fielder’s choice by Isabella Lutz forced Brianna Connor at second. Kaleiah Connor followed with an infield single, but Robinson got a strikeout and a groundout to end the inning.

In the bottom of the fifth, Williamsport extended its lead to 5-0. Katelyn Solomon led off with a single. Bella Reddy then put down a sacrifice bunt and reached on a throwing error, advancing Solomon to third. After Reddy stole second, Vollman doubled them home. She moved to third on a foul flyout to right field and scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Beck.

Finally, in the top of the sixth, the Lady Invaders broke through against Robinson. Mia Tallo led off with a booming double to left-center field and Sophia Deluca reached on an error that put runners at the corners.

Robinson retired the next two batters on popups, but Brianna Connor dunked a single into shallow right field to score Tallo and make it 5-1.

Any hopes of a comeback were dashed, however, in the bottom of the sixth when Williamsport scored four runs with two outs.

Brielle Thornton and Zaelana Minor had back-to-back singles to start the inning. Kaleiah Connor retired the next two batters and appeared as if she would get out of the inning when she got Vollman to pop up. But the ball was dropped, allowing a run to score. Cannode then capped things with a three-run home run to left-center.