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First Posted: 5/22/2013

TUNKHANNOCK – At times this season, a rough start like Wednesday’s would have messed with Erin Smith’s mind for the rest of the game.

Fortunately for Tunkhannock, the District 2 Class 3A quarterfinal girls softball game wasn’t one of them.

Smith doubled and scored the tying run in the bottom of the seventh inning, then singled home the gamewinner in the eighth to rally Tunhannock past Wyoming Area, 6-5, in a spirited and tense extra-inning playoff battle at Tunkhannock High School.

“Our team is probably one of the closest teams I’ve ever been on,” Smith said. “We all wanted this really bad.”

It nearly got away from Smith and the Tigers at the start.

As the team’s starting pitcher, she allowed RBI singles to Alex Holtz and Emily Wolfgang in the first inning and an RBI double off the fence to Bree Bednarski and Nicole Turner’s run-scoring single in the second.

That offensive explosion, which produced seven Wyoming Area hits in the first two innings, put Tunkhannock in a 4-0 hole and knocked Smith from the circle, all the way into center field.

Somehow, she had to forget about the sub-par pitching performance pretty quickly.

“It’s not my strength, actually,” Smith said. “I usually kind of hang my head. But I was trying to keep my head up because it’s a really important game.”

Her heads-up play may have turned it around.

Smith delivered a sacrifice fly as part of Tunkhannock’s four-run rallied that tied the game in the third inning and made a couple of key catches in center field to twice prevent Wyoming Area from scoring extra runs.

The first was a nifty running snag of a laser off the bat of Wyoming Area’s Kaitlyn Kross, which Smith turned into an inning-ending doubleplay with a strong throw that caught a Warriors running trying to scamper back to second base in the fifth inning.

“That’s one thing we’ve told them the whole season,” Tunkhannock coach John Keefe said. “We can’t let one part of the game affect our other part.”

At the most critical time in Tunkhannock’s season, Smith listened.

After Wyoming Area took a 5-4 lead in the top of the seventh inning, Smith responded by belting a leadoff double in the bottom of the frame and scored the tying run on Jess Brennan’s single two batters later.

“I think it was a big deal,” Smith said of her blast to deep center field. “That’s what sparks our team, when we get the first hit.”

As it turned out, Smith also got the last.

With runners on first and third with one out in the eighth inning, the junior slammed a single to center field, scoring Meghan Healey with the winning run and sending the Tigers into the District 2 Class 3A semifinal game at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Valley View.

“I wasn’t looking to do anything too special,” Smith said. “I was just hoping I could get a base hit.”

Her big blow came after she gave up so many of them to Wyoming Area.

Bree Bednarski and Nicole Turner began the game with singles for the Warriors, and both came around to score on base hits. In the second inning, Bree Bednarski rocketed a bomb off the left field fence for a double that brought home Julez DeAngelo and Turner followed with a single that scored Drew Bednarski.

Afterward, Keefe made a key pitching switch.

Kirsten Gilpin came into the circle from center field to start the third inning, and held the Warriors to one run on six hits over the final six innings.

“I was having trouble keeping the balls down,” Smith said. “I was glad Kirsten could come in and relieve me.”

That gave Tunkhannock a chance to come back, but Smith had a big hand in keeping the Warriors from running away with the game.

“She wasn’t concerned at all (about the change),” Keefe said. “I told her, ‘We need you in center.’ She’s one of the best outfielders in the league.”

Smith proved his point by turning a solid liner into a doubleplay that helped keep the score at 4-4.

“That was huge,” Keefe said. “She’s heads-up. She’s ball-savvy. And we’re probably a little bit better defensively with her out there.”

Meanwhile, the Tigers got better offensively in a hurry.

Traci Kromko walked, Healey hammered a ground-rule double down the left field line and Emily Forba drilled a two-run single to get Tunkhannock going in the third inning. Two batters later, Smith delivered a sacrifice fly to right field to score Forba, before Ryleigh Fitch reached base on a bad-hop single and eventually scored on an overthrow.

Suddenly, a four-run Wyoming Area lead turned into a tie game.

“It was a new game then,” Smith said.

The Warriors tried to make it their game again, when Turner started the seventh inning with a single, was sacrificed to second base and sprinted home when Adrienne Przybula pounded a double over Smith’s head in center field.

Wyoming AreaABRHBI2B3BHR

Bree Bednarski rf5121100

Nicole Turner c4241000

Serra Degnan ss2000000

Adrienne Przybula cf4011100

Alex Holtz p4031000

Emily Wolfgang 2b3011000

Kaitlyn Kross 1b4000000

Julez DeAngelo 3b3100000

Drew Bednarski lf4120000

Totals335135200

TunkhannockABRHBI2B3BHR

Emily Forba c4122000

Molly Hampsey 2b5010000

Erin Smith p,cf4122100

Ryleigh Fitch 3b3110000

Jess Brennan lf4021000

Kailey Repsa pr0000000

Taylor Hegedty 1b4020000

Kirsten Gilpin cf,p4010000

Traci Kromko ss2110000

Meghan Healey rf4220100

Totals346145200

Wyoming Area22000010 – 5

Tunkhannock00400011 – 6

E – Wolfgang, B. Bednarski; Brennan, Kromko. DP – Tunkhannock 1. LOB – Wyoming Area 7, Tunkhannock 11. SAC – Degnan 2, Wolfgang; Forba. SF – Smith.

Wyoming AreaIPHRERBBSO

Holtz (L, 9-6)7 1/3146534

TunkhannockIPHRERBBSO

Smith274401

Gilpin (W, 5-2)661100

HBP – by Smith (DeAngelo). WP – Holtz 2; Smith.