Sports

H.S. Softball

DAVE ROSENGRANT drosengrant@timesleader.com

HAZLETON – Like the thunderstorms that crashed through Luzerne County on Thursday, Hazleton Area is running rampant through Division I of the Wyoming Valley Conference again.

The Cougars, who have won the division championship in five of the last six years, took a step closer to winning the title again by beating Crestwood 9-2 on Thursday at Hazleton Area High School during persistent rumbles of thunder and rain showers.

Hazleton has now won 10 straight games in the conference after starting the season 0-2 and sits atop the division with a two-game lead over Wyoming Valley West (8-4) with two games left on the schedule. The Cougars play Tunkhannock and Pittston Area, while the Spartans face Pittston Area and Wyoming Area.

“We’re young and we knew that in the beginning,” Hazleton coach Ron Cann said. “Our coaching staff has done an outstanding job to get this team to where it is right now and have worked long hours to get these kids where they are.”

The Cougars took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second highlighted by a two-run single by sophomore third baseman Alyssa Rodezwich.

“That was a big hit,” said Rodezwich. “It was a big relief for the team knowing that we got the lead and then we came through and got the win.”

Hazleton extended its lead to 4-0 in the fourth when Brittany Kringer (3-for-4) knocked in Brianna Huff with a single.

Then Crestwood (4-8) started to mount a comeback. The Comets had the bases loaded with one out in the sixth inning and pushed a run across on an RBI single by Lauren Hochreiter. Jade Dudley then scored on a wild pitch to cut the lead in half.

But that’s all the Comets would get, as Hazleton pitcher Heather Dale got out of the jam with a strikeout and a pop-up to the catcher.

The Comets, who only have a handful of seniors on the team, were led by junior shortstop Sarah Plaviak’s 2-for-4 showing.

“They have a very good team over there,” Cann said of Crestwood. “They have very good sticks with Dudley and Plaviak. We have seen them a lot, and they have some very good players that can hit the ball. They are going to be good.”

The Cougars broke the game open in the bottom of the sixth with five runs. Dale tripled in a pair of runs, Marie Donadi had an RBI triple before stealing home and Katie Kmiecinski hit a run-scoring single.

“We knew we couldn’t afford to lose and got a few more runs,” Rodezwich said. “Every game from here on out is like a championship game. Every game is big.”

Dale struck out nine in seven innings to register the win, while her counterpart Hochreiter also twirled a complete-game.