COVINGTON TWP. — Amelia Bell wriggled out of a pair of jams, including one in the top of the seventh inning, to help North Pocono edge Valley View, 3-2, in a Lackawanna League Division I softball showdown on a sunny but windy Saturday afternoon at North Pocono High School.
Isabella Forgione was 3 for 3 for the Lady Trojans (7-2 overall, 4-0 league), who earned their third win of the week. They also defeated West Scranton on Wednesday and Wallenpaupack on Friday. Bell was the winning pitcher in all three games.
On Saturday, she allowed two runs (one earned) and five hits. She did not strike out a better and walked four — all to Valley View slugger Abbi Call, including three intentional. She also helped her cause with a double.
“She’s been hitting some crazy spots and moving the ball around,” North Pocono coach Joe Miraglia said. “We’ve been throwing the changeup with two strikes, full counts, and she’s been hitting the spots steady. So I’m confident in her. She’s been so accurate. She doesn’t throw 65 mph, but she has a lot of movement and she hits her spots consistently. This week she was absolutely amazing.”
Leading, 3-1, in the top of the seventh, Bell began the inning by hitting Mady Minelli with a pitch. One out later, Ella Swingle had an infield single and Cora Castellani followed with a line single to center to score Minelli and cut the deficit to 3-2.
With Call due up, Miraglia didn’t waste any time and intentionally walked the Clemson University commit a third time to load the bases.
“The kid’s a phenomenal softball player,” Miraglia said. “I know what she can do. I have a lot of respect for that kid. She’s a hard worker, deserves everything she’s got and is going to be something to deal with in college.”
What that did, however, was advance the potential tying run to third base and leave Bell little margin for error.
“I trusted the defense. Amelia trusted her defense,” Miraglia said. “We know we can play defense. Bases loaded, it doesn’t even come into Amelia’s mind. It doesn’t make a difference. She knows she has the team behind her.”
Sure enough, Bell got Maggie Hallett to hit a ground ball to shortstop Riley Grambo, who threw home to catcher Anna Havenstrite in time to force Swingle for the second out. Zoie Krupovich then lined a 1-0 pitch to right that Avarie Roscioli ran down toward the foul line for the final out.
“Once they got the bases loaded, I knew I had to pitch the best inning of my life,” Bell said. “I knew I couldn’t give them a chance to get anything out of the infield. We called a timeout and had a little meeting at the pitcher’s mound and said that nothing can get through, everything has to go home, we can’t let up another run. But don’t let the fear of letting up another run stop us from playing our game.
“When I saw it off the bat, originally my heart dropped. But as long as it’s going to stay in the field, I know my outfielders and my whole defense behind me would not let them score another run.”
Valley View coach Mia Wascura credited Roscioli with making a nice grab.
“Roscioli is a dual asset. Not only a killer right fielder, she has an arsenal at the plate,” Wascura said. “Fantastic catch. Zoie could not have hit it any harder. She hit a bullet. She went with the pitch, exactly what I teach. If Avarie didn’t catch it, I think Zoie would still be running.”
The Cougars stranded nine, something Wascura said is a concern.
“We’re leaving too many runners on. That’s the problem,” Wascura said. “We have to be more situational with our hits. If the ball is outside, take it outside. Hard and down on the ground is what we need to do. We’re dropping our hands and getting under the ball a little bit.”
In the top of the third, Valley View took a 1-0 lead. Mady Minelli led off with a single, was sacrificed to second by Grace Munley and scored with two outs when a fly ball hit by Castellani was dropped in the outfield for an error.
Then in the top of the fourth, the Cougars threatened again. Ashlan Palickar singled with one out, but was forced on a fielder’s choice by Coral Kelly. Minelli followed with a single that sent courtesy runner Lily Smith to third. Minelli then stole second. But Bell escaped trouble by getting Munley on a comebacker, keeping it 1-0.
That seemed to inject some life into the Lady Trojans.
“Knowing that they could have scored runs and we stopped them really helped us bring up the momentum in the dugout and cheering on our teammates to hit and start scoring some runs in that fourth inning.”
Forgione got things going with a leadoff single and Grambo followed with a walk. A Roscioli fielder’s choice put runners at first and third and that’s when North Pocono pulled off a double steal with Forgione scoring the tying run on the back end and Roscioli advancing all the way to third. Cameron Forgione then had an RBI groundout to put North Pocono in front, 2-1.
“We pride ourselves on averaging two to three runs based on baserunning and stealing bases,” Miraglia said. “We’re aggressive on the bases and we’re going to go every chance and opportunity we have. All my baserunners have the green light. They understand they don’t have to wait for me. That’s been consistent this year. When we get that key hit or key bunt or an error, whatever happens we have runners in scoring position.”
Call exited the game with what Wascura described as possible shin splints in the top of the fifth and was relieved by Munley. Bell laced a two-out double to center field and Isabella Forgione followed with a single to score courtesy runner Mikayla Murphy with what turned out to be the decisive run.
“They’re such a good team, I knew they could easily get one run,” Isabella Forgione said. “I just knew we had to get another runner in so we could pull out the win. I just tried to keep the ball on the ground, hit it hard.
“When you play very good teams like them, you have to take advantage of everything and that’s what I did,”