Brister carries Abington Heights to Division I win – Scranton Times-Tribune

COVINGTON TWP. — It’s been nearly 11 months of pent-up frustration.

Eleven months since Abington Heights walked off the University of Scranton’s Magis Field, suffering heartbreak in a loss to North Pocono in the District 2 Class 5A championship game.

Tuesday afternoon, the Lady Comets unleashed all of their aggression.

Abington Heights racked up 14 hits against three North Pocono pitchers, and Avary Brister clubbed two home runs as the Lady Comets scored in all but one inning in a 14-4 victory over the Lady Trojans in Lackawanna League Division I softball play.

Abington Heights (8-1 overall, 5-0 Division I) is the last undefeated team in the league, while Tuesday’s setback was the first for North Pocono in division play.

“Losing in that district title game last year, we were out for vengeance this year,” Abington Heights pitcher Adrianna Condrad said. “I think we showed that today, and I am so happy for the team right now. We were so pumped. We were looking forward to this one for a long time. I think we just hit the ball so well, and the defense made so many good plays behind me today.”

Abington Heights, in many ways, offers so many pick-your-poison situations.

Tuesday provided two of those situations.

The first one could simply be called the Condrad-Brister problem.

Pitch to Condrad, and the Syracuse commit could destroy a pitch. That was evident in the second inning where she rocked a pitch to right-center to knot the game at 2. She finished with three hits and three RBIs.

Walk Condrad, and Brister — who is batting nearly .650 — walks to the plate. And like Condrad, she can destroy a pitch, evident by her two, two-run home runs. Her first gave the Lady Comets the lead for good, 5-2, in the fourth, and her second came in the seventh.

“I think both of them, I had two outs on me,” Brister said. “I knew I had to do whatever I could to help my team. I was just happy to make any contact so I could help the team. We knew we needed to come in with a lot of energy, and I think you saw that today.”

The second dilemma the Lady Comets pose is aggressive base-running, because it causes chaos on opponents.

They steal bases, or at times, multiple bases. They tag up on fly balls. They drop down sacrifice squeezes. Miss a cut on a relay throw from the outfield, and it’s a possible two-base mistake.

Not only does it put pressure on fielders, but also on the catcher, because a wild pitch or passed ball is at least one base, if not, multiple.

And the Lady Comets did all of the above situations Tuesday.

“We talked a lot at our practice yesterday about being aggressive,” Abington Heights coach John Kelly said, “both offensively and defensively. That’s what we did. The girls have kind of been in a little bit of a funk, so a game like this is really nice to get the bats rolling at the right time against a really good team.”

North Pocono (10-3, 6-1) took a lead in the bottom of the second on back-to-back RBIs by Adysen Iyoob and Anna Havenstrite, but Abington Heights immediately responded.

Eva Kane — who had three hits and four runs from the leadoff spot — started off the third with a walk, and scored from first on Condrad’s double to knot it at 2.

Abington Heights took the lead for good on Condrad’s second RBI, and Brister followed with a mammoth, two-run blast for the 5-2 lead.

“Avary has been our most consistent hitter all year,” Kelly said. “She already has 36 RBIs for us. She is really playing well. We moved her down in the lineup to protect AC, and she did a heck of a job today; a really great job.”

The Lady Comets put it on ice in the fifth, sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring six runs. Kelly’s team only had two RBIs in the inning, but caused tons of havoc on the bases, forcing the Trojans into two errors.

Riley McColligan added to the lead in the sixth, scoring from third when the catcher dropped a third strike and threw it to first to get the runner there.

“We work on base-running so much. We do like to cause a little bit of chaos, but good chaos,” Brister said. “We want to be as aggressive as we can, but also, smart on the bases at the same time. We just try to put the runners in the best position for our hitters.”

Abington Heights sealed it in the seventh on Brister’s second blast of the night.

“I think we are going to take the energy from this game, and bring it with us to Thursday and Friday. At the end of the day, we played really well as a team and we have to carry all the momentum from this game throughout the rest of the week,” Brister said.

Valley View 12, Delaware Valley 0 (5 inn.): At Delaware Valley, Zoie Krupovich went 2 for 3 with a home run, four RBIs and two runs to lead the Cougars to a Division I win in five innings.

Abbi Call went 2 for 3 with a home run, three RBIs and three runs and pitched two shutout innings. Maggie Hallett had three hits, including a double, and one RBI, Ella Swingle had two hits, two RBIs and two runs and Ashlan Palickar had two hits, including a double, one RBI and one run for Valley View (10-2, 5-2).

Grace Munley earned the win, pitching three innings, allowing one hit and striking out seven.

Emily Sullivan, Gabriella Stahlmann and Brianna Rebman each had a hit for Delaware Valley (2-7, 1-4).

Mid Valley 19, Honesdale 0 (4 inn.): At Honesdale, Angela Laskowski had a home run, a double, seven RBIs and two runs to lead the Spartanettes to a Division II win in four innings.

Ava Hazelton had three hits, including two doubles, three RBIs and a run, and pitched a four-inning one-hitter with seven strikeouts.

Parker Bennett had three hits, including two doubles, two RBIs and one run, Avery Tinney had two hits, including a double, two RBIs and two runs and Addison Frein had two hits, including a double, one RBI and three runs for Mid Valley (12-1, 7-0).

Autumn Razny had the hit for the Lady Hornets (1-8, 0-5).

Old Forge 16, Riverside 9: At Riverside, Joselyn DeStefano had two hits, including a two-run homer, four RBIs and two runs to lead the Lady Blue Devils to a Division II win.

Julia Marianelli had two hits, including a double, three RBIs and a run, Juliette DeStefano had two hits and a run, Kate O’Hearn had a hit, two RBIs and a run and Addison Rafalko had a hit and two RBIs for Old Forge (7-3, 4-2).

Shelby Lewis was 3 for 4 with two doubles and three RBIs, Mikayla Smith had three hits, including a double, one RBIs and three runs and Kate Reynolds had three hits and a run for the Lady Vikes (6-6, 2-5).

Lakeland 14, Western Wayne 9: At Lakeland, Olivia Lach went 4 for 4 with a home run, six RBIs and four runs to lead the Lady Chiefs to a Division II win.

Kamri Naniewicz went 4 for 4 with two RBIs and a run, McKaelyn Eremo and Tori Wormuth had two hits, one RBI and three runs and Alix Roberts had two hits, one RBI and two runs for Lakeland (3-6, 2-5).

Hannah DeStefano had three hits, including a home run, and three runs, and Adysen Wargo had three hits and two RBIs for Western Wayne (2-5, 1-5).

Elk Lake 10, Forest City 0 (5 inn.): At Elk Lake, Miah Rosin tossed a five-inning no hitter to lead the Lady Warriors to a Division III win over the Lady Foresters (1-6, 1-4).

Rosin struck out seven and walked two and added a hit and a run.

Lydia Howell had two home runs and three RBIs, Brynn Warriner had two hits, including a home run, and Nami Patton had two hits, including a triple, and two runs for Elk Lake (6-4, 5-1).

Lackawanna Trail 14, Susquehanna 8: At Lackawanna Trail, Shelby Malamud went 3 for 4 with three doubles, four RBIs and two runs to lead the Lady Lions to a Division III victory.

Brynn Kelly added three hits, two RBIs and three runs, Payton Laytos had two hits, including a triple, four RBIs and a run and Kate Jones had two hits, two RBIs and a run for Lackawanna Trail (2-7, 2-4).

Jordyn Spoor had three hits, two RBIs and three runs, and Piper Heller had two doubles, two RBIs and a run for the Lady Sabers (2-5, 1-4).