SCRANTON \u2014 It\u2019s a tough situation for any pitcher.in<\/p>\n
Playoff seeding on the line. A chance to avenge a loss from earlier in the season. Now, add in the fact Anna Babyak is a freshman.<\/p>\n
The pressure never broke the young Wallenpaupack player. Instead, she thrived in the moment on a big stage.<\/p>\n
Babyak held a good West Scranton lineup to just five hits, and punched out 14 batters. The offense did the rest, jumping out to a three-run lead after one inning as Wallenpaupack picked up the 8-3 win over the Lady Invaders on Saturday afternoon at the University of Scranton\u2019s Magis Field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a few nerves, but throughout the game, I felt like I was getting more comfortable,\u201d Babyak said. \u201cI had a lot of support from my teammates. It\u2019s tough being a pitcher, but it\u2019s always about pushing through the hard times.\u201d<\/p>\n
While West Scranton entered the day locked into the No. 2 spot in the upcoming District 2-4 Class 6A playoffs, Wallenpaupack\u2019s destiny was still to be determined.<\/p>\n
A win over the Lady Invaders, and the Lady Buckhorns would hop into the third spot in the Class 4A playoffs. That\u2019s big because it would give Wallenpaupack a more favorable matchup in the quarterfinals with No. 6 Berwick instead of playing a Dallas team that\u2019s swinging a good bat late in the season, including a six-spot put up against Lake-Lehman\u2019s Division I pitcher Hannah Chipego in an 8-6 loss Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight out of the bat, that was huge to get up in the first inning,\u201d Wallenpaupack coach Chris Doty said. \u201cWest is a very, very strong offensive team. To put the three was huge. Anna was incredible. I didn\u2019t even realize that she had 14 strikeouts. That\u2019s big for a freshman. We are very proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
This game belonged to Babyak.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, she was nervous coming into the game as she was touched up by West Scranton in the first meeting, losing in extra innings.<\/p>\n
Saturday, she was in full control. She struck out at least one batter in every inning, and struck out four of the final seven hitters \u2014 including two straight to end the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnna is very composed,\u201d Doty said. \u201cShe\u2019s mature beyond her years. To be honest, the biggest thing she was upset about was getting doubled-up at first base. But then, she goes back in the field and retires three in a row. We are very proud of her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Babyak allowed three runs, but only one was earned as a dropped pop fly to left scored McKenna Brudnicki and Brianna Connor as West trimmed the deficit to 4-3 in the fourth.<\/p>\n
But the Lady Buckhorns immediately answered with two in the fifth, taking advantage of one of five Lady Invaders errors, coupled with Alexa Laing\u2019s second RBI of the game.<\/p>\n
Wallenpaupack (11-9) then added two in the sixth, two runs scoring on an error on Adrianna Milutinovic\u2019s infield roller.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis win is huge. No matter what happens, we will finish with a winning record,\u201d Doty said. \u201cWe had some bumps in the road early, and they just performed. We are very happy with where they ended up.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the perfect start for the Lady Buckhorns.<\/p>\n
Lucy Babyak drilled a one-out single to right, and Reagan Anderson was drilled with a pitch to put two on for the middle of the order. Hannah Daidone\u2019s double to left scored one, and Milutinovic ripped a double to right-center, scoring two, as \u2018Paupack led, 3-0, after one.<\/p>\n
West got one back in the first on Brudnicki\u2019s RBI double to left-center, but the Lady Buckhorns got it right back to three in the third when Laing drew a bases-loaded walk.<\/p>\n
For the Lady Invaders, it will be about shaking off the loss, and regrouping for the postseason. West (11-9) has a quarterfinal bye, and will most likely get a rematch with Hazleton Area in the semifinals. Earlier this season, West mercy-ruled the Cougars, 13-3, in Hazle Twp.<\/p>\n
West Scranton\u2019s last district title came in 2021 when the team was in Class 5A, advancing to the state semifinals that season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are excited to get into the playoffs. We have been preparing for this all year, and the goal has been to play our best in districts,\u201d West coach John Connor said. \u201cOverall, I am happy with the growth of the girls, and their grit and determination. That old-school West Side feeling is back in the dugout. I am hoping that we are going to make some noise in playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Wallenpaupack, it will be about navigating a brutal Class 4A bracket with one-loss Tunkhannock and the reigning PIAA Class 4A champ Valley View.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have some stuff to work on, but as a team, I feel like we\u2019ve been getting so much better throughout the season,\u201d Babyak said. \u201cI am excited for playoffs. I hope we can go really far.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON \u2014 It\u2019s a tough situation for any pitcher.in Playoff seeding on the line. A chance to avenge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-194628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}