Claire Helring has been swinging a hot bat during the postseason for the Holy Cross softball team.<\/p>\n
In five playoff games, the junior is 9 for 17 (.529) with eight runs and three RBIs, raising her season average to .409 (27 for 66) with two doubles, six home runs, 23 runs and 19 RBIs. She has helped the Lady Crusaders reach the state final for the first time.<\/p>\n
On Thursday at 4 p.m., District 2 champion Holy Cross (21-3) faces District 7 and defending state champion Union Area (22-2) for the PIAA Class 1A title at Penn State University\u2019s Nittany Lion Softball Park and Beard Field.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so exciting,\u201d Helring said. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time in school history and we beat some really good teams to get here. So I think we\u2019ve really earned our spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Joe Ross said when Helring gets on a hot streak, she can hit with anybody.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019ll go through some stretches where she doesn\u2019t have great at-bats,\u201d Ross said. \u201cBut she\u2019ll work her way out of a slump. She works hard, both in practice and on her own, and fine-tunes her swing. When she squares it up, she can hit the ball with some power.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, Helring\u2019s biggest hit of the postseason wasn\u2019t a hit. In the quarterfinals against Claysburg Kimmel, she thought she hit the game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. However, it was ruled that time had been called by one of the base umpires just before the pitch was thrown and Helring had to bat again with an 0-1 count.<\/p>\n
But Ross said if there was a player who had the mental toughness to handle the situation, it was Helring. She responded with a single to ignite the winning rally.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs talented as Claire is, what\u2019s most impressive to me his her attitude and her mentality,\u201d Ross said. \u201cShe\u2019s a quiet kid who just comes and works and is the same whether she is 0 for 4 or 4 for 4 with four home runs. She\u2019s one of the few people resilient enough to go through what she went through against Claysburg Kimmel. She hits the home run that was a no-doubt-about-it, 80 feet over the fence. Then she comes back, the pitcher made some good pitches on her, battles back to 3-2 and comes up with a single. She walked it off in a different way. It should have been the home run, but she wound up scoring the winning run.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, teammate Kiera Bauman singled to score Helring from second and give Holy Cross a 6-5 win.<\/p>\n
Rather than pout or feel sorry for herself at having the home run taken away, Helring instead became extra motivated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was crazy. I think I went through every emotion in a span of 30 seconds,\u201d she said. \u201cIt felt horrible at first, but to be able to come back with the single and do something productive for my team was enough for me. It felt just as good. I still got to win it for our team and give Kiera an opportunity to do something great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claysburg Kimmel defeated Holy Cross in last year\u2019s state quarterfinals, so Helring said avenging that loss \u201cfelt like the state championship in itself.\u201d But she and her teammates quickly realized there was still more work to be done. They did that in the semifinals, blanking Tri-Valley, 3-0.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went to practice and coach was like, \u2018We need to zone it back in. We still have two more games to win to walk away with the championship,\u2019\u201d Helring said. \u201cWe definitely put a lot of focus on the game (Monday). We didn\u2019t veer off the path or go lazy into it. We were still working equally as hard as Claysburg Kimmel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides her offense, Helring is also a standout defender in left field. She started as a corner infielder, but moved to the outfield last season and wound up earning second-team all-state honors from the Pennsylvania High School Softball Coaches Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got to high school, I kind of knew third base wasn\u2019t really going to be an option for me. They had pretty good third-base prospects,\u201d Helring said. \u201cI knew the outfield was open, so the summer before I got to high school, I trained in the outfield a little bit. I really just wanted to do anything to get into the lineup. If the outfield meant I was going to play, I was fine with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This season, Ross toyed with the idea of moving Helring back to the infield, but kept her in the outfield because of how dependable and reliable she is out there. Helring\u2019s glad he did.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really wanted to stay out there and I think coach wanted me out there, too,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was the perfect opportunity for Kiera to get in there (at third base). She\u2019s done great this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Facing Union Area in the final, Ross sees similarities between his team and the Scotties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey swing the bats well and similar to us have five or six girls with three or more home runs,\u201d Ross said. \u201cThey\u2019re very aggressive offensively, but with Ava Schmidt on the mound, I like our chances. Their pitcher is very good, but it\u2019s nothing we haven\u2019t seen before. I think going into the game our players are confident and we\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
PIAA title-game appearances by Lackawanna League softball teams:<\/p>\n
2025: Valley View def. Kennard-Dale, 6-0 (4A)<\/p>\n
2023: Mid Valley def. Juniata, 1-0 (3A)<\/p>\n
2021: Mount Pleasant def. Mid Valley, 5-3 (3A)<\/p>\n
2013: Valley View def. Ft. LeBoeuf, 5-0 (3A)<\/p>\n
2012: Big Spring def. Valley View, 2-1 (3A)<\/p>\n
2009: Curwensville def. Old Forge, 1-0 (1A)<\/p>\n
2006: Harbor Creek def. Lakeland, 2-1 (2A)<\/p>\n
2006: Blue Ridge def. Iroquois, 1-0 (1A)<\/p>\n
2004: Blue Ridge def. Sto-Rox, 2-0 (1A)<\/p>\n
2002: Penns Valley def. Blue Ridge, 1-0, (1A)<\/p>\n
2001: Bishop O\u2019Hara def. Sto-Rox, 3-1 (1A)<\/p>\n
2000: Valley View def. Philipsburg-Osceola, 1-0 (2A)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Claire Helring has been swinging a hot bat during the postseason for the Holy Cross softball team. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-216342","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\/216342","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=216342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}