BLOOMSBURG — Tracy Cox didn’t hesitate.
Moments after her softball-playing Wildcats had their sparkling season come to an end, Cox talked about the Minersville side that closed down the District 3-A champs.
“They just outhit us,” Cox said.
That pretty much sums up Thursday’s PIAA Class A quarterfinal-round game at Bloomsburg University’s Jan M. Hutchinson Field, where Minersville’s top-to-bottom attack pounded out a 12-2 triumph over Cox’s Wildcats.
And the Miners (22-3) needed just five innings to finish the job.
Reighly Melochick, Adrienne Kroznuskie and Emily Mealey — three of the first four hitters in Minersville’s potent batting order — shared six hits, six runs and five RBIs as the District 11-A champions jumped to a 5-1 lead after one inning and continued to keep the pressure on Halifax pitcher Chelsea Konyar and her defense.
Maura Bentz added two hits in three trips for the Miners — the No. 8 hitter stroked a double and triple in her first two plate appearances — and knocked in three runs.
Given a sizable cushion, pitcher Riley Gerenda limited the Wildcats (14-9) to just four hits while striking out five. Gerenda walked two.
“They always pick me up when I get down somehow, the team does,” Gerenda said of going back out for the second with a big lead. “It’s always helpful for me. And then it was easy, because I know they always have my back and I mess up sometimes.”
Morgan Cox and Konyar had two of the Wildcats’ four hits. Adrianna Seiders and Paige Miller also banked knocks for the Tri-Valley League entry.
Konyar, who walked one and hit one but did not fan anyone, was nicked for 10 hits during her five-inning effort. Minersville had at least one hit in every inning and every spot in the lineup scored at least one run.
“They can hit,” Tracy Cox added. “They hit everything. They came out [swinging]. They’re not even taking pitches. They’re hitting first pitch.
“We had a couple here and there. That’s our forte, we try to get a couple here and there, but they just outhit us. There’s no other explanation.”
With the victory, Minersville wheeled into Monday’s Class A semifinals. Up next for the Miners is the winner of Friday’s quarterfinal-round dustup between Bristol and South Williamsport at a site and time to be determined.
“We told our girls when we got here, ‘To us, this is the state championship,’ “ said Cox of the Wildcats, who were making their first state quarterfinal appearance since 2002. “I really believe they’ll be the state champions.”
ROUNDING THIRD
Although the Wildcats flashed some two-out lightning in the top of the first inning — Cox singled to left and rode home when Konyar followed with a double — Dave Homa’s Miners shrugged off the early deficit and wasted little time roaring back. And Minersville put the bats to work quickly.
With Melochick and Kroznuskie reaching for Konyar for back-to-back singles, the Miners had the Halifax senior in a jam. When Lindsey Snyder reached on an error moments later, the bases suddenly were juiced.
The Miners didn’t back off either.
While a passed ball enabled Melochick to scamper home and tie the score, Mealey’s two-bagger to deep right-center plated two more runs and had Homa’s attack-minded unit up 3-1 … and Halifax had yet to retire a batter.
Although Konyar was able to get Morgen Woodford on an infield pop, Leah Leshko followed with a single that brought Mealey in with Minersville’s fourth run. One out later, Bentz ripped an RBI triple to right-center to chase home Leshko and cap the early outburst.
Halifax never recovered.
With Gerenda taking control once she returned to the circle — and backed by a comfortable lead — Minersville continued to pepper the Wildcats.
Mealey’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second chased home Kroznuskie with Minersville’s sixth run. Then, in the third, Bentz’s RBI double, an outfield error and Kroznuskie’s two-run single upped the Miners’ lead to 10-1.
“If we could have kept it [closer], we could have given them a little better run,” Tracy Cox admitted. “They got five in the first, … [but at] 5-1, I said, ‘We can come back from that.’ Then they started little by little [to pull away even more].
“When you get to 10-1, that’s when you know you’ve got to get your seniors in.”
Although Bentz’s RBI fielder’s choice in the bottom of the fourth increased Minersville’s lead to 11-1 — and brought the mercy rule into play — Cox’s ‘Cats were able to stave off elimination when Chelsea Walker was able to cross the plate while Miller was caught in a lengthy rundown between first and second.
The Miners didn’t fool around in the bottom of the fifth, however, as Kroznuskie tacked on an unearned run after reaching on a fielder’s choice, stealing two bases and coasting home on a throwing error. Game over.
And that meant Halifax’s season was over as well.
“It was a good ride,” said Tracy Cox, who despite the loss was able to maintain her sense of humor. “This is only the second time in history our school got this far, so [this is a big deal].… [The 2002 team also] got knocked out in Bloomsburg. We’re never coming back to Bloomsburg again. We’re just gonna tell them to find a different venue.”
Yet …
“It was a great ride,” Tracy Cox added. “It was a great ride.”
For Minersville, that ride is still motoring along at top speed.
“Our goal every year is to win our last game,” Gerenda said of a highly regarded Miners program that last won a state title in 2011. “Obviously that’s a state title if we keep going. That’s our goal, so we’re gonna try to do that.
“But we had to get through this game first.”
And with the Miners unloading at the plate repeatedly, Gerenda & Co. were able to put Halifax in the rear-view mirror. Quickly, too.
“That was great,” Gerenda said. “They did great.”
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