Chris Appel
Fort Hill 5
Allegany 0
CUMBERLAND — Shari Beavers was up to old tricks on the mound, and Adria Lewis continued to hurt the Campers at the plate in ushering Fort Hill to its second Class 1A West Region title in as many seasons with a 5-0 win over Allegany Friday afternoon at Long Field at Constitution Park.
The win stretches the Sentinels’ win streak to 18 games and dates back to the April 4th F Club Classic. Fort Hill (19-1) will meet Pikesville on Tuesday at Bachman Park in Glen Burnie in the Maryland 1A State semifinals.
Beavers finished with 10 strikeouts, allowed three hits and no walks in completing the shutout.
Lewis drove in two runs with a first-inning single before roping a home run over the left field fence in the third inning. Lewis hit a two-strike, game-winning home run to win the final regular season meeting between the two teams just 10 days earlier.
“I felt pretty good going into today,” said Beavers. “The fact that it was Allegany, our rival, and a trip to the State Tournament on the line made sure everybody was ready.”
After allowing a double to Allegany leadoff hitter Beth Szymanski, Beavers caught the next three batters looking at strike three. She would allow just a single in the third and another in the fifth before running into her first bit of trouble in the top of the seventh.
She allowed a single to Hilary Lyons to start the seventh, but struck out the next two batters. The Campers then loaded the bases with two straight singles from Katie Alkire and Bethany Landis before Beavers finished the game with her 10th punch-out of the day.
“You can never get comfortable against Allegany,” said second-year Fort Hill coach Mike Bittner. “With the bats they have all it would have taken is one swing in the seventh to make it a 5-4 game. When you’re going against Rick Twigg and his coaching staff you can’t afford to relax, or the next thing you know you’re losing. I have all the respect in the world for them.”
The Sentinels got going early by getting three runs in the first inning and taking advantage of four errors. Kathryn Huber and Destiny James reached on errors before Beavers hit into a fielder’s choice to put runners at second and first.
Lewis then came through with a single back up the box that plated James, and Beavers came around to score when the outfielder had trouble fielding the single. Lewis would score on the final error of the inning.
The junior backstop’s home run in the third made it 4-0 Sentinels.
“I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t go into a pitch trying to think about what I might see,” Lewis said, when asked whether she was guessing fastball. “I just know I can hit it a long way whenever I do make contact, and that’s all I try to do. Lately, it’s been going pretty good for me.”
Allegany got another strong performance from sophomore pitcher Hayley Stankan, who shook off the first inning to finish with five strikeouts and allowed only two earned runs. The only earned run besides Lewis’ solo shot came on an RBI single from Lindsey Fisher.
“Hayley’s the real deal,” said Allegany coach Rick Twigg. “She’s got all of the facilities as a great pitcher right now, and will only get better over the coming seasons.”
Twigg went on to compliment Beavers as well. “She was on her game again today, and seemed to get stronger as she went along. When’s she pitching like that the smallest run support, whatever way you get it, is all you’ll usually need.”
The Campers finish the season at 18-4, and handed the Sentinels their only loss of the season on March 30.
Chris Appel is a sportswriter for the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Chris Appel at cappel@times-news.com.
