Hamburg falls to Clearfield 4-0 in PIAA Class 4A softball quarterfinals
Jun. 10—BLOOMSBURG — District 3 champ Hamburg saw its season come to an end with a 4-0 loss to Clearfield in the quarterfinals of the PIAA Class 4A softball tournament Thursday at Central Columbia High School.
"I thought it was a great year," said Hamburg coach Zena Lutz, whose team was making its second straight state quarterfinal appearance. "I'm proud of all the girls. I don't think anybody thought we would be back here and win a district championship with three girls returning from last year's team, so I'm very proud of it."
Clearfield pitcher Emma Hipps dominated, throwing a perfect game until the seventh inning when an error by right fielder Alexis Benton on a two-out pop fly allowed Hawks' starting pitcher Hailey Strunk to reach first.
Katie Behler broke up the no-hitter with a single up the middle in the next at-bat, but Hipps got the last of her 15 strikeouts to end the game.
"She's a nice pitcher," Lutz said regarding Hipps. "She's the best pitcher we've seen."
Clearfield opened the scoring in the bottom of the first when, with two outs and runners on first and third, Alaina Fedder hit a single just over the head of third baseman Amelia Gassert to score the runner from third.
Strunk and the Hawks tightened up their defense over the next two innings as they retired the Bison 1-2-3 in the second and third innings, all on plays in the field.
Hamburg avoided trouble in the bottom of the fourth as Clearfield's Olivia Bender hit a leadoff double, then advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt. The Hawks retired the next two batters on pop-ups.
The game got away from Hamburg in the fifth inning when Hipps hit what appeared to be a three-run home run. A baserunning technicality turned it into a two-run homer as one of the Clearfield baserunners failed to touch home plate while getting caught up in the celebration.
The Bison got the lost run back later in the inning on an error in the outfield.
With a young squad full of returning underclassmen, Lutz is confident that the Hawks will strive to make another deep postseason run in 2023.
"Experience," Lutz said on her takeaway from the season. "We'll have everyone back except first base. So we have two seniors next year and the rest are all underclassmen again. We'll be back next year; we'll work hard to get here again."
