WILLIAMSPORT - There were plenty of offensive heroes in Shamokin's 8-4 upset of top-seeded Milton Wednesday in the District 4 AAA semifinals, and Carley Nash pitched a fine game.
But the biggest hero was centerfielder Jenny Hornberger, who made not one, but two, running over-the-shoulder catches on line drives, one of which she turned into a double play, to take the Black Panthers out of potential big innings.
Shamokin (11-9) will play Mifflinburg, a winner over Jersey Shore in the other semifinal, today at 4:30 at Elm Park for the district title. Mifflinburg has beaten the Indians twice this season, but then again, so had Milton (17-4).
And in truth, Shamokin dominated this third meeting, even after falling behind 2-0 in the first inning under questionable circumstances. First, Helana Supsic made the third out of the top half of the inning after crushing the ball for an apparent triple, only to be called out for not touching second base.
Milton scored its two runs in the bottom of the inning without benefit of a hit, on a walk, a hit batter, an error and an illegal pitch call.
But the Indians, who had to scrape to get a win in their final regular season game, didn't get down on themselves and kept plugging away.
"We played this game like it was 0-0 all the time, no matter what the score was," said Hornberger. "We're all seniors and we wanted it so bad, that's how we looked at it."
"Milton's a great team," Shamokin coach Rick Kashner said. "They're in this every year. But we just told the girls to try to put the ball in play and make their defense make plays. Carley pitched a nice game, too. She pitched well enough to win."
In fact, Nash scattered nine hits and only gave up one earned run while striking out one and walking only one.
Milton pitcher Taylor Batman kept Shamokin off the scoreboard for the first three innings but in the fourth, the Indians broke through. Brie Bonshock and Supsic led off with singles, and Olivia Bonshock cracked a deep triple to drive them in. She later scored on a groundout by Kelsey Forbes and the Indians had a 3-2 lead.
Milton's Bailey Derr led off the bottom of the inning with a single, and Taylor Gessner followed by driving the ball deep to centerfield. Hornberger turned around and the ball looked as though it would go over her head, but she struck her glove out and snatched the ball out of the air. Derr was almost to third by that time and was easily doubled up at first base. Milton followed with back-to-back singles but Nash then retired leadoff hitter Mack Miller a fly to left.
Shamokin kept the pressure up, putting two more runs on the board in the next inning. Kortni Chapman and Hornberger had consecutive bunt singles, and Brie Bonshock sacrificed them over a base. Supsic hit a sharp grounder to drive in a run, and the ball was bobbled by shortstop Kiah Brink, allowing a second run to score.
In the bottom of the fifth, with one on and one out, Batman sent another sharp line drive toward centerfield. Again Hornberger turned around and caught the ball over her shoulder on the run.
"That one wasn't hit as hard as the first one," she said, downplaying the catch.
The Indians then took advantage of some loose defense by Milton to add three big runs in the sixth. Forbes led off with a walk and Augustitus hit an infield pop which no one took control of for Milton. It landed between the pitcher and third base. Forbes eventually scored on a throwing error by the catcher, annd Brie Bonshock delivered a two-out, two-run single to score courtesy runner Aleea Faus and Madison Roadarmel, who was safe on a fielder's choice.
Milton picked up two unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh when Natalie Wolfe misplayed a fly to left, but there were already two outs by that time, and Nash got Leighton Chappell to fly out, fittingly, to Hornberger in center.
SHAMOKIN (AB-R-H-BI) - Hornberger 4-1-1-0, B. Bonshock 3-1-2-2, Supsic 3-1-2-1, O. Bonshock 4-1-1-3, Wolfe 4-0-0-0, Forbes 3-1-0-1, C. Augustitus 4-0-3-0, Faus 0-1-0-0, Roadarmel 3-1-0-0, Chapman 3-1-1-0, Nash 0-0-0-0. Totals 31-8-10-7.
MILTON (AB-R-H-BI) - Miller 3-1-0-0, Brink 3-0-0-0, Lincoln 4-0-1-0, Batman 3-0-1-0, Phillips 0-2-0-0, Brennan 4-1-1-0, Derr 4-0-1-0, Gessner 4-0-2-0, East 0-0-0-0, Chappell 4-0-1-0, Landis 2-0-1-0, Heimbach 1-0-1-0, Cross 0-0-0-0. Totals 32-4-9-0