Team effort leads Frazier past Riverside
Mike Darnay / MVI Sports
Frazier’s Jensyn Hartman slides safely into home during play in Wednesday’s first-round bout against Riverside at North Allegheny High School. The Commodores captured a 5-3 win and advanced to the WPIAL Class 2A quarterfinals.
By JEREMY SELLEW
jsellew@yourmvi.com
Frazier head coach Don Hartman’s been around a while and he knows if his Commodores are going to make a run in the postseason, it’s going to take contributions from everyone in the lineup.
Thursday’s WPIAL Class 2A first-round matchup against Riverside was a great example of that.
Freshman Nicole Palmer moved to 11-0 in the circle, Jensyn Hartman and Tori Washinski each had a pair of hits at the top of the order and Claire Domonkos and Skylar Hone at the bottom of the order each had a hit and scored a run, as the Commodores beat the Panthers, 5-3, to advance to the WPIAL quarterfinals.
It was even more special for Don Hartman, as he won his 300th career game in his head coaching career.
“We knew going into this game that this was going to be a tough one,” Don Hartman said. “They come out of a tough conference and with the pitching they’ve seen all season, I knew they’d hit our pitchers.
“But Nicole did a great job on what was the biggest stage she’s been on so far in her career. She got hit hard a couple of times and she never wavered. I couldn’t be more proud of her.”
Palmer had no issues cruising the first time through the Riverside (8-6) order, with the exception of a double to Sydney Hale, Palmer, who struck out nine in the game, had seven Ks in the first three innings.
“They really had trouble hitting her rise ball, so she kept throwing it and did a good job of hitting her spots,” Hartman said of his pitcher. “It’s a hot, humid night, so you could tell she lost her legs a little bit when she wasn’t able to elevate the pitch like she did early on. We were throwing waist-high pitches and they crushed a couple of them.”
The first big bounce of the game went the Commodores’ way in the second after Hale led off with the two-bagger. Palmer issued a two-out walk to Braley Zappia before the Panthers’ Maddie Fryer hit a hot shot up the middle. The ball hit off of Palmer’s foot, though, and right to Washinski at short for the final out of the inning.
The Commodores (15-3) picked up the first runs of the game in the third.
Jensyn Hartman led off with a hard-hit single to left. After a groundout by Madison Bednar moved her to second, Washinski moved her to third with a one-out single.
Rylee Evans followed with a groundout back to the pitcher. On the play, Jensyn Hartman was caught in a rundown between third and home, and Washinski was headed to third. She retreated to second, but Hartman got first baseman Emma Beachem to commit to a throw to third. Hartman ended up scoring on the play when third baseman Carlee Crawford threw home but no one was covering. The ball rolled to the backstop allowing Washinski to reach third.
Delaney Warnick stepped in and roped a single up the middle to score Washinski and make it 2-0.
Hale led off the fourth with a hard-hit single and Beachem followed with a one-out, RBI double to make it 2-1 in the fourth.
Again, the Commodores responded.
Domonkos drew a one-out walk and came into score when Hartman hit a towering fly ball to center. Instead of being the third out of the inning, Panthers centerfielder Taryn Schmitt muffed it allowing Domonkos to score and putting Hartman at second.
Bednar reached on an error by second baseman Aliya Ottaviani and Washinski drove home Hartman with an RBI single to left.
“We had clutch hits tonight. That was big. And we took advantage of their mistakes. I thought Riverside played great defense, despite the couple of big errors they made,” Don Hartman said.
The Panthers cut the lead to 4-3 with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth. Rosenberger had an RBI double and Beachem added an RBI single. She ended up stranded as Palmer got Zappia to fly out deep to left and Warnick was able to snag a hard liner by Fryer at third to end the threat.
Frazier added a big insurance run in the bottom of the sixth, after Hone singled with one out, Hartman followed with a seven-pitch at-bat, which ended when she blistered a double to the right-center field gap to score Hone, who had stolen second just before the hit.
“We talked to the girls at the bottom of the order midseason. Since then, we’ve gotten them to understand their roles. They’ve bought into that. Whether it’s a big hit, laying down a bunt or stealing a base, those girls like Skylar and Claire, they know the role they play on this team is a big one. They’ve done a lot of work,” Hartman said.
Palmer started off the seventh by striking out Riverside’s Stormy Fedder for the third time in the game. With the top of the order up, Palmer was able to sit Mia Williams down with a fly out to center and induce a comebacker by Schmitt to end the game.
“The biggest takeaway for me is Palmer pitching through some tough situations and we played outstanding defense,” Hartman said of his team.
Frazier advances to play No. 6 Chartiers-Houston, a familiar opponent in recent years, in the quarterfinals Monday at a site and time to be determined.
