Warriors look to ‘wash away’ the hurt of semifinal loss

By JEREMY SELLEW

jsellew@yourmvi.com

In its last outing, the Elizabeth Forward softball team watched their bid to repeat as WPIAL Class 4A champions crumble.

The Warriors needed only three outs and led 4-1 heading into the seventh inning before watching Highlands score three to tie it before the Rams scored twice more in the top of the eighth to pull out a 6-4 win in a semifinal game at Plum High School. Errors were the downfall as the Warriors committed five in the final two innings.

The bright side for the No. 1 seed Warriors (16-3) is that their season is not over. Today, they’ll travel to Norwin High School to face off against a familiar opponent, West Mifflin, in a WPIAL consolation game. The winner moves on to the PIAA state tournament. But this time, there’s no tomorrow.

“That was a big part of our conversation at practice (Monday),” EF head coach Harry Rutherford said. “If you want to go further and you want to get back to the state championship game, there’s no second chance.”

Rutherford admitted his team was still out of sorts during Friday’s practice after the loss to Highlands, but he liked what he saw Monday.

“Friday, they were still in the toilet. They practiced as bad as they played that last game,” he said. “Today, it’s a new week. Monday’s practice was a different thing. Everyone was upbeat, we didn’t have any errors defensively, we hit the ball well, we hit a couple out of the park … everyone seems to be on a high note. I anticipate them keeping it up heading into the game (today).”

To read the rest of the story, please see a copy of Tuesday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at http://monvalleyindependent.com.