Sokol’s walkoff gives Leps opening-day win

Bella Williams added an early grand slam for the Leopards in a thrilling 1211 win Friday.

When Belle Vernon and Waynesburg Central opened their softball regular seasons against each other Friday evening, there seemed to be some rust on the defensive end for both sides.

Offensively, there weren’t those same concerns in what was an exciting 13-12 win for the Leopards on a walkoff single from Katie Sokol.

The game was back and forth and seemingly wouldn’t end, lasting over three hours. All in all, it made for a unique contest between the sides.

“The kids came through in the end,” Belle Vernon coach Tom Rodriguez said. “Top to bottom, some of the kids came through with offense today. Katie had a good approach at the plate and won it for us.”

Sokol finished 3 for 4 with three RBIs, joining Mia Zubovic in hitting 3 for 4. Bella Williams finished 1 for 4 at the plate, but her one hit was a grand slam in the bottom of the second. Taylor Beech and Sydney Stark had two RBIs each and pitcher Maddie Grisnik and Lauren VanDivner also had an RBI each.

For the Raiders (0-1), Avery Davis went 3 for 6 with two RBIs. Ellie Makel finished 2 of 4 with two RBIs as Bre Kerr, pitcher Gina Tedrow and Bria Stephenson each added an RBI themselves.

While the offense was exciting for both sets of fans to behold, Rodriguez wasn’t impressed with his squad’s defense.

“I thought our defense would be the best part of our squad, but it just hasn’t been,” Rodriguez said. “Before the first scrimmage, all of us coaches thought that this was the best defense that we’ve had in a long time. After that, we had some scrimmages and some errors, and I don’t know. But we got timely hitting which was nice.”

The Leopards (1-0) went down right away as Davis doubled and made her way to third on a sacrifice bunt from Kerr. Makel grounded out but managed to bring her in to make it 1-0 before the Raiders added to their lead in the second inning.

Kylie Schaum opened the frame with a walk and reached third base on two wild pitches. With one out, Davis singled to bring Schaum home and bring the lead to 2-0 in favor of WC.

Makel singled two batters later to make the score 3-0 before the Leopards got the two outs they needed to end the half inning.

Belle Vernon fired ahead in the bottom of the second after accruing two early outs. Kaylee Sypolt drew a walk to load the bases before Sokol was hit by a pitch and made the score 3-1. After that, Williams blasted her grand slam over the wall in left field to suddenly put the Leopards up 5-3.

Waynesburg Central answered right away with a sacrifice fly from Stephenson that scored Kolbi Rostoka, but the Leopards added to their lead in the bottom of the third.

Zubovic doubled to open the frame before an out. Mailey Hayes drew a walk and the Leopards then earned their second out, but they put up four runs from there.

Stark singled to score Zubovic, Sokol doubled to score Hayes and Stark, and Sypolt scored on a wild pitch to bring the score to 9-4 in favor of BVA.

The fourth inning was the only one that saw neither team put up runs as Waynesburg Central cut it to 9-6 in the top of the fifth after two outs in their first two at-bats.

After dropping two, Jayden Ladosky drew a walk and Davis doubled to score her. From there, Kerr singled to bring Davis in and make it 9-6. The next inning, the Raider broke it open after some sloppiness from the Belle Vernon defense.

Following a single and a walk was an error from Grisnik that allowed two runs to score and make it 9-8. Davis grounded into a fielder’s choice to tie it up before another error scored two more runs and gave the Raiders an 11-9 advantage. After a walk later in the frame, WC got one more run on a walk to make it 12-9 entering the bottom of the sixth.

From there, BVA managed one run in the bottom of the sixth and three more in the bottom of the seventh. Van- Divner drove a run in with an RBI groundout to bring it to 12-10 entering the final frame. After the Leopards held the Raiders scoreless for the second time in the game, they went to work with one last chance to win.

Grisnik opened the frame up with a single to left field before Hayes doubled to deep center, putting runners on second and third with no outs. That brought Beech up to the plate, and she hit a single to score Grisnik while an error made it 12-12.

With no outs, the Raiders elected to intentionally walk Stark and Sypolt to load the bases for force outs at every bag, but Sokol stepped up and hit a hard ball to win the game for the Leopards.

Belle Vernon hosts Derry on Tuesday.