Cougars fall to powerful Chartiers-Houston

Bucs pitcher Meadow Ferri punched out 14 Yough batters in a 9-2 win for the defending WPIAL champion.

When defending WPIAL champion Chartiers-Houston reached out to coach Dutch Harvey about playing an early season matchup on the softball diamond, he didn’t hesitate to add the Buccaneers to Yough’s schedule.

Led by prolific pitcher Meadow Ferri, Char-Houston powered ahead to a 9-2 victory over Yough Friday, but the Cougars had plenty of room for encouragement from their performance.

“They’re really good,” Harvey said. “That’s probably the best pitcher we’ll see all year. When they called to ask if we’d play, I said heck yeah. I want my girls to see that type of pitching. I was proud of how we came out and put some runs up. We just made too many errors, and that’s how it snowballs. All in all, it was a good learning experience for us.”

After Yough (2-1) got a hit from Kierstin Odelli to open the game, Ferri didn’t surrender another hit. Freshman pitcher Jaidyn Vay, who has shown plenty of promise for the Cougars, was tagged with her first loss of her high school career after allowing nine runs and 14 hits with six strikeouts.

“As long as Jaidyn stays healthy, I think pitching-wise we’re going to be near the top of the section,” Harvey said. “Even in this area, I think we’re pretty strong pitching-wise. She’s only a freshman and she’s thrown really well. The velocity is there, and she’s got a good mix of pitches. She pretty much kept them off balance all game, and they got some runs off some errors, but that’s expected.”

Chartiers-Houston (3-0) was blanked in the top of the first as Ella Richey, Lauren Rush and Ferri all grounded out to move it to the bottom of the first.

After Odelli singled to open it up offensively for the Cougars, Brooke Kowalski hit a high fly ball to right field that would have been caught, but Aubree Randolph completely lost the ball in the sun and it dropped near her in the outfield.

That put Kierstin Odelli in position to score, and a groundout from Kylee Odelli made sure that she crossed home plate to make it 1-0 quickly. Then, during Payton Jenkins’ plate-appearance, a wild pitch allowed Kowalski to double the lead at 2-0. From there, Ferri struck out the next two batters to get out of the inning trailing by two.

Seanna Riggle was next in the batter’s box hitting fourth for the Bucs, and she got ahold of one and launched a home run over the center- field fence to quickly cut the deficit in half at 2-1. After an error put Taryne Drilak on base, Vay struck out two batters to bring up Randolph. In their standoff, it was Randolph that won, launching an RBI single into the outfield before the inning ended with another strikeout. But that helped the Buccaneers tie it at 2-2 after the top of the second.

After that first frame, Ferri absolutely took over. She struck out the side in the second and didn’t allow another baserunner until the sixth when she committed an error on a routine throw to first base after fielding a ground ball.

The Buccaneers added three runs in the fourth as they earned two outs before they started putting balls in play.

Vay struck out Sydney English and Mackenzie Shumar, but it was Randolph again that kickstarted the offense. She and Alana Palone singled to turn it back to the top of the lineup, and Richey took advantage with a 2-RBI triple that gave her team the lead at 4-2. Rush knocked in another run with a single and the score read 5-2 when Yough got the third out.

Char-Houston hung four more runs on the Cougars in the top of the seventh to finish the scoring. Yough showed its resilience by drawing two walks in the bottom of the final frame after dropping two outs, but Ferri’s 14th strikeout ended the game at 9-2.

Yough will return to action against Greensburg Salem on Monday.