Bethlehem Catholic junior Leah Chladny is in her first season playing right field.
In a critical championship moment on Wednesday night, she looked like a seasoned veteran in that spot.
The junior threw out the potential tying run at home plate to end the top of the fifth inning and the Golden Hawks went on to secure a 6-4 victory over Northwestern to win the District 11 Class 4A title at Patriots Park in Allentown.
“It was really big,” Chladny said of her throw. “If they would’ve scored, it would have just gave them the momentum. But it gave us the momentum to fight and win.”
After gathering a double hit by Tigers junior third baseman Marissa Christman, Chladny nicely one-bounced a throw from right field to Golden Hawks senior catcher Teighan Boyle, who tagged out the runner and kept Becahi ahead 3-2.
“She never got the credit she deserved. In my opinion, she’s the best right fielder in the area,” said Bethlehem Catholic assistant coach David King, who has led the team since the ninth game of the season as longtime coach Rich Mazza has been recovering from a car accident. “She has saved so many runs for us over the year. I’m very confident when it’s hit to her. She never played right field before and she’s taken to it like a fish to water.”
It’s the second consecutive district crown for the Golden Hawks, who beat Northwestern 11-4 in last year’s championship game.
Bethlehem Catholic will play the third-place finisher out of District 12 in the first round of the state tournament on Monday at a time and place to be determined.
Chladny followed up her strong defensive play with a one-out triple into the right-center field gap in the bottom of fifth inning. Sophomore second baseman Hailey Pyle scored Chladny on an RBI single to increase the Bethlehem Catholic lead to 4-2.
“The throw, it just carried the momentum to the plate and I just wanted to hit the ball,” Chladny said.
The top-seeded Golden Hawks added two more runs in the fifth inning as freshman third baseman Sarah Banko hit a two-run single to give Becahi a 6-2 advantage.
Bethlehem Catholic took a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning when junior designated player Kristal Torres connected on a two-run single.
Northwestern, the third seed, cut into the Golden Hawks’ lead with a pair of runs in the sixth inning. Senior catcher Olivia Stofflet led off the frame with a double and senior first baseman Isabella Teprovich had an RBI groundout in the inning for the Tigers.
Golden Hawks senior pitcher Emma Bond responded by retiring four consecutive batters, including the first three hitters in the lineup, to close out another district title for Bethlehem Catholic.
Bond, who started the game with six straight outs, struck out three batters, walked two and held the Tigers to five hits on the night.
“Outstanding,” King said of Bond’s effort in the circle. “I would’ve liked to see us a little cleaner in the field for her. She battled. That last inning was the best inning she’s thrown since I’ve known her. It was awesome.”
Chladny went 3-for-4 for the Golden Hawks.
Pyle had two hits and an RBI for Bethlehem Catholic, which improved 18-4 on the season.
“I think I definitely grew a lot of confidence over the years,” said Pyle, who played for Liberty last season. “With going to a new school, I was really nervous. But this team, they made me feel so much more comfortable. So, that definitely helped my confidence.”
Junior first baseman Francesca Oberholzer went 2-for-3 and Banko and Torres each recorded a pair of RBIs on the night.
Northwestern freshman left fielder Rylee McGinley reached base in all three of her plate appearances.
Sophomore second baseman Isabelle Akelaitis had a single and a sacrifice fly for the Tigers, who ended the season with an 18-5 record.
“When you get to this point in a season, it’s not about putting up those nine, 10, 12 runs. You’d love to,” Northwestern coach Josh Zimmerman said. “It’s more about limiting the bad inning. We didn’t do that. We had an inning where it just seemed like we couldn’t get out of the inning, maybe gave up two, three runs. You can’t give a team like Beca outs like that. They are quality. They’re used to playing quality opponents week in and week out. Give them a lot of credit. They put the ball in play and made us pay.”
The Tigers will say goodbye to a talented group of seniors in shortstop Morgan Farthing, pitcher Brynn Balliet, Stofflet and Teprovich.
“When you look at it, this group of seniors, who are surely going to be missed, they’ve averaged 18 wins a season,” Zimmerman said. “And that’s without a COVID season. I would’ve loved to see what they could’ve done in that one. They’re responsible for three district silver medals, a Colonial League championship and a Colonial League silver medal. Silver’s not necessarily the one you want to come home with. But it’s still nothing to put your nose up at because it takes a lot to get here. I couldn’t be prouder of how they responded after some tough games that we’ve had down the stretch. We’re going to miss these seniors because they pu
t that work in to make sure that you can rebound from a loss like that.”
Bethlehem Catholic hopes to keep the momentum going in the state tournament and find more success there as it advanced to the PIAA Class 4A semifinals last season.
The Golden Hawks hope to repeat the success of the fourth and fifth innings of Wednesday night, where they piled up five runs on six hits.
“As soon as we started getting hits on the board, we knew that our momentum would just take us forward. And that we would just put more runs on the board and keep up defensively,” Banko said.
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Josh Folck may be reached at [email protected].