Deer Lakes falls to Holy Redeemer in PIAA softball championship game
UNIVERSITY PARK — Their faces long and their eyes rimmed in red, Deer Lakes softball players left the field at Penn State feeling emotions they hadn't felt in months.
And with those feelings came the harshness of finality.
“We've been together since November,” junior outfielder Maria Taliani said. “It's sad when you lose but that's the hard part: It's over.”
A spectacular season ended for the Lancers on Friday in the PIAA Class AA championship game as they fell 10-5 to District 2 champion Holy Redeemer at Nittany Lion Softball Park.
WPIAL champion Deer Lakes (24-2) had not lost since March. The defeat broke a 22-game winning streak.
“I don't know if you learn more from a loss than a win,” Deer Lakes coach Craig Taliani said, “other than it stinks.”
The normally sure-handed Lancers committed five errors, their rapid-fire offense was held to seven hits and they left eight runners stranded.
“Errors will get you every time,” said Lancers senior pitcher Tiffany Edwards, who had three RBIs.
Holy Redeemer (23-1), which, like Deer Lakes, was in the state final for the first time, used a breakout fourth inning to take control. The Royals had five hits and scored five runs to build an 8-5 lead.
“The fourth killed us,” Taliani said.
The sudden barrage forced the Lancers to scatter. They had left fielder Maria Taliani and right fielder Rachel Tanilli switch positions and pulled Edwards from the circle in favor of sophomore Shae Robson.
Throwing errors and passed balls helped Redeemer's cause.
“There were mistakes we made on things that we work on all the time,” Craig Taliani said. “There were plenty of errors to go around.”
Deer Lakes felt the sting of an uncharacteristic performance.
“We wanted this really bad, but they were a good hitting team,” Deer Lakes senior shortstop Katie Gozzard said. “We had similar styles. We're both offensive machines. But you can't make those kind of mistakes.”
The Lancers built a 5-2 lead thanks to a four-run second inning. All the scoring came with two outs. Gozzard, who went 2 for 3, delivered a two-run single and a pair of errors allowed two more runs to score.
But Holy Redeemer cut the lead to 5-4 heading to the fourth, when it sent 10 batters. Randie Kuhar and Samantha Rajza had RBI singles for the Royals, who ended the season with 19 straight wins.
Holy Redeemer loaded the bases in the fifth and Robson hit Kuhar to make it 10-5.
Deer Lakes left two runners on base in the sixth and seventh.
Robson and catcher Sarah Blinn scored twice each.
For Holy Redeemer, freshman Morgan Bienkowski went 3 for 5 with two runs scored, and Kaya Swanek and Kuhar drove in two each.
“I have been working for this for four years,” Swanek said. “It's a great feeling.”
Kristen Coffay started in the circle for Holy Redeemer but was replaced in the third by Bienkowski, who retired nine straight at one point and held the Lancers scoreless.
Bill Beckner Jr. is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at bbeckner@tribweb.com .
