Ellwood City Softball Splits With Keystone Oaks & Union Over The Weekend

The Lincoln High School softball team took advantage of terrific weekend weather and played two games. They lost to Keystone Oaks on Friday and bounced back with a win against Union on Saturday.

Keystone Oaks 5 Ellwood City 2

The Wolverines started off strong once again with offense early on Friday in their dual at Keystone Oaks, but were ultimately felled by Keystone Oaks 5-2

Ellwood City plated two runs in the top of the first with two outs as Maria Ioanilli and Kyla Servick collected run scoring singles to put the visiting Wolverines up 2-0 early.

Keystone Oaks did all their damage in the second inning as they scored five runs with three walks, two doubles, and a single.

Although the Wolverines outhit the Golden Eagles 9-5, they were note able to come up with timely hits and suffered their first loss of the season.

Garroway and Ioanilli paced the offense with two hits apiece. Servick, Angie Nardone, Julia Nardone, Keira Rozanski, and Ellie Kalantzis all added singles.

The defense was terrific as they committed just one error on the day. Servick, Makinley Magill, and Angie Nardone turned a nifty 4-6-3 double play to end the first inning. Freshman Centerfielder Kalantzis, making her first varsity start, was tremendous as she ran down several fly balls.

Piatt got the win for Keystone Oaks as she struck out two and did not walk a batter. Julia Nardone suffered her first varsity defeat as she gave up five hits and five earned runs in six innings of work. She fanned three and walked four.

Ellwood City 4 Union 1

Diving catch by shortstop Kali Barnett

The Wolverines took less than 24 hours to get the bad taste of their first loss out of their mouths, this time earning a 4-1 victory over Union on Saturday.

Once again, the Wolverines got things started in the first inning. Kali Barnett walked to lead off the inning and advanced to second on a single by Angie Nardone. After both players moved up on a wild pitch, Kyla Servick drove in Barnett with a two-out single to left field.

The Wolverines extended their lead to 4-0 in the third inning. Ellie Kalantzis started off the inning with a bunt single and promptly stole second. Kalantzis moved over to third on a bloop double into center off the bat of Angie Nardone. Heads up baserunning by both Aliya Garroway and Kalantzis plated the second run of the day as Garroway struck out swinging but was alert to run as the pitch got by the catcher. Garroway was out at first but Kalantzis wisely scored from third on the throw. With two outs, Maria Ioanilli scored Nardone with a single to left. Ioanilli then stole second and advanced to third as the throw went into center field. Servick brought Ioanilli in with her second RBI single of the day.

The Scotties made some noise with their lone run in the fifth inning produced by a walk, hit batter, and infield single. With one out and runners on first and second, pitcher Julia Nardone shut the door as she induced an infield pop out and groundout back to the circle.

Five players contributed eight hits in the winning effort. Angie Nardone led the way with a double and two singles while Servick added two RBIs with her two singles. Kalantzis, Julia Nardone, and Ioanilli added the other three singles.

In a game that took less than 90 minutes to complete, the story of the day was Julia Nardone’s pitching and Ellwood City’s air tight defense. The freshman pitcher was masterful in the circle as she bounced back from her first defeat to toss a 3 hitter. It took just 67 pitches for her to get the complete game win as 44 were strikes. She kept Union off balance all day with a great combination of fastballs and changeups. She fanned two and walked just one Scottie.

The Wolverines, now 4-1 on the season and 0-1 in the section, will look to get their first section win of the season on Monday. Quaker Valley will visit Stiefel Park with first pitch scheduled for 5:00 p.m.

PLEASE NOTE: The Ellwood City Wolverines baseball team will host their game versus Freedom Area on Monday afternoon instead of the originally scheduled date of Tuesday.  The baseball game will be at home, at Sanders Field in Ewing Park, with a first pitch at 4:30 p.m. on Monday.

Ashton Wilson had a 3-hit performance on Saturday, but the Wolverines were defeated on the road by Blackhawk 5-4.  Ellwood City rallied for three runs in the fifth inning to tie the contest, but the Cougars scored in the bottom half to secure the one run victory. Wilson doubled and scored two runs as part of his offensive performance for the Wolverines.