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6 years ago
Vikings are All Dressed Up, with Somewhere to Go

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 BY JEFF FALK

 FREDERICKSBURG – Dottie: ‘Lay off the high ones.’

 Kit: ‘I like the high ones.’

 Can they contend for a section championship and earn a berth in the league playoffs?

 Do they have a better chance of realizing success in the District Three postesason?

 Does their season require validation?

 That’s the world the Northern Lebanon softball team is existing in right now. The Vikings are just a squirrel trying to get a nut.

 On a warm Thursday evening at Northern Lebanon High School, the Vikings enhanced an already marvelous campaign with a 14-0, five-inning Lancaster-Lebanon Section Three-Four crossover demolition of Pequea Valley. Northern Lebanon dazzled in all phases of the game, as evidenced by senior Emma Kelliher’s abbreviated no-hitter and the eye-popping 11 runs it put on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second inning.

 The outcome was Northern Lebanon’s eight straight triumph and lifted it to 10-2 on the year and 8-2 in Section Three of the L-L. The Vikings are in third place in their section, but currently situated second in the District Three Class AAAA power rankings.

 Pequea Valley, the front-runner in Section Four, fell to 9-3 on the spring and 8-3 in its circuit.

 “No one knows it better than I do,” said Northern Lebanon head coach Ed Spittle. “We’ve got some important games coming up. We’re going to go up against (Manheim) Central, against Donegal, against Garden Spot. But I feel a lot better about this dugout now (then when the Vikings faced those teams the first time around). This may have been our best game of the year. It would be nice to get into the Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs. There’s games that have to be played and games that have to be won.

 “We’ve been taking care of business and beating teams we should beat,” continued Spittle. “We thought this was our toughest game of the week. You always felt the chemistry was here, that we were going to get better and that we were going to do some nice things. But we’ve got to prove it.”

 The Vikings looked most capable yesterday.

 After being retired in order in the bottom of the first inning, Northern Lebanon sent 15 hitters to the plate and scored 11 runs in the second. It started with Sydney Mengel’s lead-off single, Hannah Bashore’s bunt hit and Allyson Hazy’s run-producing grounder.

  The rally was highlighted by Taylor Douple’s grand slam and featured RBIs from Autmn Bohr, Summer Bohr, Bashore and Lindsay McFeaters.

  “We were playing for one,” said Spittle of the home half of the second. “Then we were playing for two, and three, and four. Then Taylor hit the grand slam. You feel if you can get three or four you’re going to be in pretty good shape. It was a really good inning for us. We knew this was going to be a tough game.

  “I was surprised,” added Spittle. “They’re (the Braves) a really good ball club. But I’ll tell you, we’re kind of scary right now. We’re clicking in all phases of the game.”

 An 11-run lead was way more than enough for Kelliher to work with.

 The hard-chucking right-hander’s no-hitter was a fourth-inning walk away from being a perfect game. The 15 outs she recorded consisted of five whiffs, six grounders and four pops.

 “She’ll deflect all the credit,” said Spittle of Kelliher. “But she’s really been rock solid for us. She’s been everything we expected, and more. She keeps us in games, and that’s all we can really ask for.

 “She’s intelligent,” Spittle added. “She’s very bright. She knows what she wants to do. She plays three sports. Realistically, if she wants to play a sport in college, it’s this.”

 Despite its large lead, Northern Lebanon’s intensity never relented.

 The Vikings were right back at it in the bottom of the third. After A. Bohr reached on an outfield error, Douple brought her home with another single.

  “We played to the level of our competition,” said Spittle. “Last week, we beat someone 11-1 and we didn’t look good. Today we did. When you’re playing well, it’s what happens. I don’t know what we could’ve improved on.”

 Douple recorded her sixth and seventh RBIs of the game in the bottom of the fourth. They came on a sharp single to right and drove home Brooke Graby and Cassidy Ritchie, both of whom had singled.

 For the game, the Vikings totaled a dozen hits.

 “We don’t really steal a lot, but we can,” said Spittle. “I expected a low-scoring game. I thought runs would be hard to come by, but we exploded in the second inning.

 “Undoubtedly, this is the quickest team I’ve seen here in quite some time,” Spittle continued. “We can play the game a lot of different ways. It’s a credit to them (his players) and how they learned the game. We’re looking for one more player. We’re rock solid.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com, or to view more go to https://lebanonsportsbuzz.com/photo-gallery/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 2019 Northern Lebanon Softball Schedule

 
 
Date Opponents Outcomes  
3/26
4:15 pm		 Northern Lebanon
at Elco		 17
6		  
3/27
4:15 pm		 Octorara
at Northern Lebanon		 0
13		  
3/28
4:15 pm		 Cedar Crest
at Northern Lebanon		 0
10		  
3/29
4:15 pm		 Northern Lebanon
at Donegal		 0
7		  
4/01
4:15 pm		 Manheim Central
at Northern Lebanon		 1
0		  
4/03
4:15 pm		 Northern Lebanon
at Cocalico		 24
4		  
4/04
4:15 pm		 Garden Spot
at Northern Lebanon		 1
4		  
4/06
1:00 pm		 Hamburg
at Northern Lebanon		 1
8		  
4/08
4:15 pm		 Northern Lebanon
at Lancaster Mennonite		 12
0		  
4/11
4:15 pm		 Northern Lebanon
at Columbia		 11
1		  
4/15
4:15 pm		 Lancaster Catholic
at Northern Lebanon		 0
5		  
4/17
4:15 pm		 Northern Lebanon
at Lebanon Catholic		    
4/18
4:15 pm		 Pequea Valley
at Northern Lebanon		    
4/22
4:15 pm		 Northern Lebanon
at Annville-Cleona		    
4/24
4:15 pm		 Elco
at Northern Lebanon		    
4/29
4:15 pm		 Northern Lebanon
at Octorara		    
5/01
4:15 pm		 Donegal
at Northern Lebanon		    
5/03
7:30 pm		 Northern Lebanon
at Manheim Central		    
5/06
4:15 pm		 Cocalico
at Northern Lebanon		    
5/08
4:15 pm		 Northern Lebanon
at Garden Spot		    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PIAA District Three
 Class AAAA Power Rankings
 
AAAA School  W  L  T  Rating  TWP  OWP  TWPW  OWPW  TWPL  OWPL
1 James Buchanan 7- 2- 0  0.697096  0.817143  0.550371  7.2  77.9  1.6  63.6
2 Northern Lebanon 10- 2- 0  0.694858  0.858333  0.495054  10.3  105.1  1.7  107.2
3 West Perry 7- 2- 0  0.688339  0.803468  0.547627  7.0  86.0  1.7  71.0
4 Bishop McDevitt 7- 3- 0  0.656057  0.747619  0.544148  7.9  90.9  2.7  76.2
5 Susquehanna Township 5- 2- 0  0.644806  0.764706  0.498262  5.9  78.9  1.8  79.4
6 Kennard Dale 6- 3- 0  0.617939  0.699507  0.518243  7.1  115.1  3.1  107.0
7 Bermudian Springs 8- 3- 0  0.611972  0.721992  0.477504  8.7  98.7  3.4  108.0
8 Eastern York 6- 4- 0  0.599185  0.673267  0.508639  6.8  83.9  3.3  81.1
9 Hamburg 6- 5- 0  0.574306  0.571429  0.577822  6.2  114.9  4.7  84.0
10 West York 7- 4- 0  0.571625  0.641921  0.485708  7.4  104.5  4.1  110.7
11 Lancaster Catholic 8- 5- 0  0.556780  0.626506  0.471560  7.8  99.9  4.7  112.0
12 Middletown 5- 4- 0  0.546257  0.577143  0.508508  5.1  91.2  3.7  88.1
13 Fleetwood 5- 6- 0  0.528708  0.483568  0.583880  5.2  106.9  5.5  76.2
14 East Pennsboro 4- 4- 0  0.518294  0.512821  0.524984  4.0  80.9  3.8  73.2
15 Conrad Weiser 4- 5- 0  0.462421  0.479532  0.441506  4.1  82.7  4.5  104.6
16 Octorara 3- 7- 0  0.454886  0.324468  0.614286  3.1  116.1  6.4  72.9
17 Big Spring 2- 5- 0  0.440923  0.314961  0.594877  2.0  88.3  4.4  60.1
18 Eastern Lebanon County 2- 8- 0  0.348105  0.193548  0.537007  1.8  116.5  7.5  100.4
19 Berks Catholic 1- 8- 0  0.312583  0.124260  0.542755  1.1  91.4  7.4  77.0
20 York Suburban 1- 10- 0  0.310891  0.090909  0.579759  0.9  112.9  8.5  81.8
21 Wyomissing 1- 7- 0  0.250959  0.101190  0.434009  0.9  69.6  7.6  90.7
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lancaster-Lebanon League
 Section Three Standings
 
 
 
  League Overall
  W L PCT W L PCT RS RA
Donegal 11 0 100.00 12 0 100.00 124 18
Manheim Central 9 2 81.82 9 3 75.00 96 12
Northern Lebanon 8 2 80.00 10 2 83.33 118 20
Garden Spot 7 3 70.00 8 3 72.73 86 15
Octorara 3 7 30.00 3 8 27.27 37 80
Cocalico 3 8 27.27 3 9 25.00 70 71
Elco 2 8 20.00 2 8 20.00 46 97
 

 

 

 

 

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