Cougars fall to KO

By JEFF OLIVER
MVI Sports

The good news for Charleroi Wednesday was that the Cougars belted three home runs and scored five runs in a non-section contest against Class 3A Keystone Oaks.
The bad news is that was just enough to match what KO’s Lauren Foti did all by herself.
Foti belted three homers and drove in five runs as the Golden Eagles pounded Charleroi, 14-5.
After striking out in her first trip up, Foti smacked consecutive two-run blasts over the center-field fence in the third and fourth innings. For good measure, she added a solo shot over the fence in right in the top of the seventh.
“She has a really nice swing for sure,” Charleroi coach Trey Tilghman said of Foti. “And they hit her sixth? Wow. That’s a pretty good team there.”
KO (3-1) banged out 11 hits and broke open a 6-4 game with a six-run fourth inning. In the big fourth, the Golden Eagles sent nine batters to the plate. The biggest blows were a bases-loaded single by Addy Schmid that cleared the bases and a follow-up two-run homer by Foti.
Charleroi (1-3) fell behind 2-0 in the second inning before tying the score on a two-run homer by losing pitcher Kylie Quigley in the bottom of the inning.
After KO tallied four runs in the third, the hosts closed the gap to 6-4 in the bottom of the inning when Sophie Celaschi drilled a two-run round tripper over the fence in center.
Just when it looked like the two teams were heating up for a slugfest, the winners blew the game open in the fourth and the Charleroi bats went silent.
The Cougars collected seven hits through the first three innings, but managed just four hits the rest of the afternoon.
“We’re young and we do good things and then we screw up,” Tilghman said. “That’s pretty much what you get with a young group. But we’ve got to get better. We aren’t deep into the section yet, but that time is coming and we better get things ironed out by then.”

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