Frazier shut out by LV’s Griffin

By JOSE NEGRON

jnegron@yourmvi.com

All season long, teams in Class 2A have experienced trouble finding success against Ligonier Valley hurler Maddie Griffin. 

On Tuesday, Frazier found out why. 

The third-seeded Commodores were limited to just two hits and four baserunners as they suffered a 4-0 loss at the hands of the top-seeded Rams in a WPIAL Class 2A consolation game at Norwin High School. 

Griffin allowed hits on a double by Rylee Evans in the fifth inning and an infield single by Tori Washinski in the seventh. She also walked a pair and struck out 13. 

“We had a gameplan coming in and part of that gameplan was not to swing at anything above our waist, and that just wasn’t the case,” Frazier head coach Don Hartman said. “Her spin and late-breaking rise ball is legit and you have to give her credit where it is due.” 

The first time through the lineup, Frazier (16-5) struggled to put the ball in play against Griffin, who collected eight straight strikeouts after getting Jensyn Hartman to ground out to start the game. 

The second time through, however, the Commodores began to show some life. Washinski walked to give her team its first baserunner in the fourth before Evans led off the fifth with a double into the left-center field gap. Skylar Hone walked in the sixth and Washinski reached on her single in the seventh. In the latter two instances, Hone and Washinski advanced to third, but were left stranded. 

“We made some adjustments and went into a bit of slug-type hitting to try to get balls in play,” Hartman said. “We did that the last few innings when they started to realize the normal thing we do wasn’t going to work. We had a backup plan but it was a little bit too late.”

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