Jaguars rally to advance to PIAA 5A championship

By Trib Total Media

Thomas Jefferson will play for the Class 5A softball state championship after rallying from a 6-0 deficit to stun Central Mountain.

Morgan Aliesky hit the go-ahead two-run single in the bottom of the sixth and Zoe Krizan drove in five runs to lead the Jaguars to a 9-8 victory in the semifinal Monday at Mt. Aloysius College.

The Jaguars advanced to the state championship game for the first time. They will meet District 2 champion Pittston Area (21-1) at 4 p.m. Thursday at Penn State.

Central Mountain (16-6) jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the second inning, led by a three-run homer by Madisyn Wian and a solo shot by Harley Kunes.

Thomas Jefferson (15-8) got back in the game with a four-run third, highlighted by a three-run double by Krizan.

Krizan and Alayna Grese hit solo home runs in the fifth to make it 8-6. Krizan had an RBI single in the sixth before Aliesky’s game-winning hit.

Aubrey Shaffer gave up eight runs, seven of which were unearned, in a complete-game win.

“It was tough being down 6-0, but it was early and we knew we could come back from anything,” Thomas Jefferson coach Heidi Karcher said in a release. “We just kept fighting and were able to pick away at it. We’ve worked so hard for this. We knew we had a really good team early in the season, we just had to come together.”