St John Neumann Lady Knights beat Benton 11-10 to open season
By: Kevin Weller | NTL Sports | April 2, 2019 | Photo courtesy Kevin Weller
Elm Park, Williamsport PA, April 2, 2019 - St. John Neumann Lady Knights beat Benton 11-10 to open season.
The St. John Neumann Lady Knights opened the 2019 season with an exciting 11-10 walk-off victory over the Benton Tigers in Mid-Penn Conference action.
The Benton Tigers struck first, putting 5 runs on the board in the top of the second inning, tallying 4 hits in the inning. Neumann answered with one run in the bottom of the frame, scoring Breanna Minnier on a wild pitch. End 2nd - Benton 5, Neumann 1.
The Lady Knights added another run in the third, as Zuzu Shanaway ripped a hard ground ball through the left side to bring Juliana Kriner home. End 3rd - Benton 5, Neumann 2.
Anne Weller, pitching for the Lady Knights, settled in, as she kept Benton off the board in the 3rd and 4th innings. Benton broke through in the fifth inning, scoring 3 runs on a pair of Neumann felding errors. SJN answered back in the bottom of the inning with four runs of their own, as they strung together 5 hits from Shanaway, Weller, Minnier, Maria Helminiak, and Jenny Mertes. End 5th - Benton 8, Neumann 6.
The Tigers added to their lead in the top of the sixth, scoring two runs to take a 10-6 lead. Neumann answered again in the bottom of the frame, as Helminiak's drive into the right-center gap drove in 2 runs, bringing Weller and Minnier home. End 6th - Benton 10, Neumann 8.
The top of the seventh featured great defense, as Anne shut down Benton with a 1-2-3 inning, and recorded her 11th strikeout of the game.
Entering the bottom of the 7th inning, the Lady Knights were down to their last chance. Kylie Cendoma lead off the inning, and drew a walk to reach base. Kriner lined a shot up the middle to advance Cendoma to second. Zuzu followed with a walk to load the bases with no outs. Breanna hit a screamer to short that could not be handled, bringing home Kylie. Juliana then stole home on a wild pitch to tie the game at 10-10. Maria Helminiak stepped up to the plate and connected with the game winning RBI to give Neumann its first lead of the game and the walk-off, as Zuzu touched home with the winning run. Final, End 7th - Neumann 11, Benton 10.
