By Jim Hunter
Meadville Tribune
COCHRANTON —
Arianna Hanley and Madalyn Nichols threw a message at Harborcreek: “Let’s play two.”
Getting seven spectacular innings from Hanley and a suck-it-up, eighth-inning performance from seldom-used Nichols, MECS forced the if-necessary game in the Section 1 Junior League championship finals Sunday night with a thrilling 2-1 victory.
The if-necessary game will be played tonight at 6 at Cochranton.
It was a wild-and-wooly weekend for the MECS crew.
On Saturday, MECS sqaundered a 3-1, seventh-inning lead to Harborcreek in the winner’s bracket final as the Erie diamonders rallied for a 5-3 win. Then, in the loser’s bracket final Saturday evening, MECS had a 6-1, fifth-inning lead against DuBois before Mother Nature suspended the completion of the game until Sunday afternoon.
Due to the heavy rainstorm, the continuation game’s starting time was delayed five hours.
Finally, game on. MECS added another run for a 7-2 win against DuBois.
Hanley and Nichols were ready for Harborcreek.
After allowing one run in the first inning, Nichols got in the groove and handcuffed Harborcreek the remaining six innings of work. She didn’t allow a hit in the last three innings.
“Arianna got stronger as the game went on ... she always does,” said MECS coach Brian Hanley, her father. “She has been bothered by a pinch nerve, but it didn’t seem to bother her.”
After her 1-2-3 seventh inning, Brian Hanley was forced to make a pitching change. With her three innings of work against DuBois, Arianna Hanley reached the 10-inning limit for a pitcher in a day.
Before Nichols toed the rubber, Jaricka Simmerman rocked the MECS dugout with one big swing in the top of the eighth inning.
After Courtney Lilly legged out a one-out infield single, Simmerman smashed a triple to deep left field to score Lilly, breaking the 1-1 tie.
When Simmerman cruised into third, Hanley — who was coaching third base — had to calm her down.
“She was so excited that I thought she was going to start crying,” he said. “I had to tell her to calm down. It was a big, big hit for us.”
Back to Nichols.
Despite pitching only one inning in the Section tournament, Hanley approached Nichols in the sixth inning and told her if the game goes into extra innings then she will get the ball.
The smilin’ Nichols showed her true mettle.
Showing signs of not being loose yet, Nichols walked two of the first three batters she faced.
After going to a 3-1 count on her fourth opposing batter, Nichols stepped back and took a deep breath. The MECS right-hander returned to the rubber and got downright nasty — throwing two consecutive strikes for a strikeout and then fanning the next Harborcreek batter on a 3-2 count.
“To be put in that position with only one inning of work, Madalyn really, really showed us what type of player she is,” said Hanley. “I had all the confidence in her and she came through.”
MECS’s defense also rose to the occasion.
In the third and fourth innings, MECS’s outfielders Caitlyn Hartman and Simmerman showcased their arms. Trying to stretch singles into doubles, Harborcreek’s Kalic Rzodkiewics and Kirsten Reilly were gunned out by Hartman and Simmerman, respectively.
“We have come up with big defensive plays throughout the tournament,” said Hanley.
Lilly and Simmerman were 2-for-4 for MECS.
