BY JILL SNOWDON, Times-Shamrock Writer

Elk Lake was just looking to take Nanticoke Area extra innings in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Instead, the Warriors sent the Trojanettes packing as they rallied for a 2-1 win in dramatic fashion in Thursday’s District 2 Class AA softball championship at Marywood University.

Elk Lake (17-0), which lost to Nanticoke in last season’s District 2 AA final, advances to the state tournament to face District 11 champ Pine Grove/Pen Argyl. The defending state champion Trojanettes finish the year with a 16-1 record.

“We told them in the seventh inning that we were looking to tie the game up and go extra innings, not win it here, just tie it,” Elk Lake coach Tony Blaisure said.

Blaisure certainly wasn’t disappointed that his team took his instructions a step further.

Senior pitcher Brooke Darling led off the bottom of the seventh with a double to deep left field and courtesy runner Debbie Harvey advanced to third on a wild pitch. Casey Tyler made a few bunt attempts before being called out of the batter’s box by Blaisure.

“It’s been our game all year with our No. 5 hitter (Tyler) and No. 6 (Taylor Watkins) trying to bunt,” Blaisure said. “We’ve come back from a couple of deficits with those two kids. I called Casey over and asked her what she wanted to do and she said she had confidence. So, I told her to swing away and put the ball in play and she did.”

Tyler returned to the batter’s box and drilled a triple to center field, scoring Harvey. Nanticoke pitcher Sarah Bertoni sent the next two batters down on strikeouts.

With two outs and Tyler on third, Kyla Marcy got the signal from Blaisure to bunt but she came up empty. She took a full swing and sent a grounder to third. Marcy reached as Nanticoke couldn’t hold onto the throw and Tyler scored the winning run on the error.

“I saw that she dropped it and I was just so excited,” Marcy said. “(Blaisure) gave me the bunt signal and I tried bunting and then he took it off and I hit away. I just gave it my all and ran to first.” Bertoni and Nanticoke’s

defense had a fairly good handle on Elk Lake prior to the seventh inning. Bertoni had allowed just two hits to that point, while Maggie Gola turned a double play in the sixth to keep Nanticoke’s one-run lead.

Bertoni also provided the Trojanettes with their only score of the game as her double down the right field line scored Angela Hillan. Bertoni finished with a pair of doubles and took the loss in the circle with five strikeouts and one walk.

“We put the ball in play, but I give (Elk Lake) credit because I heard their defense was a little shaky,” Nanticoke coach Gary

Williams said. “They played better defense than I expected. And I knew this was going to be a close game but I’m more disappointed in our lack of scoring than I am with our miscues on defense. We battled through some of our miscues, but they accumulated on us in that last inning.”

Darling spoiled Nanticoke’s chances of adding some insurance as she struck out four batters over the sixth and seventh. She closed out the game with nine strikeouts and a walk.

“In that top of the seventh, I was preaching to the kids to put the ball in play because we needed another run, we just couldn’t do it,” Williams said. “This is real tough because we came into the season with high expectations.”

Darling said that she was happy with where her pitches were landing throughout the game.

“I wasn’t too nervous, I’ve pitched in situations like this before,” Darling said. “And I think my pitches were working well for me.”

Staff writer Kevin Woodruff also contributed to this report.