Beckwith’s go-ahead 2-run homer, nine-run 4th inning sounds alarm on Wellsville’s return home, roll past Our Lady of Mercy with 13-1 win at Tullar Field

WELLSVILLE — While the Lady Lions of Wellsville were en route back home from Maryland, countless hours have been spent by many volunteers to ensure Tullar Field would be ready for their imminent and long-awaited return, no matter the weather conditions, with a ton of rain, freezing at times, and a few spotty snow flurries dominating all week long.

But when Saturday arrived with a sky filled with clouds and the sun periodically making its presence known to warm up the chilly surroundings, that promise was fulfilled when the tarp was pulled off of the historic softball grounds in time for Class B2’s three-peat champions to take the stage and defend the throne on their turf against Our Lady of Mercy.

Both the Lady Monarchs and Lady Lions were able to provide ice-breaking moments in their opening tenures at the plate, with the latter propelling forward into the driver’s seat off a brilliant response of their own. From that point, a defensive ballgame developed with the exchange of two shutout innings.

With the offenses continuing to uncover ways to flare up the bats again, it was only a matter of time until one of them would find the perfect strike of the match to set it completely ablaze.

After shutting down the Lady Monarchs in the top half of the fourth, and a brief conversation advancing back to the dugout with head coach Matt Burke, the wheels began to churn for the Lady Lions. And when they kept fiercely chipping away, there was simply no stopping it.

In the bottom half of the frame, the Wellsville offense turned up the temperature at an alarmingly high rate. So much that the bats soon kindled its transformation into an obstreperous inferno, as they accounted for a gargantuan nine-run, nine-hit stand to break the game wide open against Our Lady of Mercy, garnering all the room they needed to stand alone out in front and deliver a home-opening 13-1 victory.

“Wellsville softball is not known for letting weather cancel games. It’s just so nice to have so many people that can contribute to try and help us get games in for our players,” Lady Lions coach Matt Burke said. “Makenna (Dunbar) threw an excellent game today. Our offense was clicking, we hit a lot of line drives. We have a great group of young ladies that played well. We got down early, and there was no panic in them. We responded well to it.”

Our Lady of Mercy's lone run came within an active first outing at the plate against Makenna Dunbar, capitalizing on back-to-back walks before scoring one run on a sacrifice fly into right field — one that was met with an exceptional diving catch on the run by Sawyer Burke to prevent even more damage from coming across.

Despite the early deficit, the Lady Lions (1-1) displayed no panic in their response back to the Lady Monarchs. With the aid of Burke reaching base in the lead-off position, Brazen Beckwith followed up with a drive to straightway center field, one that accumulated just enough carry for its exit from play for Tullar Field’s first home run of the season, springboarding the hosts into the lead where they would remain for the rest of the contest.

Each team would apply a fair amount of pressure against one another across the third inning, providing a pair of runners behind the defense. Although the Lady Lions earned their way on base off back-to-back singles issued by Makenna Dunbar and Lindsay Stuck, nothing further would develop in the bottom half of the stanza, as the Lady Monarchs defense worked their way off to keep the one-run buffer zone intact.

Although no momentous connections were made to add to their lead, Wellsville would make sure what momentum was remaining from their previous stand at the plate, carried over into the next, as they shattered the game completely with a nine-run bottom of the fourth inning — the mass majority of the scores being scratched across the plate with just one out on the board.

Headlining the game-altering frame of play was Marissa Ordway and her dispatching of a two-run hit straight to the center field fence. The Lady Lions would ultimately work their way back up to the top of their order where six more runs came in on five hits in consecutive fashion, paced by the contributions of Sawyer Burke (RBI single), Brazen Beckwith (two-run single), Makenna Dunbar (RBI single), Makenzie Cowburn (RBI single) and Natalie Adams (RBI single).

Averee Palmatier would help finish off the gigantic inning with a two-run single of her own to push what was once a one-run lead against the Lady Monarchs, to an 11-1 advantage. The Lady Lions would score one more run in each of the next two innings of play before Dunbar and the defense behind her in the field helped close the book on a successful home-opening victory.

In all, Wellsville collected 13 runs off 18 hits, with seven different Lady Lions all posting at least a pair of hits.

Beckwith led the way with a 2-for-3 outing at the plate consisting of her two-run homer in the first, totaling four RBI in the contest. Dunbar and Stuck each followed with a perfect 4-for-4 day that included a double and RBI. Palmatier and Ordway each garnered two hits and two RBI, while Sawyer Burke and Natalie Adams each posted two hits and an RBI.

In the circle, Dunbar twirled a one-hit victory for the hosts in gray and orange, fanning 11 Lady Monarchs and walking seven in her first start of the season.

The Lady Lions are back on the field Wednesday night over the road, as they head to Allegany-Limestone to meet Section VI power Fredonia in a 6 p.m. first pitch.

Our Lady of Mercy 100 000 0 – 1 1 3

Wellsville 200 911 X – 13 18 0

OLM – Leah Sperry (LP) (CG, 8K, BB) and Natalie Casale.

WLSV – Makenna Dunbar (WP) (CG, 11K, 7BB) and Brazen Beckwith, Lindsay Stuck (6), Teegan Sibble (7).