STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Using a wild, six-run rally in the fifth inning, Donegal’s girls softball team surged past Cedar Cliff to capture the inaugural PIAA Class 5A championship with a 9-7 victory Friday afternoon at Penn State University’s Beard Field.
It’s the second state title in program history for Donegal, which captured a Class 3A championship back in 2006.
This is the first season that the PIAA divided its member schools into six classifications.
Kaytlyn Winters smacked a three-run double during the Indians’ fifth-inning rally, which erased a 7-3 deficit and put them in the lead for good. Donegal sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning.
The Indians trailed 1-0 after one inning, but tied the game in the fourth on an RBI single by Peighton Hornick. Later in the inning, Rachel Robinson’s two-run double gave Donegal a 3-1 lead.
But Cedar Cliff answered in the top of the fifth, scoring six times. Karston Hastings hit a solo home run and Maddie Sitler added a three-run blast in the Colts’ rally.
Donegal struck back with a six-run rally of its own in the bottom of the inning, then held Cedar Cliff scoreless in its final two at-bats to secure the victory.
