Kersch wins battle as Scotties take crown
She snuffs rally with whiff after Gold’s go-ahead HR
There were two outs and the potential tying run stood on third base in the top of the seventh inning Tuesday afternoon at Luther Forest Complex, but before Ballston Spa junior pitcher Lauren Kersch faced South Glens Falls slugger Zoe Lanfear, coach Amanda Fifield decided to make a trip to see her pitcher.
An earlier inning, Lanfear sparked a two-run rally that tied the Section II Class A final.
“Coach comes out and she goes, ‘So what’s up?’ I said, ‘(Lanfear) just hit a triple. I don’t know what to do. Do I walk her?’ She was like, ‘No.’ She said, ‘What pitch (did you throw the last time)?’ I said, ‘rise ball.’ She said, ‘All right, go at her.’ I was then taking deep breaths.”
“I just had to remind her that she had to believe in herself just as much as the coaches believe in her and her team believes in her,” Fifield said.
Kersch, who missed her entire sophomore season because of a knee injury, responded by striking out Lanfear on a 2-2 curve to culminate a thrilling 3-2 victory over the Bulldogs.
“In the seventh inning, I said to myself, ‘I’ve got this.’ ... Getting through it meant a lot to me,” Kersch said. “Winning this feels so amazing.”
After the Bulldogs tied things in the top of the sixth inning on a run-scoring single by Deme Kellogg and an RBI double from Christine Mallette, Ballston Spa sophomore shortstop Ana Gold smashed a solo home run against South Glens Falls sophomore pitcher Hannah Breen to lead off the bottom of the frame.
“It was pretty awesome,” Gold said. “I was just going up there trying to hit the ball hard and I happened to connect and put the ball over.”
“She is an amazing person to have on the team.” Kersch said of Gold. “She is always positive and never gives up.”
Tuesday’s triumph also represented the 100th coaching win for Fifield.
The Scotties (20-3), a program that advanced to the 2018 Class AA state final, move forward to the Class A state quarterfinals Saturday at Moreau Rec. Ballston Spa will take on Thursday’s winner between Jamesville-dewitt (Section III) and Franklin Academy (Section X).
Kersch’s seventh strikeout of the game put the final touches on a taut final between two of the top four ranked teams in Class A. The win by the Scotties is their third sectional title since 2016 and denied the Bulldogs (16-1) — a program that last claimed a championship in 2012. A Suburban Council squad has won the Class A sectional title every year since 2013 with Troy and Averill Park each securing three championships before Tuesday’s victory by Ballston Spa.
Prior to her home run, Gold had fouled off a pair of Breen offerings with two strikes against her.
“I was getting under it a little bit, so I tried to stay a lot more level,” Gold said. “I executed on that last pitch.”
Kersch, who earned her 17th win this season, had not allowed a hit prior to the sixth inning.
In the top of the seventh, Kasen Lemay led off with a double to left for South Glens Falls. Kersch rebounded to record the final three outs to complete a four-hitter that required 83 pitches (60 of them for strikes).