By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
DUNMORE – Third-seeded Lake-Lehman had a 3-2 lead over top-seed and defending champion Mid Valley after three innings when their District 2 Class 3A softball game was suspended Wednesday afternoon at Marywood University.
The game was one of two District 2 championship contests to be suspended after getting started. Another was postponed without starting.
Lightning, which lingered in the area, and thunderstorms, which later brought hail and high winds, disrupted games in the northern half of the district as it was attempting to complete its baseball and softball tournaments.
Further south, all four championship games were completed.
The biggest issues were at Marywood.
The required half-hour wait after thunder or lightning kept pushing back the start of the 2 p.m. doubleheader.
By the time Lake-Lehman and Mid Valley started at 4:07, the scheduled 4:30 District 2-4 Class 5A Subregional final between Pittston Area and West Scranton had already been moved to Thursday at 2 p.m.
As of Wednesday night, plans call for the Pittston Area-West Scranton game to be followed by the completion of the Lake-Lehman/Mid Valley game. However, there is also threatening weather in the Thursday forecast.
Over at the University of Scranton, the 1 p.m. District 2 Class A softball game was completed despite multiple weather delays, but the 4:30 District 2 Class 3A baseball final between Riverside and Holy Cross never got out of the first inning.
Riverside and Holy Cross will try again Thursday at 2 p.m., picking up with the game scoreless.
Both Lake-Lehman and Mid Valley got their offenses started immediately. The first inning ended with Lake-Lehman leading, 2-1.
Lake-Lehman put the first two runners on and scored two unearned runs in the top of the first inning when it had one runner thrown out on the bases and another left stranded in scoring position.
Mid Valley got singles out of Kat Davis and Chiara Zavislak on consecutive pitches and loaded the bases without another pitch when Lake-Lehman chose to walk reigning state Class 3A Player of the Year Maranda Runco.
The Spartanettes only scored one run, on a deep fly ball by Courtney Rebar that came about 10 feet short of a grand slam. They lost a runner for leaving a base too early on a pitch in the next at-bat.
Kaylee Terranella and Emma Kobylanski ripped consecutive doubles to tie the game in the bottom of the second. Kobylanski’s concluded a brilliant at-bat in which she fouled off 10 straight 1-2 pitches then launched a shot to the fence in left-center.
Lake-Lehman regained the lead in the top of the third when Krista Scoblick singled, advanced on two groundouts and scored on an infield single by Jillian Ulozas.
At the University of Scranton, Holy Cross did not score in the top of the first.
Riverside had a runner on second with two out when the game was halted in the middle of an at-bat.
