Meadville loses to Cathedral Prep despite early success

May 8—Meadville's softball team lost to Cathedral Prep 15-1 in Tuesday night's Region 5 game. Meadville and Cathedral Prep came in tied Region 5 standings at 8-1.

Meadville took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, after a single by Rylee Kregel scored Addyson Kregel. Prep tied the game at one in the third and it looked like the game was becoming a pitchers' duel. However, Prep blew the game open with a six-run fifth inning before hitting two homers in the seventh.

The Meadville offense was unable to keep up with Ramblers production, and that proved to be the difference in this one.

"This doesn't mean the end of season," said Meadville head coach Renee Ashton. "These girls are very talented, they (Prep) were the better team today."

Meadville found baserunners in the first few innings, but were unable to get many on through the middle innings. Cathedral Prep's pitching was locked in, causing problems for the Bulldogs' offense.

"We made some errors," said Ashton. "They've got great hitters just like we do, but they produced on offense and we didn't. You can't make errors against a team that can hit."

Meadville's pitching core was strong the first four innings, even finding a way out of a bad situation in the fourth. With the bases loaded and no outs, Lila Kightlinger found three straight outs to keep the game at one apiece.

"Hard to beat us three times straight," said Ashton. "The last game was 3-2 and we were right there with them the whole time. We're a building program, and they've been on top for a while. We're going to keep working."

Teagan Reichel and Kendall Mealy led the Bulldogs' offense. Reichel went 2-for-3 at the plate and Mealy went 2-for-4. Rylee Kregel got the start in the circle, throwing almost four innings of work while striking out four and allowing three runs. Kightlinger came in relief in the fourth. Kightlinger struck out three batters in her three innings of work.

"The message to the team is to keep working individually on every single thing you need to work on to keep the game one pitch at a time," said Ashton. "Control the controllables and keep doing the same thing we've been doing all season."

Meadville is 8-2 in Region 5 and 11-3 overall. The Bulldogs are scheduled to travel to Conneaut today for a game at 4 p.m.

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Cathedral Prep (15)

(AB-R-H-BI) P. Simmerman 5-1-2-2, Baldo 4-1-2-1, M. Simmerman 4-2-1-2, Chimera 5-2-1-1, Moore 4-3-3-2, E. Dudenhoeffer 3-2-3-5, Thomas 3-2-1-1, Kaliszewski 5-1-1-0, Madura 0-1-0-0, S Dudenhoeffer 4-0-0-0, Primavere 1-0-0-0. Totals 38-15-14-14.

Meadville (1)

(AB-R-H-BI) Mealy 4-0-2-0, A. Kregel 4-1-1-0, Reichel 3-0-2-0, R. Kregel 3-0-1-1, Kightlinger 3-0-0-0, Curtiss 3-0-1-0, Rusek 2-0-0-0, McGowan 3-0-0-0, Baker 3-0-0-0. Totals 28-1-7-1.

Cathedral Prep 001 061 7 — 15 14 1

Meadville 100 000 0 — 1 7 4

BATTING

2B: CP — Baldi, Chimera, E. Dudenhoeffer, Kaliszewski, M. Simmerman, P. Simmerman.

HR: CP — E. Dudenhoeffer, Thomas, Moore.

PITCHING

(IP-H-R-ER-SO-BB) Cp — M. Simmerman WP 6-6-1-1-8-1, Moore .2-1-0-0-0-0; M — Kightlinger LP 3.1-10-12-8-3-2, R. Kregel 3.2-4-3-3-4-2.

Trevor Teubner can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at trevor@meadvilletribune.com.