TUNKHANNOCK — In her first game against the Tunkhannock lineup this year, Pittston Area ace Gianna Adams had a no-hit, 15 strikeout performance that would have been pretty hard to top.
But Adams may have saved her best work for the rematch.
The Patriots ace struck out a remarkable 20 batters — including the first 17 Tigers she faced — and allowed just one hit as Pittston Area pulled two games clear of the field in Division 1 with a 3-0 victory over Tunkhannock on Wednesday.
“It does feel special, it’s always great to play Tunkhannock,” Adams said. “It’s a rivalry we’ve had for years, they’re a great team.”
“Special” was a good word to describe what Adams was able to do on Wednesday against Tunkhannock. She made it through 5.2 innings and struck out 17 batters before a ball was put into play, an infield single to shortstop from Tunkhannock’s Lucy Karp.
Karp was able to advance to third after an error on a sharp grounder from Erin Van Ness, but Adams was able to get the final out of the sixth inning with some heads-up defense on an attempted bunt.
Adams came back out in the seventh and struck out the side for the sixth time in seven innings, bringing her strikeout total to an even 20 — and leading her Patriots to another big win over a very talented Tunkhannock squad.
“She’s different, we all know that,” Pittston Area coach Frank Parente said of Adams. “She’s been sick, she wasn’t herself all last week. … Today, the very first pitch I knew, I knew she was good.”
Adams was also at the forefront of a big first inning for the Pittston Area bats, leading off the game with a base hit.
Unlike these two teams’ first meeting, where the runs didn’t come until late, Pittston Area pushed three runs across in the first off Tunkhannock pitcher McKenzie Hannon.
After Adams reached to start, an error put runners on first and second for cleanup hitter Marina Antal. Antal roped one into right field to score pinch-runner Taylor Stephenson and give Pittston the lead.
Two batters later, Gabby Gorzkowski launched a two-strike pitch out to the fence in left field for a double, scoring both Antal and Gabby Roman to make it a 3-0 Patriot lead.
“I was down in the count. … I didn’t know where she (Hannon) was going,” Gorzkowski said. “When I saw that pitch, I knew I had to protect and just went with it.”
The three runs were all Pittston could muster, as Hannon settled down and found her groove as the game went on. She allowed just five hits and struck out eight in a complete-game performance.
But with Adams on the mound, a 3-0 lead felt like double digits as the Tigers were overmatched at the plate all afternoon.
Adams threw 74 of her 93 pitches for strikes, and only went to a full count on one batter out of 23 faced.
Pittston Area remains undefeated in Division 1 with the win, and have now opened up a two-game lead on the rest of the division with just a handful games left in the regular season.
Pittston Area 3, Tunkhannock 0
Pittston Area`AB`R`H`BI
Adams p`4`0`1`0
Ta. Stephenson pr`0`1`0`0
Roman rf`2`1`0`0
Mehal dp`3`0`0`0
Antal lf`4`1`1`1
Herbert ss`4`0`1`0
Gorzkowski 1b`3`0`1`2
To. Stephenson 3b`2`0`0`0
Long 2b`3`0`0`0
Hintze cf`2`0`1`0
Cocco c`0`0`0`0
Totals`27`3`5`3
Tunkhannock`AB`R`H`BI
Van Ness 3b`3`0`0`0
Kulsicavage cf`3`0`0`0
Hannon p`3`0`0`0
Patton ss`3`0`0`0
Waterman 2b`3`0`0`0
Bamberger 1b`2`0`0`0
Kinney lf`2`0`0`0
Bevan c`2`0`0`0
Karp rf`2`0`1`0
Totals`23`0`1`0
Pittston Area`300`000`0 — 3
Tunkhannock`000`000`0 — 0
2B — Gorzkowski.
Pittston Area`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Adams (W)`7`1`0`0`0`20
Lake-Lehman`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Hannon (L)`7`5`3`0`3`8
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