LAURELDALE -- Upper Dauphin entered the District 3 Class AA playoffs with a huge chip on its shoulder.
Following his team's upset win over Kutztown in the semifinals, veteran Upper Dauphin coach Rich Keeney stated that he was tired of people cutting his team down, telling him the Trojans would get thumped after making the move up from Class A after dominating those playoffs for the past five years.
Keeney went on to say that although he didn't know how far the Trojans will advance, he knew that his team wouldn't get thumped. In Saturday's Class AA championship game Upper Dauphin went toe-to-toe with the best team in the district in Brandywine Heights and the Trojans played even for seven innings.
However, the Bullets proved to be a little too much for the Trojans.
An inside-the-park home run and a masterful pitching performance by Alyssa Fegely paved the way for Brandywine Heights' 2-0 win at Muhlenberg High School. It is the third consecutive district title for the Bullets.
"Brandywine Heights is a good team and they've scored a lot of runs this year and we held them down, so our kids played a heck of a game," Keeney said. "We're one kid over Class A, so we're probably the smallest school in the Class AA competition, but I think our kids played like AA kids."
Despite the loss, sixth-seeded Upper Dauphin (19-5) advances to the state tournament and plays District 4 champ Central Columbia in a first-round game on Monday at 4 p.m. at Williamsport's Elm Park.
Top-seeded Brandywine (24-0), which has posted 18 shutouts and given up less than 10 runs total in 24 games, will play D-4 runner-up Mifflinburg at Lyons Field in Fleetwood, also on Monday.
"How many teams wish they could get a silver medal?" Keeney said. "But my girls were thinking higher than that. They were disappointed (with the loss), but I told them I'm proud of them and that they played a heck of a game against a good team."
"It was a good day, and the game was basically what we expected," said Brandywine coach Don Roach. "We expected a good game from Upper Dauphin. How many times have they been district champs? Five times, so they had something going for them, and their pitcher was tough. I wouldn't want to have a steady diet of her, but we were able to handle her."
While Fegely was working on her complete-game, two-hit shutout, the 17th time she's shut out a team this season, her inside-the-park homer in the fifth inning gave Brandywine an insurmountable 2-0 lead after Jenn Dalickas hit an RBI single in the third for the Bullets' first run.
Fegely's homer off a 1-1 pitch was hit to the deepest part of the field in right-center, and it split the coverage of Upper Dauphin outfielders Karyn Ligon and Brooke Snyder.
By the time Snyder got the ball back to the infield Fegely was rounding third and she scored easily as the relay throw late to the plate.
"(Fegely) can go. That kid can run," Keeney said. "We were expecting her to hit it there, but we just weren't in the right place. We weren't there when we should've been."
" She's just a very good hitter. She's a very good athlete," Roach said. "That was just Alyssa being Alyssa. She did her thing."
Fegely, who finished with seven strikeouts and threw just 79 pitches in the game, ran into trouble only once when Upper Dauphin put two runners on in the fourth.
A one-out single by Kylie Schrey and then a two-out single by Lindsey Brown put runners on first and second. But Fegely got Sarah Dietrich to fly out to left on a shoestring catch by Katrina Hughes.
The catch by Hughes was the story of the game for Upper Dauphin. The Trojans had trouble finding open spaces in the outfield against Brandywine.
"(Fegely) is a good pitcher. We got on her a little bit, but we couldn't get anything solid," Keeney said. "If a couple of our hits were line shots it would've been a different story. But she pitched well, and she hit well.
"We were getting to (Fegely), and we felt we could do it," added Keeney. "But we weren't getting anything where we needed it. A couple of breaks here and there and maybe we could've (won the game)."
Dietrich also went the distance in the circle for Upper Dauphin despite being hampered by short rest and a headache. She struck out seven as well, and she gave up three walks and four hits.
"We were concerned with Sarah going two nights in a row, and she really wasn't as sharp as she normally is," Keeney said. "She came into the game with a headache.
"We didn't score, so it doesn't matter. You have to score to win," added the Trojans' coach.
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