Forget about past accomplishments or future ambitions.
The Berks Catholic softball team is locked in the moment each time it steps on the field this season. The Saints showed their focus Wednesday with a 10-2 road victory over Berks IV leader Wyomissing.
Dani Hayward struck out 17 and Giana Mirenda drove in five runs to help the defending Berks Softball League champion Saints down the Spartans in their annual backyard rivalry.
“We know that we did it last year but it’s a new team mostly with a lot of young girls,” Hayward said. “We’re all just working together and doing what we can to win that game that we’re playing at the moment.”
Before Hayward entered the circle, Mirenda singled, stole second and scored on a single by Julia Schaffer to stake the Saints (4-1 Berks III, 7-1) to a lead against the Spartans (3-2 Berks IV, 6-5).
Hayward took over from there.
“It helps a lot,” Hayward said about the early lead. “You have a lot less pressure on you. We know that we have to work together as a team and trust each other.”
There was plenty of offensive trust to go around. In addition to driving in five runs, Mirenda scored a pair of runs. She hit a two-run single and scored on a two-run double by Schaffer in a five-run sixth inning that broke open a close game.
The Saints finished with 12 hits off two Wyomissing pitchers with Marli Emerick going 4-for-4 with an RBI and Schaffer going 2-for-3 with three RBIs.
“Everybody’s putting the bat on the ball,” said Saints first-year head coach John Gleason. “I like to call it quiet confidence. They’re just locked in right now. It’s awesome to see.”
Wyomissing managed just three hits, highlighted by Ellie George’s two-run single in the fifth inning and a booming double by Kyla Lytle. George’s hit trimmed Berks Catholic’s lead to 4-2 before the Saints’ sixth-inning surge.
George also made a shoestring catch of a blooper in right field to help Wyomissing escape a bases-loaded jam in the third inning. Because of that play and others, Wyomissing coach Jim Campbell remained upbeat after a second straight loss slowed Wyomissing’s quest for its first county playoff berth since 1995.
“We played very well,” Campbell said. “We had one bad inning against a good team.
“We’re still in the thick of things. I think we’re in a good place.”
