Abington Heights continued its pursuit of a possible Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 5A softball championship Thursday when Avary Brister pounded out three of the 14 hits the Lady Comets used to battle past West Chester East 9-5 in a state quarterfinal.
The Lady Comets posted the win at Patriots Park in Allentown, the site of their Monday 1 p.m. state semifinal against Upper Dublin. A win there Monday would put Abington Heights in Thursday’s state final.
Brister doubled, scored twice and drove in a run as part of an attack where all but the No. 9 batter had hits.
Winning pitcher Adrianna Condrad had two doubles.
Riley McColligan, Eva Kane and Ella Long also had two hits. McColligan and Kane scored twice. McColligan and Brianna Bustos drove in two runs each.
Isabella DeRiggi had a double.
Condrad struck out 11 while yielding 11 hits, three walks and four earned runs.
West Chester East scored twice in the top of the first, and Abington Heights answered with a run in the bottom of the inning.
The Lady Comets did not move ahead until scoring four times in the third inning. They followed with four more runs in the fourth for a 9-3 lead.
Bustos delivered a two-run single through the middle for the tying and go-ahead runs.
Brister doubled in a run in the fifth and was one of two players to score on McColligan’s line drive to center field.
Upper Dublin put two runners on base in the sixth inning, then loaded the bases in the seventh to bring the tying run to the plate with one out.
Condrad got a strikeout, and Bustos caught a line drive in left field to end the game.
