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Luzerne County coroner identifies slain prison guard, cause of death

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KINGSTON &#8212; Confidence and continuity. Two things that can separate teams battling for division titles in the final week and those just getting ready for the District 2 softball playoffs.Wyoming Valley West had a little bit more of both Monday, defeating Pittston Area 6-1 in a Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 game.Pittston Area (4-10) and Valley West (4-9) entered the game in similar situations. Pittston Area had lost five games by one run, including four against teams battling for divisional championships. Valley West lost three by a single run, two against divisional contenders.&#8220;You could see today we were consistent. Everybody was hitting,&#8221; Valley West interim head coach Kristin Ermak said. &#8220;We said before the game don&#8217;t have that one bad inning. Let&#8217;s be the team that makes the other team have that one bad inning. And we took advantage of their errors and played from start to finish.&#8221;That one bad inning was the third, and Pittston Area was on the wrong end of it. A throwing error, a dropped third strike and some wild pitches allowed Valley West to take a 4-1 lead. Morgan Klosko had an RBI single for the Spartans in the inning, their only hit in the frame.&#8220;We&#8217;re not mentally tough,&#8221; Pittston Area coach Vito Qualgia said. &#8220;And the first time we have an error, we&#8217;re not at the point where we could overcome it. They&#8217;re waiting for the next shoe to fall. They have to get over that. They have to teach themselves how to win.&#8221;More problems cropped up for Pittston Area in the fifth. Valley West&#8217;s Audi Welles hit a one-out single and Colleen Cwalina followed by reaching on a throw error on a routine grounder. And out later, Sarah Fugute made it 6-1 with a double.Pittston Area made little noise at the plate over the final three innings, with Taryn Ashby&#8217;s single to left the only base hit. Ashby finished with two hits. Abbey Bradigan drove in the Patriots&#8217; only run in the first when she followed Taylor Baloga&#8217;s double with one of her own.Valley West scored its first run when Sabrina Hamersley walked in the first inning and eventually scored on Welles&#8217; single to right.&#8220;We&#8217;re working hard everyday and there are always things we can improve on,&#8221; Ermak said. &#8220;Everyday we try to pick out the things we can improve on and we look at our strengths and build those up as well.&#8221;Berwick 10, Coughlin 0 (6 inn.)Shea Petty and Moriah Lynn each drove in two runs as Berwick defeated Coughlin.Petty finished with three hits. Samantha Starr added two, while Lynn picked up the win in the circle.Berwick (10-3 Div. 1) needs to defeat visiting Wyoming Valley West today to stay alive for the Division 1 title. The Dawgs close their regular season Friday against visiting first-place Hazleton Area (12-2 Div. 1).Hazleton Area 3, Crestwood 2Megan Trivelpiece&#8217;s one-out single in the bottom of the eighth scored sister Maria to edge the Comets in extras. Mikaela Browdy (triple, home run) and Megan Trivelpiece had three hits apiece while Samantha Varela pitched all eight innings for the win.Crestwood got a two-run homer from Colleen Borum, who also went the distance in the circle.Dallas 1, Lake-Lehman 0A bobble on a hard-hit grounder by Sydney Kern allowed Talia Szatkowski to score the game&#8217;s only run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Szatkowski and Kylee Saba (2-4, double) both singled to start the rally for Dallas.Maddie Kelley struck out seven in a four-hit shutout. Abbey Hogan had eight strikeouts for the Black Knights.Holy Redeemer 12, MMI Prep 2Kristen Coffay went the distance and struck out seven for the Royals. Morgan Bienkowski, Britney Hebda, Olivia Mennig, Abbey Shorts and Samantha Rajza all had two hits apiece.Desiree Dinko struck out four for the Preppers.Wyo. Valley West 6, Pittston Area 1Pitt Area`AB`R`H`BIAshby ss`4`0`2`0Lieback cf`4`0`0`0Baloga p`3`1`1`0Bradigan 3b`3`0`2`1Cencetti 1b`3`0`0`0Dragon c`3`0`1`0Silinskie rf`3`0`1`0Cappelloni dp`3`0`0`0Domalsky lf`3`0`0`0Quaglia 2b`0`0`0`0Totals`29`1`7`1WVW`AB`R`H`BIHamersley lf`3`1`0`0Kane 1b`3`0`0`0Belles ss`2`1`0`0Welles c`2`0`2`1Gibbons cr`0`1`0`0Cwalina dp`3`2`0`0Klosko 3b`2`0`1`1Fugate cf`3`0`1`2Vargo rf`3`0`0`0Boler 2b`3`0`1`0Ruckle p`0`0`0`0Totals`24`6`5`4Pittston Area`100`000`0`&#8212;`1Wyo Val West`103`020`x`&#8212;`62B &#8212; Baloga, Bradigan, Fugtate.Pittston Area`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SOBaloga (L)`3`2`4`1`3`2Cencetti`3`3`2`0`0`3WVW`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SORuckle (W)`7`7`1`1`0`2Hazleton Area 3, Crestwood 2Crestwood`000`020`00`&#8212;`2Hazleton`001`010`01`&#8212;`3Pitching &#8212; WP: Samantha Varela 8.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K; LP: Colleen Borum 7.1 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 1 K3B &#8212; HAZ, Mikaela Browdy, Varela; HR &#8212; CRE, Borum; HAZ, BrowdyTop hitters &#8212; CRE, Sarah Macko 3-4; HAZ, Megan Trivelpiece 3-4, RBI; Browdy 3-3, 2 R, RBIDallas 1, Lake-Lehman 0Lake-Lehman`000`000`0`&#8212;`0Dallas`000`000`1`&#8212;`1Pitching &#8212; WP: Maddie Kelley 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K; LP: Abbey Hogan 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K2B &#8212; DAL, Kylee SabaTop hitters &#8212; DAL, Saba 2-4Holy Redeemer 12, MMI Prep 2Redeemer`230`312`1`&#8212;`12MMI Prep`000`002`0`&#8212;`2Pitching &#8212; WP: Kristen Coffay 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K; LP: Desiree Dinko 7.0 IP, 14 H, 12 R, 8 ER, 0 BB, 4 KTop hitters &#8212; WVW, Morgan Bienkowski 2 H; Britney Hebda 2 H; Olivia Mennig 2H; Abbey Shorts 2 H; Samantha Rajza 2 H

Wyoming Valley West softball makes most of chances to top Pittston Area