Dallas’ furious comeback comes up short in the District 2 Class 3A quarterfinal

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ARCHBALD &#8212; Joyce Tinner was out of the dugout immediately after the game&#8217;s biggest hit Wednesday afternoon.A half hour later, the Dallas softball coach&#8217;s opinion of what had transpired in the bottom of the fifth inning had not changed.&#8220;It&#8217;s just terrible to lose the game because of a call that wasn&#8217;t even a good call,&#8221; Tinner said after Valley View&#8217;s Jen Nguyen doubled in two runs and scored the other to lead the top-seeded Cougars past the visiting Mountaineers, 3-2, in a District 2 Class 3A quarterfinal game.Nguyen&#8217;s shot down the third-base line wound up in foul territory while Holly Young and Clare Sebastianelli raced home with the runs that broke a scoreless tie with two out in the bottom of the fifth.When she confronted home plate umpire Tony Cerminaro, Tinner said Cerminaro told her the ball went off the glove of Dallas third baseman Kylee Saba.&#8220;It didn&#8217;t even touch her glove,&#8221; Tinner said. &#8220;He had such a delayed response.&#8220; &#8230; I saw it. It wasn&#8217;t even close.&#8221;The play unfolded in front of Valley View coach E.J. Weston, who was coaching third base at the time.&#8220;I saw it was hit hard down the third-base line and I saw the third baseman attempting at it, but other than that, I&#8217;m not sure what happened,&#8221; Weston said. &#8220;It was close.&#8220;My job at that point is to get my runners to continue to run and score. The umpire said it was fair.&#8221;Dallas wound up out-hitting Valley View, 10-5, with the help of six hits in the final two innings. The Mountaineers scored twice in the sixth inning and loaded the bases in the seventh before Nicole Fata got a strike out to finish the game for the Cougars.&#8220;We played to the end,&#8221; Tinner said. &#8220;In my opinion, we won the game, 2-1, but unfortunately nobody knows that.&#8221;In the emotional moments after Nguyen&#8217;s two-run double, the Mountaineers committed their only error and threw their only wild pitch. Valley View added a third run and put another runner in scoring position before Dallas escaped and mounted a comeback attempt.Kelly Snyder and Maddie Perez singled with one out in the sixth. Sam LaNunziata, Snyder&#8217;s courtesy runner, and Perez scored.Amy Bolton beat out a two-out infield single to drive in the second run.Dallas again put together back-to-back, one-out hits in the seventh, this time by Saba and Sydney Kern.Perez bunted for her third hit to load the bases with two out, but the Mountaineers could not get the one more hit they needed.&#8220;That&#8217;s the way we&#8217;ve been all year,&#8221; Tinner said. &#8220;We never give up.&#8220;They fight to the last out.&#8221;With the game still scoreless, Dallas stranded runners in scoring position in the second, third and fifth innings.Valley View, which reached the district semifinal for the 10th straight year, threatened in the fourth, but back-to-back plays by Saba at third base left a runner stranded at third.The Cougars will host Nanticoke in Friday&#8217;s district semifinals.DISTRICT 2 CLASS 3AValley View 3, Dallas 2Dallas 000 002 0 &#8211; 2Valley View 000 030 x &#8211; 3Pitching &#8212; LP, Maddie Kelley 6 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 SO; WP, Nicole Fata 7 IP, 10 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO.2B &#8212; VV, Jen Nguyen, Olivia Muchal.Top hitters &#8212; D, Maddie Perez 3-4, run; Amy Bolton 2-3, RBI; Kylee Saba 2-4. VV, Nguyen 1-3, run, 2 RBI.