PIAA SOFTBALL: Call near-perfect in Valley View’s win in Class 4A quarters (original) (raw)

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Valley View’s Cora Castellani (34) hits an rbi double in the PIAA softball quarterfinal matchup in Allentown on Thursday, June 4, 2026. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

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ALLENTOWN — Twice during the PIAA Class 4A softball quarterfinal, Abbi Call had her coach Mia Wascura and the Valley View faithful holding their collective breath.

First time came when she pulled up limping following a leadoff single in the top of the fourth inning. Second time was when Archbishop Carroll had the tying runs on base and no outs in the bottom of the seventh.

On both occasions, Call provided a sigh of relief.

A near-perfect performance by the Clemson-bound senior pitcher enabled the District 2 champion Cougars to blank the District 12 champion Lady Patriots, 2-0, on a warm, sunny Thursday at Patriots Park.

Call did not allow a base runner for the first six innings. She lost the perfect game when the leadoff batter in the Archbishop Carroll seventh reached on an error and the no-hit bid when the next batter doubled. But she responded by striking out the next three batters to finish the game with 14.

“I was next to our school principal Larry Pegula and he said, ‘Mia, relax, don’t fret. She’s laser-focused. She’s on some other level,’” Wascura said. “To look at her, see her so composed and not worry, that’s the kind of Abbi we need. That’s the Abbi that’s going to propel us and move us forward.”

Zoie Krupovich had three hits, Nevaeh Evans added two and Cora Castellani smacked an RBI double as Valley View (22-3) notched its 10th straight win. The defending state champion advances to Monday’s semifinals against District 1 champion Pope John Paul II (14-9) at Lehighton Area High School at 1:30 p.m. Pope John Paul II edged District 11 champ Blue Mountain, 2-1, in its quarterfinal Thursday.

Also, the Cougars posted their eighth consecutive shutout. They have not allowed a run since the bottom of the fifth inning May 5 against Scranton Prep — a span of 52 innings.

Scoreless after three innings, Call led off the top of the fourth with a single. As she rounded first base, she rolled her foot and she began to hobble. The trainer came out to check on her and, after a few minutes, she limped across the diamond to the Valley View dugout on the third-base side. Courtesy runner Grace Munley replaced her.

“I was rounding first base and my foot kind of slipped off the base and I popped it,” Call said. “It scared me a little bit, but it was all right. I told coach Justin (Stevens) I was staying in.

“It was my landing foot (for pitching). It was hurting me pretty bad, but I knew that I had to finish strong and come up from the bottom. I just pushed myself through and as soon as I get on the bus, I’m going to ice it.”

While Call was being worked on in the dugout, the Cougars went to work scoring the game’s first run.

With one out, Krupovich singled, sending Munley to second. Ashlan Palickar then hit a ground ball to the shortstop, whose throw to third trying to get the force on Munley was wild and Munley came around to score and make it 1-0.

Evans opened the top of the fifth with a single and was sacrificed to second by Ella Swingle. Castellani then roped a double to left-center field to score Evans and give the Cougars a 2-0 lead.

Valley View had the leadoff batter reach in the sixth inning and put the first two batters aboard in the seventh. However, the Cougars didn’t score any more runs.

“Silly baserunning. Things we feel like we don’t always have to go over in practice. It’s those little things, though, that win games,” Wascura said. “We’ve got to tidy up on that. Have to. We have to have better approaches, have to know counts. We have to be better batters.”

Archbishop Carroll pitcher Liv Zanetich deserved some credit as she did a nice job of limiting the Cougars lineup. Valley View left eight runners on base.

Krupovich said Zanetich had a good rise ball.

“That rise ball is always going to get some of us. It gets me sometimes,” Krupovich said. “I was just seeing the ball really well today. There was no pitch they were going to throw to me that I was going to miss. That was my mindset today.”

Two runs, though, would be more that enough for Call.

She retired the first 18 Lady Patriots on 11 strikeouts, six groundouts and a popout to first.

To begin the bottom of the seventh, however, Emily Russ hit a ground ball to second, but the throw to first pulled the first baseman off the bag for an error, spoiling the perfect game. The next batter, Camryn Hannon, broke up the no-hitter by hitting a ball into left-center field for a double that put runners at second and third.

But Call bore down and struck out the next three batters — the last two looking — to end the game and send the Cougars to the semifinals.

“It happens. It’s a sport of failure. Everyone is going to make mistakes once in a while,” said Call, who claimed she didn’t know she was working on a perfect game. “I think we did good, stayed strong and came back from that. I just told myself to get the job done. We knew we had this, but we knew it was going to be a hard game. Being able to trust my defense behind me and come together at the end really felt good.”

Now, Valley View is one win away from returning to Penn State and a chance to defend its state title.

“There’s things we need to work on. We didn’t play a perfect game,” Wascura said. “But we played well enough to win and that’s what matters. We know the kinks we need to fix. That will be taken care of this weekend.”