Agape Freedom Sports LLC

WRITTEN BY: JERIC YURKANIN

On a Saturday when, once again, most of the area’s softball games were wiped out by Mother Nature, Abington Heights finally got its chance.

For the second Saturday in a row, winter reached down and disrupted the schedule, refusing to loosen its grip. From December through February in northeastern Pennsylvania, snow covered the ground for what felt like forever, and even now, spring still seems like it is fighting to fully arrive.

But no postponement was coming for the Lady Comets.

In Clarks Summit, Abington Heights loaded up and made the trip down Interstate 84, then 380, then Route 33, heading toward Emmaus for what would finally become its regular-season opener.

And what an opener it turned out to be.

This was not one of those soft, sunny spring softball afternoons. By the time the game pushed into extra innings around 2 p.m., temperatures were sitting in the low 40s. It was cold. The kind of cold where coaches stayed wrapped in sweatshirts and coats, where hands sting a little more, where every inning feels longer, and where toughness starts to matter just as much as talent.

But if there was one thing Abington Heights showed on Saturday, it was this:

These Lady Comets love softball.

They love to compete.

They love being together.

And they love having each other’s backs.

You could feel it as the innings kept piling up.

In extra innings, the Abington Heights dugout never faded. Every hitter who stepped to the plate had a full team behind her. Every at-bat was met with belief. Every moment was met with energy. This was not a team just hoping to get the game over with and head home out of the cold.

No.

They wanted to win first.

They wanted to finish the job. They wanted to keep fighting for each other. And that is exactly what they did.

Because games like this are never won by one player alone. It takes a full team. It takes belief. It takes grit. It takes players willing to keep grinding inning after inning when the cold settles in and fatigue starts talking.

That is what Abington Heights did Saturday.

It took 11 innings.

It took toughness.

It took patience.

And it took a full-team effort.

When it was all over, the Lady Comets walked away with a hard-earned 7-4 victory.

Leading the charge was Adrianna Conrad, who delivered both in the circle and at the plate. She was the winning pitcher and the team’s top hitter on the day, putting together the kind of performance that can shape an opener and set a tone for the season.

But if you ask Conrad, she will not make it about herself.

Because she knows what days like this really take.

She knows it takes defenders behind her. She knows it takes hitters before and after her in the lineup. She knows it takes teammates staying engaged in the dugout and coaches helping guide the moment. She is humble, quick to credit others, and quick to point toward the team around her.

That is what good athletes do.

That is what leaders do.

By the time Conrad’s day was finished, she had thrown 186 pitches and recorded a career-high 17 strikeouts before Brianna Bustos came on in the bottom of the 11th to close the door.

And even there, the story stayed the same.

Bustos finished the job with two strikeouts, while the final out came on a pop-up to second base, sealing the win and closing out a long, cold, hard-fought afternoon.

And Conrad was quick to credit her teammate for stepping in and helping bring it home.

Because that is what this game was all about.

Not just surviving the cold.

Not just lasting 11 innings.

Not just finally playing the first regular-season game of the year.

This was about teammates believing in each other, fighting for each other, and refusing to let the moment slip away.

So let’s hit the rewind button.

Because games like this deserve to be felt all over again.

From the first pitch to the final out.

Top 1st — feeling each other out.

Emmaus came out sharp on defense, holding Abington Heights scoreless despite some early traffic.

Eva Kane struck out.

Avary Brister grounded out.

Then a spark.

Adrianna Conrad ripped a single.

Isabella DeRiggi followed with a single to right, pushing Conrad to third.

You could feel something building early.

But Emmaus slammed the door.

Riley McColligan struck out. Three outs.

Bottom 1st — Emmaus strikes first.

Sydney Bennett stepped up and sent one deep to center for a triple.

Moments later, Abigail Derr lifted a sacrifice fly.

Bennett tagged. Scored.

Just like that, Emmaus led 1-0.

Top 2nd — nothing easy.

Abington Heights could not break through, managing just a Brianna Bustos single.

Cold bats. Cold air.

Bottom 2nd — defense responds.

Haleigh Gigliotti worked a walk.

But the Lady Comets answered with a double play.

Momentum shift.

A strikeout followed.

Three outs.

Top 3rd — here comes Abington.

You can only hold this lineup down for so long.

Eva Kane started it with a double to left.

Avary Brister followed with another double.

Kane scored.

1-1.

Then Adrianna Conrad stepped in again.

Single.

Brister scored.

2-1, Abington Heights.

Just like that, the dugout came alive.

Bottom 3rd — Emmaus answers.

Back-and-forth.

Emmaus tied it at 2-2.

Top 4th — quick inning.

Three up. Three down.

Bottom 4th — Emmaus takes it back.

Another run.

3-2, Emmaus.

Top 5th — chaos and execution.

Avary Brister singled to center.

Then things got aggressive.

A wild pitch.

She took second.

Adrianna Conrad put the ball in play.

Brister never stopped.

She broke for home.

Safe.

Tie game again.

3-3.

From there, the game turned into a battle.

Not just against each other.

But against time, fatigue, and the cold.

Innings 6 through 9 — nothing.

Zeros across the board.

Pitchers locked in.

Defenses sharp.

Every pitch mattered more.

Every swing carried more weight.

“Having the game extend more and more was a little more nerve-racking, but at the same time it made the game very interesting and kept everyone on their toes. I definitely think my teammates really kept me locked in pitch after pitch, knowing that they were behind me and making amazing plays,” said Abington Heights pitcher Adrianna Conrad.

She continued: “You definitely need to feel in control or have the confidence to know that you are going to find those runs or the outs somewhere else if it’s not happening right now in those extra innings and high-pressure situations. I definitely know in the circle it’s very easy to lose momentum after a hit, but also as a pitcher you have to know that’s part of the game and that you have the defense behind you to back you up and it’s not all on you. I know me and a lot of the other girls really kept our momentum up in the dugout to help us stay focused throughout those innings.”

Top 10 — extra innings begin.

Runner placed on second.

Tension everywhere.

Conrad put the ball in play for an out, but Brister advanced to third.

Then Isabella DeRiggi stepped in.

Ground ball.

Fielder’s choice.

Brister crossed the plate.

4-3, Abington Heights.

Bottom 10 — Emmaus refuses to fold.

They answered.

Tie game.

4-4.

You could feel it.

This one was not done yet.

Top 11 — the breakthrough.

Judith Riff started on second.

Brianna Bustos walked.

Avary Venesky walked.

Bases filling. Pressure building.

Then came the break.

A wild pitch.

Riff broke.

Scored.

5-4.

Then Eva Kane grounded out.

But Bustos scored.

6-4.

Then Brister grounded out.

But Venesky came home.

7-4.

Three runs.

No quit.

Full execution.

Bottom 11 — finish the job.

Brianna Bustos stepped into the circle.

Two strikeouts.

Then the final moment.

A pop-up to second base.

Caught.

Ballgame.

“I think today helped to show what we can produce from start to finish and not let up. I think this helped give us a really good idea of our approach as we face Valley View this week,” stated Conrad.

Conrad shared more: “I think everyone really showed up in that last inning, especially when we started to get some of our dual-roster and JV girls back in our dugout. You could definitely feel the momentum shift, and I think everyone really focused in. And a great job to our center fielder for coming in for relief in the last inning — she held them amazingly, and it’s great to know we have a great staff for any given game and situation.”

Three hours of softball.

Cold air.

Extra innings.

Full fight.

And when that final pop-up settled into a glove at second base, it was more than just the last out of a game.

It was the release of three hours of tension.

It was the reward for 11 innings of grit.

It was the sound of a team refusing to break.

On a day filled with cold air, long innings, tired legs, and pressure that kept building pitch after pitch, Abington Heights never blinked. The Lady Comets kept fighting, kept believing, and kept answering every challenge the game threw at them.

That is what made this opener feel different.

This was not just about starting the season with a win.

This was about toughness.

About trust.

About teammates pulling each other through the hard moments.

About a dugout that never went quiet and a team that never stopped believing the next big moment would belong to them.

And in the end, it did.

So while winter may still be hanging around, Abington Heights gave a reminder Saturday that softball season has officially arrived.

And if this opener was any sign of what is ahead, the Lady Comets are not just stepping into the season.

They are charging into it.

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