STATE COLLEGE - Valley View coach E.J. Weston reminded his team of one thing through the first 19 games of the season. Find a way to win.
The Cougars once again did just that.
Scoring four runs in the top of the first inning without the aid of a base hit, Valley View capped a perfect season with a 5-0 win over Fort LeBoeuf, claiming the school's second state softball championship in the Class AAA final Friday at Penn State's Beard Field.
Valley View won the PIAA Class AA title in 2000.
"It's surreal. I can't believe it," Weston said. " I had so many people saying we were going to get back here. People who think it is easy are absolutely incorrect. To come back after that loss last year, and fight and get here and win it, it just talks about the character of our kids."
Memories of last season's 2-1 loss in the championship game didn't haunt Valley View. It motivated them.
"Credit to these kids," Weston said. "They stayed the course. They stayed resilient."
And they remained true to what got them here: giving pitcher Gina Chieffallo an early led and letting her take command.
The Cougars pushed across four runs in the first before a ball left the infield, upping their impressive first-inning scoring edge to 30-3 for the season.
"It was huge," Weston said. "Any time you score four runs in a big game like this, it definitely allows your pitcher to pitch with more confidence, that's for sure."
Valley View, which trailed after just four innings this season, wasted little time putting the Bison in a deep hole.
Experienced and patient from their state final appearance a year ago, leadoff hitter Blayse Cholish worked a four-pitch walk off Amanda Krolczyk.
"That first at bat, it was definitely a little nerve-racking," Cholish said. "But I kept my focus and I kept my head. I knew exactly what I had to do for my team and that was get on base so we could capitalize on that and jump on them early.
"You have to be really selective in games like this. We've been in this position before. We know how it feels. It was definitely a little easier for us."
Nerves got the best of Fort LeBoeuf pitcher Amanda Krolczyk, who continued to struggle with the strike zone and walked Casey Pearce. After a wild pitch, Clare Sebastianelli bounced to Krolczyk, but her try to nail Cholish at third was too late.
Slugging catcher Anna McElroy extended her streak of playoff games with an RBI to seven when she was hit in the left elbow by Krolczyk's first pitch.
"Of course I would have loved a two-run double, but getting hit with the ball was just as good," McElroy said. "It got the run in. First pitch, I got hit, I felt like I did what I had to do. Take one for the team. As long as I have gold, it's fine."
Alex Wiltz's RBI grounder to short was bobbled to keep the bases loaded, and Gina Coccetti's roller to first plated another run to make it 3-0.
Kelly Mecca drove in a run with a bouncer to short as courtesy runner Jordan Seprosky beat Allania Banta's throw to the plate.
"We work hard on the fundamentals of the game and we preach to be ultra-aggressive on the bases," Weston said. "It was nice we were able to take advantage."
Emma Thomson was the second batter of the inning to be hit by a pitch, reloading them for Cholish, who lined a bullet to center to end the frame as 10 Cougars batted.
"You've just got to play hard and find a way and I think we did that the first inning," Weston said.
At that point, the game was in Chieffallo's capable hands.
She got out of a jam in the second with two runners in scoring position and one out, recording one of her 11 strikeouts.
"I really think they were falling for the riseball in the beginning of the count," McElroy said. "And when she'd go inside and jam them, they wouldn't know what to do so they didn't swing.
"Gina came through huge for us."
Valley View's offense was quiet until the sixth when Sebastianelli roped a two-out triple into the right-center field gap, plating Cholish, who singled sharply off the bag at second.
Fort LeBoeuf had one last shot, loading the bases on two singles and a walk in the sixth. With two outs, Kellie Brown, who had singled and walked, battled Chieffallo for 11 pitches before grounding out to Cholish, whose throw beat her by a step to preserve the shutout.
"That was tough," Chiefallo said. "She made contact, protected the plate and it was a battle. That was a momentum stopper. You have to be confident in yourself. I looked around at the other eight girls on the field and I said I needed to get the job done.
"It feels amazing and I couldn't be happier. It's a great way to end my season and my career, and a great way to send off our seniors."
With the celebration just three outs away, Chieffallo struck out the first two hitters before Banta singled. But when Casey Pearce squeezed Kelsey Kuzma's foul pop to third, the Cougars had redemption from a year ago.
"It feels like just yesterday I was getting interviewed for last year's game and the bus ride home was awful," McElroy said. "It's unbelievable to get a second chance like this. We did it. We came through."
Contact the writer: mmyers@timesshamrock.com @mmyersTT on Twitter
Valley View Fort LeBoeuf
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Cholish ss 3 2 1 0 Banta ss 4 0 1 0
Pearce 3b 3 1 1 0 Kuzma c 4 0 2 0
Sbastianelli of 4 1 1 1 Young 1b 3 0 0 0
McElroy c 3 1 0 1 Krolczyk p 3 0 1 0
Wiltz 1b 4 0 1 1 Carroll cf 1 0 0 0
Coccetti rf 3 0 0 1 Luke 3b 3 0 0 0
Mecca 2b 4 0 0 1 Brown 2b 2 0 1 0
Wjcchwski dp 3 0 1 0 Cros pr 0 0 0 0
Jones ph 1 0 0 0 Oldach dp 3 0 0 0
Thomson cf 2 0 1 0 Pace lf 3 0 0 0
Chieffallo p 0 0 0 0 Stempka rf 0 0 0 0
Totals 30 5 6 5 Totals 26 0 5 0
Valley View 400 001 0 - 5
Fort LeBoeuf 000 000 0 - 0
3B: Clare Sebastianelli (VV).
Valley View IP H R ER BB SO
Chieffallo, WP 7 5 0 0 2 11
Fort LeBoeuf IP H R ER BB SO
Krolczyk, LP 7 6 5 5 2 2