Over the center-field fence.
That is how the 2026 BCIAA softball championship began as junior Jade Fitzgerald launched a leadoff home run to deep center field, helping Kutztown defeat Wilson 11-8 at Lyons Field on Thursday night to secure back-to-back county championships.
“It feels awesome,” Fitzgerald said after the win. “I love this team. We have all the confidence in each other, and it just feels amazing.”
Kutztown now owns 12 county titles, while top-seeded Wilson’s championship drought continues, with its last title coming in 2013.
After beginning the season 4-4 and facing a difficult out-of-league schedule early on, the Cougars used that tough competition to prepare themselves for when the lights shine the brightest, exactly as head coach Kevin Conrad intended.
“This one, I’ll tell you what, it was a lot of hard work to get here, and it’s really rewarding,” Conrad said of winning back-to-back titles. “I’m so proud of these girls and the way they come ready to play every game. They’re so resilient. They just keep coming at you.”
It quickly turned into an entertaining, high-scoring affair from the very first at-bat thanks to Fitzgerald, who finished 2-for-2 with two home runs and was intentionally walked three times.
“That’s respect,” Conrad said of the intentional walks. “That’s respect for her, and I probably would have done the same thing from the other side.”
Other major contributors for the third-seeded Cougars (18-4) included pitcher Savannah Follweiler, who recorded her 100th career strikeout while also driving in two runs. Jayden Gehris added a home run and two RBIs, while Felicia Oldt collected two hits and drove in three runs.
For Wilson (17-4), Kaya Werley recorded a triple and an RBI single, while Caitlin Figarola collected three singles and drove in two runs. Ava Legath added two hits, including a two-run home run, and finished with three RBIs.
In the bottom of the first inning, Legath blasted a two-run homer to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the game. However, Fitzgerald quickly erased it in her next at-bat, launching a line-drive home run to left field in the third inning to put Kutztown ahead 3-2.
Unknowingly to Fitzgerald at the time, it would be her final official at-bat of the game as Wilson coach Gregg Kramer elected to intentionally walk her in each of her next three plate appearances. The strategy eventually burned the Bulldogs, though, as Fitzgerald later came around to score on the basepaths.
“I thought I was going to get a chance to hit, but my team picked me up, and they were there to hit the ball as well,” Fitzgerald said while crediting her young squad, which featured five freshman starters.
Werley led off the bottom of the third with a triple that took a favorable bounce off the fence, allowing her to safely reach third base. She later scored on a bloop single by Figarola that dropped just beyond the second baseman to tie the game at 3-3.
A solo home run by Jayden Gehris over the center-field fence in the fourth inning gave Kutztown a one-run lead before the Cougars added three more runs in the fifth to extend their advantage to 7-3.
Follweiler highlighted the inning with a two-run double to right-center field.
During the middle innings, the freshman pitcher settled in nicely in the circle, allowing just three singles and one run across the fourth and fifth innings.
In the top of the sixth, the Cougars began to pull away offensively, doing most of their damage with two outs.
The left side of the field became Kutztown’s hot spot in the sixth inning. Kya Barell delivered an RBI single to left field, Oldt followed with a two-run double over the left fielder’s head, and Gehris added another RBI single to the left side.
Leading 11-4 entering the bottom of the sixth, the Bulldogs had just six outs remaining and made sure to go down swinging.
The momentum inside the dugouts quickly shifted as Wilson began seeing the ball much better at the plate.
Ava Futrick opened the inning with a single, followed by another hit from Maddy Snyder.
Then, with two outs, Werley, Figarola, and Legath each drove in runs with RBI singles of their own.
Rylea Fick later stepped to the plate and drove in Wilson’s fourth run of the inning with a double, trimming the deficit to 11-8.
“Wilson has a really good lineup, and they’re a really good team, so we knew we had to keep putting runs on the board,” Fitzgerald said while praising the Bulldogs. “We knew they were going to fight back. Supporting each other on the field is what did it.”
After a mound visit from Conrad to settle down his freshman pitcher, Follweiler responded by getting Abby Zerbe to fly out to left field to end the inning with two runners left in scoring position.
“We worked hard to get us in that position to take some pressure off our pitcher so that she doesn’t have to be so fine in one run game or something like that,” Conrad said of getting a comfortable lead early on. “Going in there it worked out for us… but I went out there at the last out there, and I said, ‘Savannah, there’s no way you’re coming out of this game’. And she didn’t, she wouldn’t have, I think I would have had to drag her out. She’s a competitor.”
Kutztown was unable to add any insurance runs in the seventh despite a leadoff triple from Gabriella Parker.
In the bottom of the seventh, Futrick and Snyder both reached base on singles for Wilson, and with two outs, Werley stepped to the plate as the potential tying run.
She took the first pitch for a strike before trying to drive a high fastball out of the park.
Then, facing a two-strike count, Werley went down swinging as Follweiler recorded the final strikeout of the game, sending the Cougars into celebration mode.
With the county playoffs now complete, the District 3 playoffs will begin Monday, May 18, for both teams in their respective classifications, 6A for Wilson and 3A for Kutztown.
The Cougars reached the district championship game last season before falling 2-0 to Susquenita. However, Kutztown has won two district titles over the past four seasons, most recently in 2024, and owns 11 district championships in program history.
As for Wilson, the Bulldogs are still searching for their first district title after falling 1-0 to Cumberland Valley in last season’s semifinals following a 20-2 campaign.
