ORWELL — A change of location didn’t stop the Pymatuning Valley Lakers from moving past Hawken with a 10-3 win in their tournament opener Thursday at Grand Valley. The game was moved from PV to GV because of field conditions, but after a few innings, the Lakers felt right at home.

Junior Jenn Tennant took command of the game, limiting the Hawks to just three hits while striking out six. After giving up a pair of unearned runs on a base hit by Erica Ford in the first, she sent down seven in a row.

“It wasn’t a big deal,” Tennant, who also had two hits and two RBI, said.

Hawken hitters might disagree. Just four batters reached base after the first inning.

The Lakers (19-6), who move on to today’s Division III sectional final against Gilmour Academy, got the offense going in the first when Kasey Landis scored on an Amanda Tennant single. But the Lakers didn’t take the lead until the third, when they put their sister act on display. Jenn Tennant’s two-run double scored sisters Kasey and Kayla Landis, then Jenn scored when younger sister Amanda followed with an RBI single to put the Lakers up, 4-2.

The Landis/Tennant quartet combined for seven hits, five runs, and four RBI.

Hawken (7-13) kept things interesting through the fourth, adding a run on a May Curry hit and cutting the Laker lead to just one going into the bottom of the fifth. But the Lakers tacked on two more runs to put the game out of reach. Jen DiBell singled and scored on Amber Pomeroy’s deep triple to the left-center gap. Pomeroy then came home on a sacrifice bunt by Lyndsay Carr

“We got more confident,” DiBell, who went 4-4 and scored twice, said. “We knew we could go out there and battle.”

The confidence showed in the sixth as the Lakers continued find the gaps.

After pinch-hitter Natalie Bessman knocked in a run, Rose Lane put the Lakers into double digits with a scorching line drive to right that plated Bessman and Pomeroy. It was the last of four straight singles from the Laker lineup.

PV finished it off with solid defense. Jenn Tennant issued a one-out walk, but Pomeroy scooped a ground ball, alertly tagged the runner and tossed to first for the final outs of the game. It was one of a handful of impressive defensive plays in the game. Kasey Landis chased down two fly balls in center field that appeared to be headed to the gap.

“It was good having a day off, and for not playing for three or four days we did OK,” PV coach Andy Gray said. “We started off slow, but we finished strong. We need to play a better game to beat Gilmour.”

“We just need to keep it going,” Jenn Tennant said.

Wludyga is a freelance writer from Erie.