The Pennsbury and North Penn softball teams earned wins in Monday’s opening round of the PIAA Class AAAA Tournament. CB East and Neshaminy will see action on Tuesday.
[1-3] PENNSBURY 13, [3-1] CENTRAL DAUPHIN 1 (5 innings)
The Falcons needed just one inning to establish their dominance in Monday’s state opener. Suzanne Swanicke delivered the big blow in a five-run first inning when she hit a bases-clearing triple.
“We jumped on them in the first,” coach Frank McSherry said. “We played really well today.”
In the second inning, the Falcons tacked on three runs to go on top 8-0. A three-run third was highlighted by a monster three-run home run by Dani Litwin.
“She hit a blast,” McSherry said. “Right before Dani’s home run, Mackenzie (Obert) hit one that their kid reached over the fence and got.
“There was no doubt about Dani’s hit. Down the line it was 190 and where she hit it was 210, and it cleared the fence by 25-30 feet. She hit a bomb. That’s the furthest ball she’s hit for us.”
Central Dauphin, which plated its only run in the third inning, managed just three singles off winning pitcher Val Buehler.
“Val did a nice job,” McSherry said. “She didn’t strike anyone out - they put the ball in play. We heard that they can hit up and down the lineup.
“They battled, but they didn’t hit anything too hard. There were a lot of ground balls.”
Swanicke led the Falcons with three hits, including a double and triple. Litwin, who had a pair of hits, had a game high five RBIs. Obert and Christina Bascara each added a pair of hits.
The Falcons, who pounded out 14 hits, have outscored their opponents 18-1 in the two games since they fell to Central Bucks East in the district semifinal game.
“We made some lineup changes the next game, and we stayed with them tonight,” McSherry said. “Maybe it woke some kids up. Who knows? Maybe this is a better lineup.
“Whatever it is – it’s worked the last two games.”
The Falcons will face Cumberland Valley, District 3’s third place squad, in a state quarterfinal game on Thursday. Cumberland Valley defeated District 6 champion Mifflin County 9-1 on Monday.
“Any team can knock off any team,” McSherry said. “What we don’t know is the teams out west – there are three District 7 teams in our bracket, so who knows. The Pittsburgh area sends some good teams.”
Pennsbury 533 20 13-14-0
Cumberland Valley 001 00 1-3-1
[3-4] NORTH PENN 1 [11-1] NORTHAMPTON 0
The Northampton faithful turned out in force for Monday’s state opener at Patriots Park to support a Konkrete Kids squad that had captured the program’s first district championship since 1996.
They didn’t have a whole lot to cheer about.
Jackie Bilotti made sure of that. While her teammates played flawless defense, the Maidens’ sophomore hurler tossed an impressive one-hit shutout, allowing just two base runners in seven innings.
“I was just mixing up my pitches, and the defense made all the plays,” Bilotti said. “I know the coaches said it was going to be a big park and there would be a lot of people here, and we can’t get flustered by all their fans cheering. That’s what we tried to do.”
The Konkrete Kids had just one runner get as far as second base and that came in the first inning after Bilotti issued a two-out walk to Megan Tiwold, who moved up to second on a wild pitch.
By the time the Kids got their second base runner – when Tori Gallie lined a two-out single to left in the bottom of the fourth, the Maidens led 1-0, thanks to an unearned run in the top of the inning.
Erin Maher got things started when her grounder to first was booted to lead off the fourth. After stealing second, Maher moved up to third on Bilotti’s sacrifice bunt. She scored when Vicky Tumasz singled to center, and the Maidens had all the runs Bilotti would need.
It was the lone hit Marly Laubach would allow in seven solid innings of her own.
“Some of us actually played against her before, so we kind of knew what to expect,” said Tumasz, who played against Laubach in last summer’s Carpenter Cup. “She’s got good movement on her ball, and she’s smart with her pitches.
“It was tough, but we were confident going up to the plate. All we had to do is make contact.”
“We got the timely hit,” coach Rick Torresani said. “We knew if we got one run and Jackie was on that we might be able to win the game.”
Bilotti faced just 23 batters and retired nine in a row during one stretch and 10 in a row in another.
“Jackie was unbelievable,” Torresani said. “Every pitch was working tonight. She didn’t make one mistake, and our defense played great behind her.
“That’s how we’re going to win. We’re going to win with timely hitting, good defense and Jackie hitting her spots.”
The Maidens won despite managing just one hit off Laubach, who boasted a school record 257 strikeouts this season entering Monday’s game, but they did manufacture a run after back-to-back shutouts.
Still, Torresani knows his team needs to find a way to generate more offense.
“What we did the last couple of days – we put the pitching machine 30 feet away and tried hitting against it just to make contact,” the Maidens’ coach said. “We scored 14 runs against (Central Bucks) South, and we scored seven against Garnet Valley.
“We were scoring at the end of the year, and all of a sudden, we’re in a slump. If we could just get it back, we can go somewhere.”
Monday’s win was the Maidens first in the state playoffs since 1985. They will face the winner of Tuesday’s Central Bucks East/Girls High game in a state quarterfinal game on Thursday.
“This is awesome,” Tumasz said. “(Coach Torresani) said this was our first state win in 28 years, and especially after getting beat by Neshaminy and Pennsbury, it was awesome to win and get back into it.”
“It’s so exciting,” Bilotti said. “Our main goal was to defend our district (title), but since we’re not there, we’re going to come back and make some noise in states.”
North Penn 000 100 0 1-1-0
Northampton 000 000 0 0-1-1
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