Neshaminy earned a spot in the Thursday’s District One 6A semifinals. North Penn and Pennsbury also notched wins to earn the final two state tournament berths. North Penn/Hatboro-Horsham photos courtesy of Kim Supko Photography. Check back for a gallery of photos.
District One 6A semifinals
#11 NESHAMINY 4, #7 HAVERFORD 1
Kennedie Ruth did it all for the Redskins, earning the complete game win in the circle and collecting a pair of hits – including a triple and RBI. The junior pitcher allowed just four hits and one run while striking out nine.
“As a pitcher, I had to learn to trust my teammates because they’re my fielders, they’re in back of me,” Ruth said. “They have to field the ball after I pitch it, so I have to depend on them to do their job, so honestly, I feel like I have a solid group of girls behind me to where I can have the ball hit, and it will be caught or the play will be made.”
With the win, the Redskins have earned a spot in Thursday’s District One 6A title game.
“Honestly, we as a team – we don’t look at what games we’re going to win,” Ruth said. “We take it game by game because that’s the way we like to look at things and not get ahead of ourselves because you never know what’s going to happen.
“But us as girls – we do believe in each other and we have so much hope in each other. Our energy just feeds off of each other, and that’s what makes it so great.
Our energy is feeding off of everybody else, and we’re just having fun, and that’s why we’re winning.
“When we win, we say we’ve survived because we’ve survived another challenge in our life, and that helps us move on. Our challenge is to go to states and the next game.”
The Redskins scored the game’s first run in the top of the third inning. Senior Kylee Jones hit a two-out single to center field, eventually scoring on a passed ball. The Fords knotted the score in the bottom of the fifth, but the Redskins scored three runs in the sixth.
Jones was safe on an error to open the inning and advanced to third base on a passed ball. She scored on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze by senior Mia Barone. Ruth ripped a triple to left field that scored Barone from first. Junior Amanda Slabicki’s RBI single plated the final run of the game.
Both Ruth and Jones collected a pair of hits while Kylie Siwek, Lindsey Gorka, Barone, Danielle Manaco, Slabicki and Carena Barr each had one hit.
“They’ve all bought in, and they believe in each other,” Quense said. “Our season started so fast because we had one week and we were into it. We didn’t know them, they didn’t know us.
“It was hard because we didn’t know what they could do, and they didn’t know who we even were. We took the season, and we broke it into the first nine games – okay, let’s figure this out, and in the second nine games, this is our lineup, and now we’re into our third season which is the district, and they’re playing out of their minds. As soon as states start, that will be our fourth season. We’re trying to get better at every practice, we’re trying to get better at every game.”
The Redskins’ first-year coach gave his team added incentive to up their game.
“What we did this year – they were never allowed to wear shorts, they always had to be in softball uniform for practice,” Quense said. “They had to earn shorts.
“Last week with their first playoff win, they asked, ‘Coach, it’s going to be 90 degrees out – can we wear shorts?’ I said, ‘Yes, you’ve earned shorts.’”
Tuesday’s win was Neshaminy’s seventh in a row, and the third over a higher seeded team for the Redskins – who defeated #6 Ridley, #3 Hatboro-Horsham and #7 Haverford.
“If you would have seen us at the beginning of the year, probably a lot of our parents were thinking – what are these coaches doing?” Quense said. “We did have an action plan, and it’s come full cycle.
“We believe in all of our players, every player on our roster, and I believe that they believe in the coaches now. We feel we can beat anybody. That’s the confidence level they have. They’re not cocky, but they’re confident in their own abilities. It’s been a remarkable year. I told them today – I’m just so proud of every one of them.”
Neshaminy (18-5, 12-4 SOL) will travel to Spring-Ford for Thursday’s District One 6A title game.
“I’m so excited because I have so much trust in my group of friends – not even my team but my friends,” Ruth said. “They are my best friends.”
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#4 SPRING-FORD 2, #8 QUAKERTOWN 0
The Rams – two years removed from a trip to the state semifinals – looked every bit the part of the four seed if not better. Coming into Tuesday’s district semifinal, the Rams had already rolled over their two previous opponents – bringing an end to Central Bucks East’s season with a 9-0 win and following that up with an 11-1 mercy rule win over Downingtown West.
“It definitely was not intimidating,” junior Syd Andrews said of facing the Rams, who brought an 18-0 record into the game. “We’re just a young team. It just wasn’t our day today, we didn’t play the way we knew how.
“I think games like this get us ready for what’s coming in states because there are going to be teams that are that good, and it’s not just going to be them.”
The Rams plated a pair of runs in the bottom of the third, and that was enough for pitcher Jules Scogna, who allowed just three hits – two of those in the first three innings.
“I just think she was faster than what we’ve seen,” Andrews said of Scogna. “We just weren’t ready for the speed because the last pitchers we’ve seen were a little slower. She’s throwing at least eight miles an hour more than what we’ve seen.”
The Panthers stranded four runners over the first three innings – two in a second inning that saw Skyler Williams collect a one-out single up the middle and Maya Hellyer get hit by a pitch. A pair of Scogna strikeouts ended that threat.
An infield single by Emma Hilton in the third and a single by Katie Mullen in the fifth were the only hits the Panthers would get the rest of the way.
Spring-Ford scored both its runs in the third when Morgan Lester, who led off with a double, scored on a fielder’s choice. Virginia Tech-bound Bri Peck showed why she was a coveted Division 1 recruit, ripping a no-doubt-about-it solo home run to left field.
Peck, who was the 2019 Gatorade PA Player of the Year, accounted for two of her team’s five hits.
“You could see the difference physically between a team that has four or five senior starters and I have four or five freshmen starting,” coach Dave Scott said. “This is the type of game where the little mistakes come back to haunt you. We actually missed a couple of signs today, which is the first time all year we missed signs, so I think this is where our youth caught up to us a little bit in this level of game.”
Andrews, who absorbed the loss, struck our four and walked three.
“Syd did really well,” Scott said. “This is an adjustment we made a few days ago as far as more up and in and down and in, and you see that when the girls are yanking the ball way foul or popping up to the infield.
“She’s been working the inner half of the plate really well and kind of avoiding hard contact. Obviously, the one that Peck hit was a missile, but even that, it wasn’t necessarily a bad pitch. She’s a good hitter, she hit a pretty decent pitch.”
Quakertown (19-4, 13-2 SOL) will travel to Haverford on Wednesday for a playback game for seeding – the winner will be seeded third in the state tournament, the loser fourth.
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Spring-Ford 002 000 x 2-5-2
Playback Games
#2 NORTH PENN 1, #3 HATBORO-HORSHAM 0
In a contest many had penciled in as a district semifinal, two of the SOL’s top squads squared off in a win-and-advance or lose-and-go-home high stakes playback game. “If you looked at the box score, it was the most even games you could possibly get,” NP coach Rick Torresani said. “Both teams were coming off of tough games a couple days before, and both came out with a passion.
“Not only was it a district game, but there’s a huge rivalry between North Penn and Hatboro and that came into play too.”
Each team managed just one hit, but the Knights made theirs count as Brie Wilmot delivered a two-out bloop single to right field in the bottom of the sixth that plated Sarah Sabocsik with a run that turned out to be the game-winner.
“Brie came up with two outs and on a 1-2 pitch lifted one,” Torresani said. “With her strength, she just lifted it over the second baseman’s head.”
The Hatters were coming off an upset at the hands of #11 Neshaminy and the Knights had fallen to #7 Haverford, a team it had beaten in the regular season.
“It was really devastating,” senior Mady Volpe said. “It was not who we are as a culture and as North Penn as a whole. That loss was something the whole team was really upset about.
“It was nice for us to get a playback game and show everyone who we are. It made the team really motivated that we got another chance. I think today really showed everyone who we are. I’m really proud of everyone – from the coaches, teammates. It was just an amazing win.”
For his part, Torresani says he should never have scheduled his team’s quarterfinal game several hours after it resumed play in its suspended game from the preceding day.
“That was my fault,” the Knights’ coach said. “I should never agreed to play it back to back. I’ll never do that again.
“Sitting around and eating hoagies for two-and-a-half hours – it doesn’t make for a good game. They were really heartbroken when they lost to Haverford. Five or six errors – I don’t think that’s been done at North Penn forever, and they knew it. They knew they wanted to come back, but they also knew that they were facing a (heck) of a good pitcher in (Kendal) Leitner.”
Senior Kayla Tauber led off the second with a single, but that was the extent of the Hatters’ offense.
The Knights got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth, and it all started with an error on a bunt Sarah Sabocsik, who stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch, setting the stage for Wilmot’s heroics.
“The coaching staff really helped us and really got the team back together, back to where we’re supposed to be,” Volpe said. “I think that loss was a turning point for our team.”
The Hatters did have a pair on board in the seventh after walks to Amya Lundy and, one out later, Marissa Rapino. A sacrifice bunt put Hatter runners on second and third, but Volpe closed it out with a popup back to the mound.
“It was just great defense, and Mady pitched a (heck) of a game – both pitchers did, and the final out was a mile high fly ball that she caught,” Torresani said. “Usually we don’t have the pitchers catch them, but she started screaming, ‘I got it, I got it.’”
Volpe allowed one hit in the complete game shutout win, striking out 10 and walking four.
“I think both teams played to the best of their ability,” Volpe said. “Each team brought their ‘A’ game.
“Kendal (Leitner) pitched an amazing game – she’s such a great player, but we had that little bit of spark towards the end of the game that really pushed us to get the win.”
Leitner allowed just one hit and one run (unearned) in six innings. She struck out eight and fanned four.
North Penn (21-2, 15-1 SOL) will travel to Pennsbury on Thursday for a game to determine the five and six seeds for the PIAA 6A Tournament. Hatboro-Horsham saw its successful season end with a 20-3 record and the SOL Liberty Division title. The Hatters were 16-0 in SOL play.
Hatboro-Horsham 000 000 0 0-1-1
North Penn 000 001 x 1-1-0
#1 PENNSBURY 3, # DOWNINGTOWN WEST 0
Ainsley McClure clearly did not want her season to end. The Falcons’ junior ace turned in a dazzling four-hit complete game shutout, striking out 15 in a dominant outing in the circle. The win ensured the Falcons a coveted berth in the state tournament.
Quinn McGonigle’s two-run home run in the fourth was more than enough for McClure, but the Falcons added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth when Jess Rowe hit a solo blast for the 3-0 final.
Rowe and Riley Mahony led the Falcons at the plate – both were 2-for-3.
Pennsbury (21-2, 16-0 SOL) will host North Penn in the fifth place game on Thursday.
Downingtown West 000 000 0 0
Pennsbury 000 201 x 3
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