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STATE COLLEGE – ‘Quiet confidence.’
That’s the message members of Hatboro-Horsham’s softball team chose to paint on t-shirts during a team bonding activity the night before Friday’s state title game against Pennsbury.
“It went very badly, but it was really fun though,” said senior captain Julie Wambold of her team’s painting venture in the hallway of their hotel. “We’re not a very crafty team, but we had good team bonding.”
The Hatters might not be crafty, but they are quietly confident. And never was that quiet confidence more apparent than in Friday’s title game that saw the Hatters rally from a 3-1 deficit heading into the bottom of the sixth inning to earn a 4-3 win, capturing the school’s second state title in four years in front of close to 1,500 fans at Penn State University’s Beard Field.
“It was like ‘Oh my god, we’ve finally done it,’” said senior captain Danielle DiFilippo, a smile permanently glued on her face. “It feels so good to come out with a bang.
“We all watched the (2008) state championship video to get us pumped up. It really worked. We were all fired up coming off the bus.”
Losing – according to the players – was never a consideration.
“I was not leaving Penn State (with a loss),” Wambold said.
And in one unforgettable afternoon, a Hatter team that quietly went about its business for 27 preceding games had definitively answered those who questioned why the players opted to keep their words and celebrations to a minimum.
“Do you know why they didn’t talk and didn’t celebrate?” Hatter coach Joe DiFilppo asked. “Because their job wasn’t done. Now it’s done.
“We set this goal at the beginning, and we never took our eyes off the prize.”
When third baseman Chrissy James hauled in a harmless soft line drive for the game’s final out, the Hatters could celebrate at last. James dashed to the mound and hugged pitcher Maggie Shaffer. The rest of the team followed her lead, and pitching circle became a sea of black and red.The Hatters were the 2011 PIAA Class AAAA champions.
“I still can’t believe it,” senior captain Melissa Spinosa said. “It still hasn’t sunk in that we actually won.”
One team’s joy is another team’s heartbreak, and as losses go, they don’t get much more heartbreaking than this one. Fifteen days after falling to the Hatters in eight innings in the district title game, the Falcons suffered an even more devastating defeat, committing three errors in the final inning that resulted in three unearned Hatter runs.
“I thought we had this game, and in the last inning, I guess we just fell apart,” Pennsbury senior Savanna Grantham said. “They were a tough team. They answered when they needed to, and they did what they had to do.”
The Hatters certainly looked like a team that was down for the count after the Falcons – in the top of the sixth – added an insurance run to go on top 3-1, especially considering that the Hatters had managed all of one hit through five innings off sophomore hurler Val Buehler.
“We actually all huddled up (before the bottom of the sixth), and our coach said to enjoy the moment,” Danielle DiFilppo said. “Once he said that, we were all so hyped, we were focused on getting it done.”
Buehler retired the first batter she faced on a harmless popup to second baseman Jess Greenewald to open the sixth. That was the last out that would come easily for the Falcons.
Heather Lutz – who doubled close to the 220-foot mark in center field in her previous at-bat – followed and lofted a fly ball into left center. The ball fell harmlessly to the ground for a two-base error when the two Falcon outfielders collided going for the ball.
“I "I just wanted to hit the ball hard somewhere,” Lutz said. The play turned out to be a turning point for both teams.
“It makes a big difference with two outs and nobody on base,” Pennsbury coach Frank McSherry said. “It was one of those things – they both wanted the ball.
“We tell them all the time – want the ball, and they both wanted the ball.”
Jackie DiPietro’s bunt single put Lutz on third, and Lutz raced home on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze by leadoff batter Melissa Spinosa.
Adding insult to injury for the Falcons, Spinosa wound up on base when the bunt was misplayed, and the Hatters – who now trailed by just one – were alive and well.
“I think we all just wanted it to bad,” Spinosa said. “We came in, and we told each other – ‘Relax, we have it.’
“We knew we could come back because we had before in other games. We just tried to get runners on base, and we used small ball.”
Hatboro’s top bunter, Chrissy James, stepped to the plate with one out and the tying run on third, and for those who thought DiFilippo might take the suicide squeeze off after the Hatters’ number two batter fouled off the first two pitches she saw, guess again.
“He had me bunting again,” James said. “You do what you have to do. I love it.”
On her third attempt, James got the bunt down, and although she was thrown out at first, DiPietro easily scored the tying run and Spinosa wound up on third.
An errant pickoff throw allowed Spinosa to score the go-ahead run.
“I made the call – I gave them that last run,” McSherry said. “That was my fault.”
Three errors and three bunts later, the Hatters – with the benefit of just one hit - had taken a lead they would not lose.
“They just wanted to put the ball in play,” McSherry said. “They only had one hit (coming into the inning).
“It’s one of those things – they did what they needed to do. This is a big stage, and this is a young team. There was a lot on the line.”
In the top of the seventh, Hatter mound ace Maggie Shaffer calmly retired the Hatters in order, and the historic win was in the books.
“It’s exciting, especially for the seniors,” Shaffer said. “I think in the middle of the game, we were a little down on ourselves because we were losing, and we weren’t hitting or anything.
“But once it came to the sixth inning, we just knew we had to refocus, execute and get it done.”
A look back at the game would show that the Hatters got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first without so much as collecting a hit. With one out, James and Wambold drew back-to-back walks, and both runners advanced on a wild pitch. James scored when DiFilippo lofted a sacrifice fly to right, giving the Hatters an early 1-0 lead.
For the Falcons, the first inning bore an eerie resemblance to the first inning of the district title game that saw the Hatters plate a first inning run while collecting just one hit.
“It was like déjà vu all over again,” Grantham said. “In the first inning, they had two batters get on base and got a run.
“It wasn’t looking too good, but we came back the next inning.”
Grantham played a major role in that comeback, delivering a two-out single to right that plated Christina Bascara with the tying run. The Falcons’ sophomore third baseman got things started in the inning when she roped a one-out double to deep left.
In the fifth inning, sophomore Michelle George hit a rocket down the right field line for a triple. She ended up scoring on an errant throw to third, and the Falcons led 2-1.
In the sixth, Suzanne Swanicke singled up the middle to open the frame. The sophomore first baseman - on a close call that raised some eyebrows - was called out at second on a forceout on Kelsi Bunda's grounder to short. With two outs, Mackenzie Obert lined a single to right, and Bunda raced home when shortstop Amanda Sadowl lost Grantham’s popup to shallow left in the sun, putting the Falcons on top 3-1.
“I was so mad because I know what I should have done on that play,” Sadowl said. “I couldn’t see anything, but I know it’s a team sport, and my teammates came back and put it together.”
The Hatters put a rally together that included just one ball leaving the infield, and they made it happen by forcing the action and forcing the Falcons to make the plays.
On Friday, that was the difference between going home with gold instead of silver medals.
“Amazing,” Sadowl said and then looked at Wambold.
“Doesn’t it feel like a blur,” the Hatters’ junior shortstop asked. “We were losing, and you could just feel the momentum change when they got those runs, but our team never gives up.”
“Amazing,” Lutz said. “From the beginning of the season, I knew we could do it.
“It feels unbelievable – it doesn’t feel real.”
But it is real.
The Hatters from Hatboro-Horsham are the 2011 PIAA Class AAAA state champions. They have ensured themselves a spot in history, and nothing can ever change that.
NOTES: The Falcons held a 7-2 edge in hits, an advantage that was negated by the fact that they also had a 5-2 edge in errors…Shaffer fanned just two in a winning effort on the mound but did not walk a batter while Buehler struck out one but walked five…The Hatters’ only hits were collected by their eight and nine batters. Hatter leftfielder Kelsey Koelzer – who was hit by a pitch in the second - may have hit two of the hardest balls off Buehler but had nothing to show for it as both her drives to the outfield were caught.
Pennsbury Hatboro-Horsham
D'Anna Devine c | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Melissa Spinosa cf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Jess Greenewald 2b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Chrissy James 3b | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Suzanne Swanicke 1b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Julie Wambold c | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Kelsi Bunda cf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Danielle DiFilippo 1b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Christina Bascara 3b | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | Val Sadowl ss | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Mackenzie Obert ss | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Kelsey Koelzer lf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Savanna Grantham rf | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | Maggie Shaffer p | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Taylor Bidlingmaier dp | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Heather Lutz rf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Danielle Fox, ph,dh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Jackie DiPietro 2b | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Michelle George lf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - |
Val Buehler p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - |
TOTALS | 29 | 3 | 7 | 2 | TOTALS | 18 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
Pennsbury 010 011 0 3-7-5 | |||||||||
Hatboro 100 003 x 4-2-2 | |||||||||
E-Hatboro 2, Pennsbury 5. LOB-Pennsbury 5, Hatboro 8. 2B-Bascara, Grantham, Lutz. | |||||||||
3B-George. SAC-Spinosa, James 2, Shaffer. SF-DiFilippo. | |||||||||
Pennsbury | |||||||||
Val Buehler (L) | 6.0 2 4 1 5 1 | ||||||||
Maggie Shaffer (W) | 7.0 7 3 2 0 2 | ||||||||
WP-Buehler. HBP-Buehler 2 (Koelzer, Sadowl) | |||||||||
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