Maidens Stun Eagles to Win District Title

North Penn defeated Bishop Shanahan to capture the District One AAAA title while Hatboro-Horsham earned a berth in the state tournament. To view photos of the North Penn/Shanahan game, please visit the Photo Gallery.

PLYMOUTH MEETING – Alexa Gable is nothing if not honest, and North Penn’s junior leftfielder readily acknowledged that the prospect of facing Bishop Shanahan mound ace Kate Poppe was more than a little intimidating.

While Poppe’s stats are undeniably impressive, it was photos taken of Poppe during her team’s district win over Hatboro-Horsham that raised the eyebrows of Gable and her Maiden teammates.

“We have been looking at pictures of her muscles the whole day,” the North Penn junior said of photos that showcased the muscles of a right arm that throws fastballs clocked in the 60s.

“It’s so scary – we were so scared,” admitted Gable.

Scared perhaps, but not so scared that they didn’t get their cuts against the flame-throwing right hander in Thursday’s District One AAAA title game.

It was Gable who delivered the blow that cut the heart out of Poppe and the Eagles when she stepped to the plate with one out in the sixth inning and the Maidens on the short end of a 1-0 score. With the tying run on first, thanks to a leadoff single by Jess Mower, Gable laid into a Poppe fastball and sent it to the left field fence for a triple that knotted the score.

“I think I had two strikes, and I was worried it was going to be a rise ball, and I didn’t want to be too hyped up and swing at anything,” Gable said. “The pitch was there, and I thought I could get ahold of it. I didn’t think it would be a triple. I thought she was going to catch it, but it turned out lucky.”

Lucky summed up the Maidens on the next play when cleanup batter Michelle Holweger’s popup to second fell harmlessly to the ground after a collision between the second baseman and rightfielder. Gable raced home with the go-ahead run, and the Maidens had a lead they would not lose (2-1) and a district crown no one thought they would own.

“(This means) everything,” Gable said. “This is the best experience of my entire life. (Winning) with these girls especially – this is the closest team I have ever been on. We all love each other so much.”

The ending was not without its share drama.

In the seventh inning, the Eagles, who had managed just one hit through six innings off of freshman Jackie Bilotti, threw a bit of a scare into the Maidens when Poppe laced an 1-2 pitch to deep center field, but a perfect relay throw from Erin Maher to Jenn Halcovage to Megan Curley at third for the tag erased Poppe.

“Jenn’s a great shortstop, and she’s been doing well all season,” coach Rick Torresani said. “She’s just been very, very consistent, and that’s what you need at shortstop.”

Bilotti coaxed a harmless popup to Curley for the game’s final out, and the celebration began in earnest.

The Maidens, seeded 10^th in the district after finishing third in the 

SOL Continental Conference, had taken the final step in their improbable journey to the top. An elusive district championship was theirs.

“I can’t really describe it,” said Mower, the team’s lone senior. “Before the game, I was so excited. I couldn’t even describe how I felt before the game, and now this – this is unbelievable. This is so much fun.”

Fun is not a word most players use to describe a game against Poppe and her Eagle teammates, but Mower made it look easy, finishing the game 2-for-3 with a walk out of the leadoff spot. Although Poppe struck out 16, the Maidens did collect five hits off the gifted righthander - two more than the Eagles got off of Bilotti, who continued her magical postseason run by quietly tossing another gem.

“She’s unbelievable,” said Mower. “I tell her after game that I’m so proud of her. She just throws right to my glove.

“Even when they scored that run in the first inning, I wasn’t too worried. I knew she would keep throwing like she was. She didn’t get fazed by it at all.”

Nothing seems to faze the Maidens’ rookie, who struck out three and didn’t walk a batter as she quietly outdueled Poppe.

“She’s going up against a Villanova (-bound) kid that’s a senior and throws heat and is mowing people down left and right,” coach Rick Torresani said. “She doesn’t strike too many people out, but there are not too many hits.

“Most of them are popups or ground balls because she manages to place them in and out, either jamming them inside or taking them outside. The way she spots the ball – it’s unbelievable. As a freshman not to lose composure when we’re behind and the other team’s threatening – it’s just unbelievable.”

Bilotti knew she was facing a stiff challenge in Thursday’s game.

“She’s a great pitcher, probably the best one we have seen all year,” 

the freshman hurler said. “At practice we worked on hitting her speed, and today that’s what we did. Alexa had an awesome hit, and that was a key.”

The Eagles got on the scoreboard first when – with two outs in the first inning – Alyssa Lewis roped a triple to right and scored on an errant relay throw. Bilotti wasn’t worried.

“It was only the first inning,” she said. “There’s a whole game left to play, and I had confidence we would get it back, and we did.”

Bilotti helped her own cause with some nifty defensive plays in the field – none more impressive than her back-to-back plays in the fourth on bunt attempts. The first required a rocket throw to beat the speedy Marisa Giordino, the second an underhand flip to the first base bag.

“I also play shortstop, so I really like fielding,” Bilotti said. “I know when (first baseman) Vicky (Tumasz) is back, I have to cover that side of the field, so that’s what I did.”

The Maidens, meanwhile, weren’t doing a whole lot offensively against Poppe, who fanned seven in a row during one stretch and had eight strikeouts after three innings. The Maidens put a pair of runners on board when – with two outs in the third – Curley singled to right, stole second, and advanced all the way to third when the throw sailed into the outfield. Mower drew a walk and stole second, but Poppe brought a quick end to that threat with a strikeout.

“You’re always concerned when you leave runners on base,” Torresani said. “But am I concerned when it’s 1-0? No because I knew one big hit or a mistake by them, and we’re right back in the game. These kids don’t give up.”

Tumasz led off the fifth with a bloop single to left, but Poppe fanned the next three batters she faced.

With the Maidens down to their final six outs, Mower breathed life into her team when she collected a bloop single just over the infield to lead off the sixth.

“It wasn’t my best hit,” she said. “I just wanted to make contact. I’m just really happy I got ahold of it and happy that it dropped.”

One out later, Gable delivered the shot that changed the course of Thursday’s game.

“That was just an unbelievable hit,” Mower said. “I knew she had it in her because we were hitting off the machine at practice, and she was hitting them just like that.

“When she hit that, it was just so exciting.”

“That’s just Alexa,” Torresani said. “She’s been hitting real well. She’s not afraid of who’s pitching, whether it’s slow or fast. She’s not fearful of anyone, and when she gets ahold of it, it goes.”

The rally could have ended there, but the Eagles’ defense failed Poppe on Holweger’s high popup to second, and the Maidens had the break they needed to win a district title.

“I was just running and trying to get to first,” Holweger said, acknowledging that a district crown was not something she anticipated when the season began. “After those first two games, I was really concerned, but after we started getting it going, we were flying high, and we started to get confidence.”

Confidence is just one of the reasons the Maidens are champions.

“They had confidence coming in,” Torresani said. “This is the type of team that even when they get down, they come back. They’re not afraid to be down, and it all started with the Souderton game (a 10-9 Maiden win in a game they trailed 9-0).

“Alexa did it there too when she hit the three-run homer to win the game in the bottom of the seventh inning with two outs, so they’re not afraid to compete even when they’re behind.”

The Maidens return to action on Monday at Spring-Ford when they will face the third place team from District Three – Lower Dauphin - in an opening round state tournament game. Lower Dauphin was the district’s top-seeded team but was upset in the district semifinals

#4 HATBORO-HORSHAM 8, #3 SPRING-FORD 1
The Hatters had their backs pressed firmly against the wall after last Friday’s quarterfinal loss to Bishop Shanahan. They responded with back-to-back routs. Thursday’s romp over the Rams clinched the coveted fifth and final state tournament berth.
“In these last two games, they’ve outscored teams 21-1,” coach Joe DiFilippo said. “They know where we’re at, and they know where we want to go, and they’re ready to take the next step.
“It took awhile to get them going, but now they’re hungry.”
A solo home run by Chrissy James in the first inning set the tone for the game, and the Hatters led 2-0 after a solo blast by Heather Lutz in the second. The Rams plated an unearned run in the bottom of the inning to make it a 2-1 game.
In the fourth inning, Maria Spinosa blew the game wide open when she delivered her team’s third home run of the game – this one a grand slam to put the Hatters on top 6-1. In the fifth, Jackie DiPietro and James collected back-to-back singles, and both runners advanced on Maggie Shaffer’s sacrifice. Val Sadowl followed with a two-run single, and just like that, the Hatters led 8-1.
“Memorial Day morning when we were hitting, I knew they were ready,” DiFilippo said. “When you practice at nine o’clock in the morning, everybody wants to go home, but they wanted to keep going.
“I had to stop it or else I would have been there all day.”
Lutz led the Hatters’ hit parade with a perfect 3-for-3 day at the plate. James was 2-for-4. Shaffer notched the win on the mound.
Hatboro will face Central Dauphin, an upset winner of the District 3 title, in Tuesday’s opening round state tournament game.

#6 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 9, #1 PENNSBURY 1
The Titans, according to coach Dan Hayes, wanted to stake their claim to third place in the district heading into next week’s state tournament. They got their wish, thanks to a six-run fifth inning that saw them turn a 2-1 lead into an 8-1 advantage.
“It was quite a day,” said Hayes. “We talked to the kids about it – we know what the bracket looks like, and we really were shooting for the third seed going into states rather than the fourth.”
The Titans were coming off a disappointing 4-3 loss to North Penn in Tuesday’s district semifinals.
“You have to give North Penn credit, but we just played so badly,” Hayes said. “We made so many mental mistakes, bad base running. It was just a bad game for us.
“To think if we would have won that we could have played for a district championship. It really was a tough loss, and we really didn’t warm up well today.  It didn’t seem like we had much zip at the beginning of the game, but you never can tell.”
The Titans had a chance to get on the scoreboard in the first when they loaded the bases with one out but had a base runner thrown out at home attempting to score on a passed ball.
In the third, the Titans turned another passed ball into a run to go on top 1-0. The Falcons answered with a run in the third to knot the score 1-1, capitalizing on a Titan miscue. The Falcons still had the bases loaded with none out, but Haileigh Stocks slammed the door on that potential rally with a huge strikeout, a forceout at home and an obstruction call.
That might well have been the turning point in the game.
The Titans took a lead they would not lose in the fourth. Lauren Klepchick got things started with a leadoff single and moved up to second on Hallie Bilker’s sacrifice. She scored when Kristin Marinelli delivered an RBI single.
In the fifth, the Titans seized complete control of the game. Highlights of the six-run outburst were singles by Alyssa Virginio, Stocks, Morgan Decker (RBI) Bilker (RBI), and Carly Dudek (RBI) as well as a two-run double down the left field line by freshman Maddie Decker.
For good measure, the Titans added a run in the seventh, using singles by Ali Waddington, Ali Horvath and Virginio (RBI).
All told, the Titans pounded out 15 hits, led by the 3-for-4 effort of Stocks, which included a double. Decker and Klepchick were both 2-for-4 and Virginio was 2-for-3.
While the Titans were on fire offensively, the Falcons continued to struggle. After plating just three runs in their first two district wins combined, they have managed just one run in their last two games and have been outscored 13-1.
The Falcons will face District Two champion Williamsport in Monday’s opening round state tournament game while the Titans will take on District 11 champion Liberty in an opening round contest.