LANGHORNE – Sarah McGowan wasn’t worried when Truman plated a pair of runs without so much as managing a hit in the fourth inning of Thursday’s SOL showdown.
“I told myself, ‘One error doesn’t mean a thing. I know I have my team behind me. I have to stay in it to support my team,’” Neshaminy’s sophomore pitcher said. “I have been waiting for this game. There was nothing stopping me.
“We were going to get this game.”McGowan – who was nothing short of brilliant - apparently knew something no one else knew, and the sophomore standout methodically kept mowing the Tigers down, striking out 16 and allowing only an infield single.
Still, it didn’t seem as though it would be enough to save the Redskins, who still found themselves staring at a 2-0 deficit heading into the bottom of the seventh. But the tide was about to turn – on of all things – a strikeout of the Redskins’ leadoff batter on a nasty Rachael Alligood changeup.
The ball hit the dirt and bounced past the catcher, allowing the batter to reach first without a throw. Just like that, the Redskins had life.
“You saw it bounce and spin over the catcher’s head,” Neshaminy’s Samantha Creamer said. “It couldn’t have worked out any better. If that were to happen again – I don’t know if it could because it was such perfect placement.
“It got us pumped even more because we had a runner on, no outs. Perfect.”
After a walk to pinch hitter Brianna Guidos, the Tigers elected to go to third on a sacrifice bunt by Brittany Guidos, and it was safe all around.
That brought Creamer to the plate.
“I hadn’t gotten on base my previous three at-bats, and I was just thinking, ‘Oh god, I really want to get a hit,’” the Redkins’ leadoff hitter said. “With all the momentum we had going and all the adrenaline pumping and the intensity that we had - if there ever was a time in this game to get a hit, it had to be now.”
Creamer lined a clutch single to left that knotted the score, and then it was Courtney Clee’s turn to step into the hero’s role. The sophomore second baseman obliged by grounding a single up the middle that brought Guidos home from second, giving the Redskins an electrifying 3-2 win and keeping their perfect record intact.
“It’s a thrill, pretty much,” Creamer said. “To be down and be able to pick yourself back up and just win – it’s such a great feeling. I can’t describe it.
“I knew we could do it because we’ve done it before with Abington. We came back from a five-run deficit, but oh my god, it was too close for words.”
If Creamer and Clee were happy, McGowan – who pitched the game of her young life – was ecstatic.
“Oh my gosh, I was almost in tears,” she said. “It was great.
“It was really nice after having a mistake like that we were able to come back and support each other.”
For a while, it looked as though the Redskins might be doomed by that ‘mistake,’ albeit an innocent one.
It happened in the fourth when – after McGowan fanned eight of the first 10 batters she faced – Stevie Van Schaik drew a one-out walk. Tina Coffman laid down a sacrifice bunt and was ruled safe when Clee, who was covering first, came off the bag.
Clee’s throw to second in an attempt to nail the base runner who had rounded the bag sailed into the outfield, and both runners circled the bases.
“After that play, it was, of course, hard to pick myself back up,” Clee said. “But my teammates around me were picking me up, telling me to shake it off.”
And Clee not only shook it off, she reveled in the opportunity to step into the batter’s box with the game on the line in the seventh.
“I’m like ‘Guys, I’m going to hit. We’re all going to hit,’” she said. “I was unbelievably psyched. I was thinking, ‘I’m going to do this. I’ve been hitting well all game. I can do this. There she is for me – I’m hitting her in.’
“This was what we were looking for all week. This game’s been pushed off, and this (win) builds so much confidence.”
The hit was the third of the day for Clee, who doubled in the fifth and accounted for half of her team’s six hits off Alligood.
“That was huge,” Redskin coach Kathy Houser said of Clee’s game winner. “She stepped in there ripping, and she has one of the quickest bats on our team.
“I can’t say enough about this win – the way they fought back. They didn’t give up, they didn’t just lay down and die.”
On the other side of the diamond, Truman coach Gretchen Cammiso pointed to her team’s inability to put their bats on the ball as the difference in the game.
“They put the ball in play and we didn’t,” she said. “We managed two runs on two bunts.
“We struck out 16 times – 12 looking. Sarah McGowan – I can’t take anything away from her. She pitched an awesome game. We helped her out by being tentative, timid and maybe frustrated with some calls, but that’s no excuse. We have been very aggressive in the past, and that was the first time we saw our bats completely freeze up.”
Defensively, the Tigers were equal to the task.
“They challenged us, and we made the plays,” Cammiso said. “We didn’t really challenge them at all during the game. If we put more pressure on them, the game could have been completely different. Give credit to them - down by two in the bottom of the seventh inning to put on a hitting attack like that.”
No one will ever know what might have happened if the ball hadn’t taken a strange hop on Alligood’s wild pitch strikeout to open the seventh.
“If that had been a strikeout, the game probably would have ended differently,” Cammiso said. “Instead, it was ‘Uh oh.’ That’s the way baseball/softball works.
“One break didn’t make or break us, but it kind of set things in motion.”
The win upped Neshaminy’s SOL mark to 4-0 (6-0 overall).
“I was so proud of them,” said Houser, whose team fell to Truman twice last year. “She (Alligood) is a great pitcher. Giver her credit – she’s real tough, she brings it. That’s hard to hit.
“We kept telling them, ‘Don’t be discouraged. If you strike out, that’s okay because she’s good.’ You have to give them credit. It was awesome.”
NESHAMINY 3, HARRY S. TRUMAN 2
Truman: Ashley Black 2b 3 0 0 0; Stevie Van Schaik c 2 1 0 0; Tina Coffman ss 2 1 0 0; Rachael Alligood p 3 0 1 0; Nichole King 3b 2 0 0 0; Courtney Tenaglia rf 3 0 0 0; Kate Barrington lf 3 0 0 0; Renee Kimble dp 2 0 0 0; Tiffany Koenig 1b 2 0 0 0; Shana Mickle cf 0 0 0 0. TOTALS 22 2 1 0.
Neshaminy: Samantha Creamer cf 4 0 1 2; Courtney Clee 2b 4 0 3 1; Erin Quense 1b 2 0 0 0; Christina Udris ss 3 0 2 0; Kelsey Ryan 3b 3 0 0 0; Jackie Franzen c 3 0 0 0; Sarah McGowan p 2 0 0 0; Chelby McDonald cr 0 1 0 0; Alexa Bell rf 1 1 0 0; Brianna Guidos ph 0 0 0 0; Brittany Guidos lf 2 1 0 0. TOTALS 24 3 6 3.
Truman 000 200 0-2
Neshaminy 000 000 3-3
E-Neshaminy 2, Truman 1. LOB-Truman 2, Neshaminy 8. 2B-Clee. SAC-Br.Guidos, Coffman. SB-McDonald 2.
IP H R ER BB SO
Truman
Alligood (L) 6 6 3 3 4 7
Neshaminy
McGowan (W) 7 1 2 0 2 16
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