Looking for the SOL's hottest team? Look no further than Central Bucks South.
The Titans may have given critics plenty to talk about after dropping their first game of the season to Council Rock North, but since then, they’ve been mighty close to perfect, winning eight straight.
Junior Fran Carrullo and sophomore Haileigh Stocks have been all but impossible to score upon as evidenced by the fact that the Titans have allowed just one run in their eight-game winning streak.
In many ways, the Titans’ early-season loss to Rock North may have been a blessing in disguise, and Carrullo admits the team had to change its mindset after that setback.
“We (the captains) tried to remind the team that we’re not just CB South,” the Titans’ junior mound ace said. “We’re not just going to take over everybody. We’ve got to play the game.
“Yes, (Rock North’s) hits did find holes, and we did make little mistakes, but I think we definitely learned from that game.”
If the Titans wanted to make a statement, they did just that in their 10-0 win over North Penn in a battle of the Continental Conference’s top two squads, and there’s no arguing that a trip to the top of the conference standings still goes through Central Bucks South.
In the National Conference, Pennsbury once again proved that no team is better at winning the big games than the Falcons, who eked out a 2-1 win over archrival Neshaminy in Thursday’s showdown. It didn’t help the Redskins’ cause that they were without the centerpiece of their lineup and infield - shortstop and clean-up batter Christina Udris, who is sidelined with a knee injury.
Norristown has established itself as the team to beat in the American Conference. The defending champions fell to Wissahickon but came back to earn huge wins over Plymouth Whitemarsh and Upper Dublin. While the Eagles have one loss, the Colonials and Flying Cardinals both have two.
And don’t count Wissahickon out just yet. The Trojans, who are 3-3 in the league, are undoubtedly flying high after sophomore Katie Ziegler’s gem on Friday when she tossed a perfect game, leading the Trojans to a 6-0 win over Upper Moreland.
So you want to be a pitcher – Ellie White isn’t a jealous person by nature, but it would be hard to blame the Abington coach if she were just a bit envious of some of her counterparts in the National Conference who boast an abundance of pitching.
“They have a million pitchers, and every pitcher is as good as the next one,” White said.
With the graduation of Tegan Wendell – a pitcher out of necessity her final two years at Abington, White was forced to find a new pitcher this season.
Kelly Lyons - who threw a few innings of jayvee last year – was in line to be the starting second baseman this year. Instead, she became the latest ‘pitcher out of necessity’ for the Ghosts.
“I gave the ball to Kelly, and she wanted no parts of it,” White said with a laugh. “She was worse than Tegan, but she goes out every time with a smile on her face and throws strikes.
“She is just going out there saying, ‘Here you go, let my defense do it.’ I give her all the credit. She hates every second of it, but she does it because she’s a good kid.”
On Friday, Lyons threw a no hitter in the Ghosts’ 10-0 win over Bensalem.
“I don’t think she realized it until after the game when I gave out the game balls, and I said that she pitched a no hitter,” White said. “Her jaw just about dropped to the ground. Kelly definitely did an awesome job.”
While Lyons is ‘taking one for the team’ every time she steps on the mound, Kim Begley, the heart and soul of this year’s Ghost squad, has moved from third base to shortstop.
“She is my team,” White said. “She pretty much does it all. She’s a great shortstop – she never played short before, but she’s coming in and doing the job like she’s been doing it all her life.
“Since her freshman year, she’s never missed a game. She will be missed next year.”
The Ghosts have won four of their last five games, including a 5-4 win over Harry S. Truman.
“Every league game is a big win, and that was definitely a clutch win for us,” White said of the Truman win. “We’re hanging in there, and we’re competitive with every team, and that’s all I can ask for right now.”
Let’s play seven – Pennridge should be forgiven if its players and coaches were surprised to find out a regulation softball game really only lasts seven innings.
After all, prior to Friday’s heartstopping 9-8 win over North Penn – a game that was one hit away from extra innings, the Rams had played in four consecutive extra-inning games.
“In 20 years of high school softball, I don’t recall four in a row that were like this,” coach Scott Didra said. “You’d like to have some breather games, but you don’t have them in our league. Our league is full of good pitching and full of good teams.”
The extra-inning streak began with a 2-0 loss to Central Bucks East in eight innings. That was followed by an 11-inning marathon against Christopher Dock that the Rams won 7-6. Then came a 4-3 eight-inning heartbreaker to Hatboro-Horsham that saw the Hatters – with no one on base and down to their final out - score a pair with two outs in the seventh to knot the score.
“That was rough,” Didra said. “We had one error. Murphy’s Law was not on our side – the error came on a ball that should have ended the game in the seventh.”
For an encore, the Rams went 10 innings with neighboring Souderton before they fell 7-5 in 10 innings using the international tiebreaker rules. Again, the Rams committed their only error of the game at the most inopportune time – in the bottom of the 10th inning.
“I needed to breathe a little before I could talk to them after that game,” Didra said. “I was shell shocked as well.
“I told them, ‘Unfortunately, in these games, someone has to lose, and we’ve been struck in three out of four games. We’re playing very exciting softball, and we’re right there. We have 10 more games to play. Keep fighting.’”
The Rams kept fighting, and they came up with the monster win over North Penn on Friday (See the SOL Softball Wrap: 4-23-10).
Leading the Rams this season has been senior lead-off batter Alicia Detweiler, who started the season 1-for-7 but is now hitting .457 with nine runs scored.
“She’s such a gamer,” Didra said. “When she comes up, you know something good is going to happen or it could happen.”
Sophomore Emily Hofmann is batting at a torrid .556 clip (15-for-27) with seven RBIs, a double, two triples and a home run.
“She’s done a good job for us in the circle, and when we put her behind the plate, she’s a solid catcher,” Didra said. “She’s the real deal.”
Another ‘real deal’ player for the Rams is freshman Paige Decew, who shares the pitching/catching duties with Hofmann.
“She’s pitching very well,” Didra said.
The Rams are 3-4 in league play and 7-4 overall.
Short season – Plymouth Whitemarsh is going to try the nifty little trick of playing 17 games in one month and three days.
In other words, the Colonials will be playing their entire season in just over a month.
On Monday, they suffered their seventh postponement of the season. Four were because of rain, two because of the passing of PW senior Denise Cotteta and one because of an opposing school’s date conflict with a junior prom.
“We’re really backed up, but it worked for us in that we had a few players hurt, and one of them is my second pitcher, Erika Miller,” coach Rich Server said. “She came back, and she hadn’t done a thing for a month.”
All Miller did was come out and throw 75 pitches in a seven-inning 9-1 win over Springfield on Friday.
“She finished with a two-hitter and just was marvelous,” Server said.
Miller is the back-up to mound ace Alycia Sabol.
“They kind of compete a little bit – it’s friendly competition, but Alycia knows she’s not the whole nine yards, and both of them can work together to do the best they can do,” Server said. “They definitely will get a chance to recover because I usually alternate them.
“Weirdly enough, the schedule has worked to our advantage.”
Miller, a sophomore, is 8-0 in her two years on the varsity.
“She’s not an overpowering pitcher, but she just throws strikes,” Server said.”The team plays very well behind her because they know she’s not going to strike everybody out, and consequently, they’re ready to make the plays.
“Alycia strikes a few more out, but she doesn’t walk many either, and the kids are fortunate to play behind two pitchers like that.”
The Colonials did not play their first game of the season until April 14 - a 3-1 win over Upper Merion. That was followed by back-to-back losses to Upper Dublin (2-0) and Norristown (6-5).
“The pitchers are usually ahead of the hitters, and I think that was true,” Server said. “We haven’t been hitting, but Friday, they were sitting back very nicely and hitting line drives. They were doing everything well.
“We’re hopeful. Unfortunately, those two losses at the beginning could cost us at the end.”
The duo of Miller and Sabol boast a combined earned run average in the neighborhood of 1.00. In five games, the Colonials have allowed just 10 runs – seven in the two losses.
“Other than that, we’ve played very, very well,” Server said. “We’re hoping it gets better and better and better as the weeks go on, but then again, we only have three weeks left, so there are not many weeks to go.”
The Colonials are 3-2 in league play.
A team effort – Central Bucks East, behind the strong arm of pitcher Robyn Ziegler, pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season when the Patriots downed Hatboro-Horsham 2-1.
In that win, sophomore rightfielder Kaylynn Johnson had several big defensive plays, including a double play on a fly ball to right that killed a potential Hatter rally in the sixth when they had two on board with one out. She also had several big catches.
Making her performance especially noteworthy was the fact that two games earlier, she had a pair of errors in the first inning in her debut in right field against Quakertown after serving as the Patriots’ designated player.
“She’s such a team player, and she came up to me after the inning and said, ‘Coach, do you want to put somebody else out there?’” coach Erin Scott said. “What kind of kid does that?
“We do this thing after a game where we give a ball out. Every area of the ball has a word on it. For the first game, the word was prepared, and the second game it was consistent. She got the ball for ‘Consistent MVP.’ I think she felt like ‘This is only our third game, and I’m letting my team down.’”
Johnson was removed from the game, but it didn’t mark the end of her career in right field. Just the opposite. She’s been back ever since and has been solid.
“I grabbed her after the (Quakertown) game and said, ‘I know you made some errors, but your team picked you up. You’re such a great kid, you’re the kind of kid that’s just a team player. When you’re not having your best performance, you recognized it, and you’d rather have somebody else out there who could do the job,’” Scott said. “I was so excited for her in that Hatboro game because she had four catches and that huge play where she came up really big and threw the girl out at first.”
According to Scott, the win over the Hatters was a team effort.
“I don’t care if you were on the bench or a starter or if you got an opportunity to play, it’s about knowing your role on the team and doing your best in that role - even if it’s cheering on the sidelines because you’re injured or cheering on the sidelines because you’re not a starting player,” the Patriots’ coach said. “That’s the mentality I’m trying to create – a sense of unity and cohesion. I’m hoping we can continue that.”
SuburbanOneSports.com’s Fab Five
- Central Bucks South (8-1) (The Titans have reeled off eight straight wins after a season-opening loss. They’ve allowed just one run in that span.)
- Pennsbury (8-2) (The Falcons proved they are once again the team to beat in the National Conference with their impressive 2-1 win over Neshaminy on the Redskins’ home field.)
- Neshaminy (7-1) (The Redskins, despite the absence of senior standout Christina Udris, gave the Falcons all they could handle before falling by one.)
- Hatboro-Horsham (7-2) (The Hatters dropped a pair but have since won three in a row and are still a force to contend with in the Continental Conference.)
- Souderton (7-3) (The Indians had CB South on the ropes before falling 3-1, and after a tough loss to North Penn, they came back to down Pennridge and CB East.)
Under consideration: Norristown (7-1) (The Eagles are the team to beat in the American Conference with their only blemish a loss to Wissahickon.) Council Rock North (6-3) (The vastly improved Indians are making some noise in the National Conference.)
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