District One champion North Penn saw its season end while Central Bucks South saw its season continue with a win in Tuesday’s PIAA Class AAAA opener.
North Penn took on a Lower Dauphin squad that brought a dazzling 24-2 record into Tuesday’s PIAA Class AAAA opener at Spring-Ford. The Trojans were seeded first entering the District 3 Tournament but were upset by Central Dauphin in the district semifinal. The District One champion Maidens, who fell behind early, never could solve the mystery of pitcher Katie Moosic in a 3-1 loss. Lower Dauphin will face Pennsbury in Thursday’s quarterfinal at Lyons Field in Fleetwood at noon.
Central Bucks South rode the hot bat and strong arm of senior Haileigh Stocks to earn a convincing 8-1 win over District 11 champion Liberty at Pates Park in Allentown. The Titans will face District 12 champion St. Hubert’s in a state quarterfinal game on Thursday at noon at Spring-Ford High School. Hatboro-Horsham will take on Bishop Shanahan in an early-awaited rematch at 2 p.m. on Thursday at Spring-Ford.
(1-3) CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 8, (11-1) LIBERTY 1
Haileigh Stocks undoubtedly would have been happy to pack her equipment and make a hasty exit after Tuesday night’s big win at Pates Park. The Titans’ senior hurler didn’t have that option.
Hitting a pair of three-run homers and earning the win on the mound ensured that the senior standout was the center of attention long after the final out had been recorded.
“She just hit a popup, and the wind took it out,” coach Dan Hayes deadpanned.
The wind had nothing to do with a pair of Stocks’ home runs that cleared the outfield fence and propelled the Titans to the decisive win
“She has been swinging the bat real good,” Hayes said. “She went through a little bit of funk in the middle of the year, but she got it back again, and she’s swinging the bat good.”
Stocks acknowledged that she had never hit two home runs in a game before.
“Not in a game that mattered, at least,” the Titans’ senior pitcher said.
Stocks’ first blast came with two outs in the fourth after the Hurricanes committed back-to-back errors that kept the inning alive, and this one turned a tenuous 2-1 lead into a 5-1 advantage for the Titans.
In the sixth inning, Kim got things started with a leadoff single to right and moved up to second on Alyssa Virginio’s sacrifice bunt. Jae Epstein legged out a bunt single to put a pair of Titan base runners on board, and Stocks emptied the bases with another shot over the fence – this one clearing the left center field fence.
“I thought they were line drives to left center, and I thought they were going to one-hop into the fence, so I was just trying to get a double out of it,” Stocks said.
Earlier, the Hurricanes took a 1-0 lead in the second on an RBI single by pitcher Erin Wilson, but the Titans had an answer in the top of the third. Virginnio led off with a single up the middle and moved up to second on Epstein’s sacrifice. Morgan Decker followed and lofted an RBI double to left center to knot the score. Lauren Klepchick’s double to deep right gave the Titans a lead they would not lose.
“She was a good pitcher,” Klepchick said of 50-game winner Erin Wilson. “She was one of the best pitchers we have seen. She wasn’t overpowering, but she moved the ball inside and out. She did a great job.”
Stocks got out of a two-out, bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the third, and after one-two-three fourth, Stocks found herself staring at another bases-loaded jam in the fifth, this one with no outs. The senior hurler delivered back-to-back strikeouts – both called third strikes on nasty drop curves, and then coaxed a harmless grounder to Decker at third for the inning’s final out.
“She threw two real good pitches for called third strikes,” Hayes said.
“It was tough in the beginning because I don’t think my pitches were moving as much,” said Stocks, who fanned eight. “Toward the end, I started moving them more, and it caught them off guard because I was throwing them for strikes.”
The Titans played flawless defense behind Stocks and came up with several gems. Morgan Decker was involved in several. Twice in the second inning, the senior third baseman gunned down the Hurricanes’ lead runner at second base on sacrifice bunt attempts, but the play of the game that evoked appreciative applause from fans on both sides came in the fourth when she snagged a screaming line heading for her face. The hard-hit ball popped out of Decker’s glove, but she came up with it a second time. Whether it was self defense – as Decker suggested – or skill, it was a highlight reel play.
Late in the game, rightfielder Ali Horvath came up with a brilliant running catch going away, robbing Lauren Epsaro of extra bases.
“Overall, our defense was good,” Hayes said. “They played solid. I just told them – if we play up to the way we can, there shouldn’t be a problem.”
The Titans, who outhit the Hurricanes 10-8, were led by the two-hit efforts of Stocks and Klepchick.
The Titans advance to the Elite Eight where they will face St. Hubert’s.
“It’s such a good feeling at this point,” Klepchick said. “All eight of us are graduating, and we want to go out winning it all and having fun.”
(3-3) LOWER DAUPHIN 3, (1-1) NORTH PENN 1
Jess Mower smiled when she reflected on her final high school season just completed.
“Being with this team has been so much fun,” the senior captain said. “They really wanted it, and they really worked as a team to get to where we are today.
“That district championship was a lot of fun to win.”
When asked if the magnitude of winning a coveted district crown had sunk in, Mower admitted that it had not.
“Probably in the middle of July, I’ll wake up and say, ‘My god, we won the district championship,’” she said.
The Maidens season ended on Tuesday because they never could find their offense against Lower Dauphin pitcher Katie Moosic. They managed one single in four of the first six innings before plating a seventh-inning run. It wasn’t the fact that Moosic was overpowering. In fact, the exact opposite was true. Moosic’s speed was a marked contrast to flame-throwing Kate Poppe’s deliveries in Thursday’s district title game.
“It’s always hard to adjust, especially since we came off all the really fast pitchers in our district,” Mower said. “She was good. She had good placement, and that also helped her a lot, but we just couldn’t see it well enough to get those hits going.”
The top five hitters in North Penn’s lineup were a collective 2-for-15 with Alexa Gable and Michelle Holweger each contributing a single.
“(We) do well against fast pitching,” coach Rick Torresani said. “Our downfall all year has been against somebody that throws the ball with a little bit of spin.
“When we go against someone fast, they seem to thrive on that. With the slow stuff, it takes a while to get to it, and we didn’t bunch our hits. That was critical.”
The Trojans served early notice that they did indeed boast some big bats in their lineup. East Carolina-bound Casey Alcorn got things started with a leadoff single to center, and after she was erased at second base on a fielder’s choice by Krista Hoffman, Elaine Gross followed with a bloop single to left. Sophomore Madison Kotchey delivered the inning’s big blow, a two-run double to deep left center, and just like that, the Trojans led 2-0.
“They got a couple of bloop hits in the first inning and then the double, and that hurt us,” Torresani said. “My thinking is we’re going to come back on this kid, and we’re going to score some runs. I wasn’t worried at all, but we just didn’t hit the ball at the right time.”
The Trojans tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh, and the Maidens’ offense showed signs of life in the bottom of the inning. Vicky Tumasz hit a one-out single to center, and with two outs, junior Jenn Halcovage ripped an RBI double to deep right center that put the Maidens on the scoreboard. The rally ended when Moosic coaxed a ground ball to short out of the next batter she faced for the game’s final out.
Halcovage, who had a pair of hits, was the lone Maiden to collect multiple hits.
“I just needed to relax – that’s all it really was,” the Maidens’ shortstop said. “I just tried to do what I could.
“We all knew we could do it today, but we were hitting it at people, which was definitely frustrating. We have been behind before, but we just didn’t have the ball dropping in the holes when we needed to.”
While the Maidens managed just six hits off of Moosic, the Trojans collected 10 off of freshman Jackie Bilotti.
“Jackie pitched great,” Torresani said. “She wasn’t as good as she has been throughout districts, especially when we played Shanahan, but she did well against a good hitting team.”
The Maidens closed out the year with an 18-8 record and, more importantly, the school’s first district title since 1985.
“These kids just played their hearts out this year and went to places no other North Penn team has gone to, so I’m very proud of them,” Torresani said. “They fought to the bitter end.”
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