New Hope-Solebury captured the program’s first ever District 1 3A softball crown with a win over top-seeded MaST Charter on Tuesday. (Team photo courtesy of Kim Wilson/selfie courtesy of Coach Erica Rudysyle)
District 1 4A title game
#2 NEW HOPE-SOLEBURY 17, #1 MaST CHARTER 1 (5 innings)
The Lions continued to rewrite program history, capturing their first ever District 1 4A title with a mercy rule win over top-seeded MaST Charter.
“This is all new territory for the Lady Lions,” NH-S coach Chris Marchok said. “We had been in this game before, but this is the first time it wasn’t the end of the season for us.
“It’s big. It’s filling up some banners in our gym that never had numbers on them, which is a lot of fun. Everyone seems to focus on that quite a bit, so that’s good.”
The team celebrated after Tuesday’s historic win, and the players doused their coach with water.
But through it all, they’ve remained remarkably focused.
“I know it sounds like coach speak – I get that, but we continue to try and focus on one pitch at a time and one at-bat at a time because it is all brand new territory,” Marchok said. “This is more wins than we’ve had every year since 2019 combined, so if we sit there and start thinking about how awesome it is – ‘Whoa, this is a pressure game,’ then it all goes away, and the kids don’t perform the way we know they can perform and have performed.
“We are just really, really trying to focus on ‘let’s do what we do, and let’s follow the process.’ I was talking to my pitchers on the way home on the bus, and I was saying ,’This is the same as when a pitcher goes 3-0 with the bases loaded and the winning run’s on third. Do you tell yourself – ‘Oh my god, I have to throw a strike,’ or do you tell yourself, ‘All right, I need to get my rhythm, and I need to throw a good strike.’ I have a lot better chance of success keeping everybody focused on one pitch at a time.
“I know that’s boring, and it’s not fun stuff, but honestly, that’s been my formula with volleyball when those kids way outperformed what we expected of them, and that’s been our formula with these guys. These young women have way outperformed anything we’ve ever expected.”
They certainly outperformed a top-seeded MaST Charter team, scoring early and often.
“Quite frankly, I’ve got kids that I respect and trust,” Marchok said. “When I ask them to put the team in front of themselves, I believe that they will, and that’s a testament to a bunch of 16- and 17-year-old women.”
Elena Shire led off the top of the first with a single. Hers was the only hit in the four-run inning that included three walks, a hit batter and an error. Mabel Klossner’s run-scoring double accounted for a run in a two-run second inning. It was a trend that continued for five innings until the game was halted for the mercy rule.
New Hope-Solebury players with two hits included Klossner (2-for-3, 2B, RBI, 2R), Amelia Mobley (2-for-2, RBI, R) and Emily Wilson (2-for-3, 2 RBIs, 2R). Helen Knapp was 1-for-2 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Anna Cornwall, Dagny Mobley, Izzy Elizondo, Ella Dudick and Bianca Elizondo each added one RBI.
Dagny Mobley (3 IP, 2H 1R, 1ER, 5 K, 1 BB) and Klossner (2.0 IP, 1H, 0 R, 4 Ks) combined for the win in the circle.
“Today, I was thrilled,” Marchok said. “Every single kid that was able to get into the game today – I had one kid that wasn’t able to play today, but every other kid got into the game. I hate scores like this, but the fifth inning starts, and it’s 10-1. I’m like – ‘Great, everybody’s getting in.’ These kids that haven’t played in three weeks, they’re in there, and they’re hitting the ball.
“If it was my starters, I’d run them off the base, and we’d go back out and we’d get them. I’m literally talking to the third base umpire. I said, ‘I feel like a jerk not running my kids off, but you tell me what you’d do right now.’ I said, ‘I have six hitters in a row right now who haven’t played in a game in four weeks. Is it fair for me to not let them at least take a swing,’ and he actually said, ‘Coach, you’re doing a good job with this, you’re going base to base. There’s nothing obnoxious with what you’re doing,’ so I did. I went base to base – we didn’t go home when balls got by (the catcher), but I felt badly, and I talked to the other coach who I’m friends with, and she understood.”
Tuesday’s district title win comes on the heels of capturing a share of the program’s first ever division title with William Tennent and Upper Moreland.
“Honestly, to be able to compete with Rich Clark and his crew over (at William Tennent) and the girls at Upper Moreland,” Marchok said. “To be able to go in and play the way that we did today, it is just a huge credit to the kids and their staying power.
“Kids are kids. You continue to throw big challenges like year after year has been for us, but they’ve stuck it out. Some of the leadership on this team – the kids have been there three, four years, and they haven’t found a lot of success on the field, and yet, they keep coming back. They’re wonderful kids, tremendous teammates, so it’s just my obligation to try and keep them grounded and let them do the best they can, and that’s what they did today.”
New Hope-Solebury (13-7, 11-5 SOL) is off until Friday, May 31, when the Lions will face the District XI champion in a regional play-in game.
New Hope-Solebury 422 27 17-11-1
MaST Charter 010 00 1-3-8
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