Check out the recaps for SOL teams in action in Wednesday’s second round of the District One 6A Tournament. Hatboro-Horsham/Neshaminy photos provided courtesy of Kim Supko. Pennsbury/Coatesville photos courtesy of Darryl Rule of J&D Photography. Check back for galleries of both games.
Class 6A
#1 PENNSBURY 5, #16 COATESVILLE 1
Pennsbury returned to action after an opening round bye, and although coach Frank McSherry, like many of his colleagues, is not especially fond of the week layoff, his Falcons’ squad – behind the
strong arm of Ainsley McClure – was pretty much in control from start to finish.
The Falcons’ offense came to life in the third inning when they put three runs on the scoreboard. Cait Martell led off the inning with a double, and Quinn McGonigle followed with a bunt single. Rowan Mulholland’s sacrifice fly brought Martell home with the game’s first run, and a two-run blast by Sammy Raub put the Falcons on top 5-0.
“She hit it to the top of the trees in left field,” McSherry said. “She hit a bomb.
“She’s been scuffling a little bit the last couple of games, so that was real big.”
One inning later, the Falcons tacked on a pair of runs. Presley Foote doubled to lead off the inning, and she scored on a sacrifice fly by 
Martell. McGonigle followed with a single, and she scored on Mulholland’s triple.
Paige Wilkins broke up Ainsley McClure’s shutout bid with a solo home run in the fifth. She had two of the Red Raiders’ eight hits.
McClure scattered eight hits while striking out 14 in the complete game win.
“They hit,” McSherry said. “Ainsley did a great job, but they had eight hits. They went up there hacking, no doubt about it. They were a good team.”
Mulholland was 2-for-2 with two RBIs and Raub was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.
Pennsbury (20-1, 16-0 SOL) will host #9 Garnet Valley in Friday’s quarterfinal round. The Jaguars upset #8 Owen J Roberts 2-0.
Coatesville 000 010 0 1-8-1
Pennsbury 003 200 x 5-10-1
#3 NORTH PENN 3, #14 AVON GROVE 0
The Knights haven’t had a whole lot of reasons to celebrate this year. Oh, there have been plenty of small celebrations, but no occasion when they really, really celebrated. That’s what happens when wins come easily and your 19 wins are by an average margin of more than 10 runs.
In Wednesday’s second round district game, Maddy Gronback changed all that, giving the Knights reason to celebrate like they’d never celebrated before this season, delivering a one-out, walk-off three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh that set off a giddy celebration the Knights didn’t want to end.
And it didn’t.
Gronback, in the middle of a postgame interview, was doused with water by ecstatic teammates. She didn’t mind a bit.
Her goal when she stepped to the plate with one out and runners on second and third of a scoreless game – thanks to a dazzling no-hitter in the circle by Julia Shearer – was simple.
“That last at-bat I just really wanted to provide for my team,” Gronback said. “Everybody did their job today. Even though it didn’t come through the way it usually does right away, we fought hard through that game to back up Julia. I just knew at that moment with runners in scoring position I had to do what I had to do to help and win this game.”
Making Gronback’s seventh inning heroics even more impressive was the fact that it came after she struck out in her two previous at-bats and was tempted on a 1-2 pitch that was out of the strike zone.
“I almost swung at it, for sure,” Gronback said. “They know I like that high stuff, and I really need to work on not swinging at that.
“When I took that pitch, I was like, ‘Okay, now that I got that under control, I can do it.’”
Only a last-second change of heart prevented coach Rick Torresani from calling for a squeeze play with a 2-2 count on Gronback.
“She had two really crazy at-bats, and when she came in, I went 2-2 and the third one was going to be squeeze, and I said, ‘Nah, let her hit,’” the Knights’ coach said.
That decision turned out to be a stroke of genius as Gronback ripped a shot that cleared the center field fence for the game-winner.
“I didn’t know if it was gone or not,” Gronback said. “It felt really good off the bat. I didn’t know if it was over, so I ran it out as if it wasn’t, but I just knew I would at least get Brie (Wilmot) to score on that. I was ecstatic – I’ve only had one other home run this season. That just felt amazing.”
Gronback’s journey reads like a storybook. Torresani explains.
“Her ninth grade year, she tore her ACL and did GameChanger for us,” the Knights’ coach said. “Tenth grade was COVID, and in 11th grade, she hurt it again, but she could do some things. Then she came out this year, and I said, ‘Earn this spot.’
“Halfway through the workouts in September, she earned it, and I told her, ‘You’re going to be our starting right fielder. Enjoy it, have fun your senior year,’ and she started to cry. I don’t think she knew she was going to end up starting. She worked so hard to get where she’s at. She lifts weight at Relentless (Athletics) all the time. She’s a strong girl, and if she gets ahold of it, that’s what happens.”
The Knights needed Gronback’s heroics on a day when the biggest story until her three-run blast was the inability of their usually explosive offense to generate any kind of threat. They had just one hit – a first inning single by Annabelle Smink – off of Avon Grove sophomore hurler Peyton Hale heading into the seventh inning.
“I was getting really nervous,” Shearer said. “The pitcher was throwing heat, and she was mixing up her stuff, keeping us off balance.
“Whoever was calling her pitches did a great job because they definitely kept us off-balance. She did a really good job of getting ahead of us, and with two strikes, we really had to battle it out. All credit to her, she was going really well. As it kept getting later in the game, I was getting worried, but I had confidence we would pull through.”
It speaks to the junior star’s level of excellence that her no-hitter seemed almost routine. Shearer fanned 16 – including 14 of the first 15 outs – and walked none in a 90-pitch masterpiece. Only a hit batter with two outs in the top of the fourth separated the Knights’ junior from a perfect game in yet another brilliant outing.
“She kept us in the game, and that was huge,” Torresani said. “She was hitting every spot. Anything I asked her to throw she threw. She was just right on, and she was throwing hard.”
Shearer, who exudes a quiet confidence in the circle, knew she was throwing a no-hitter.
“It was kind of in the back of my mind, but honestly, as long as no one got in scoring position, I was confident that we would get out of the inning with our strong defense and with me mixing my pitches,” she said. “I was hitting the outside corner, and they couldn’t seem to adjust to it. Later in counts, I would throw my change-up just to keep them off-balance, and if they would put it in play, it wouldn’t be very hard, which is why I like to throw that pitch so much.”
Extra innings appeared imminent after a sixth inning that saw the Knights’ one, two and three hitters go down on strikes, but Brie Wilmot gave her team life, drawing a nine-pitch walk that included fighting off one two-strike pitch after another.
“Brie had an amazing at-bat,” Shearer said. “It just kept getting me more and more hyped as it went on because she is such a great hitter, and I have so much confidence in her.”
Gianna Cimino followed, and the sophomore second baseman hit a hard shot off the pitcher for a single, putting a pair on board for Sophia Collins, whose sacrifice put runners on second and third and set the stage for Gronback.
“She was very nervous, and I told her right before she went up – ‘I have full confidence that you can come up for us,’ and she hit that,” Shearer said. “I was like – I knew it. As soon as it went off her bat, I was crazy hyped.
“We were getting tense as the game went on. Last year, we had no problem with the elimination side of things. It’s a whole different year. We adjusted to the pressure, and we played under pressure, which was a key part of this whole thing.”
“Good teams – they fight and they fight,” Torresani said. “That team fought just as hard as we did, and we just happened to beat them in the bottom of the seventh, getting a couple of girls on and Maddy hit a home run.”
For Gronback, there was never a doubt that this game belonged to the Knights.
“Before the game started, me and Sophia Collins – we told each other this wasn’t going to be our last game, so we knew,” Gronback said. “We knew we had to do it for each other.”
Hale allowed just three hits and three runs in 6.1 innings. She fanned eight and walked two.
North Penn (20-1, 15-1 SOL) will host #6 Hatboro-Horsham in a district quarterfinal on Friday.
Avon Grove 000 000 0 0-0-1
North Penn 000 000 3 3-3-0
#6 HATBORO-HORSHAM 3, #11 NESHAMINY 0
Kendal Leitner did it all.
The Hatters’ senior ace not only survived some early control issues to toss a complete game one-hit shutout, she also broke a scoreless tie with a towering solo home run with two out in the third. That run stood as the game-winner.
But first things first.
Leitner had been on something of a magical roll in the season’s closing weeks, tossing four straight shutouts and, in that span, striking out 57 and walking just five. In Wednesday’s second round contest, the Binghamton University bound senior walked the first batter she faced, and through three innings, she walked four and hit a batter. In each of those innings, the ‘Skins had runners in scoring position, including the third when – with two outs – she walked three straight batters after retiring the first two. In each case, Leitner came up with the big pitches to escape unscathed.
“Getting out on that mound, everything was bundled up, and even in my first at-bat, I was so tense,” Leitner said. “I just needed to relax myself, and everything fell into place.
“I definitely had the little nerves going, and I was trying to be a little too perfect with pitching. Then I heard my pitching coach in the back of my head saying, ‘Stop being perfect. What are you doing? Just throw,’ so then I started just throwing and it all started to fall in place. Everyone was making plays behind me, getting girls out and hitting the ball, there’s nothing more you can ask for.”
The Hatters, meanwhile, put their first two runners on board in the bottom of the first, thanks to back-to-back singles by Alyssa Tooley and Marissa Rapino. Neshaminy senior Amanda Slabicki slammed the door on that threat with three straight strikeouts.
Tooley led off the bottom of the third with a line single to left, but the Redskins turned a fly ball to second into a double play. That brought Leitner to the plate, and she lofted a high fly ball to the hill behind the left field fence for a solo shot that gave the Hatters the lead.
“I was telling myself, ‘Line drive, get a hit, get a hit, line drive,’” Leitner said. “Then that thing came out, and I was like ‘Oh my gosh. Great – did I just pull an outside ball and is it going to be a popup?’ But then everyone started cheering, and I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’”
“She had a great at-bat,” HH coach Kelly Krier said. “She battled, and the inning before she got out of the bases-loaded, so she had a lot of energy.”
Amya Lundy followed Leitner and was hit by a pitch to keep the inning alive, and she scored all the way from first when Abby Waeltz’s line single was misplayed and rolled to the outfield fence. Just like that, the Hatters led 2-0, and Leitner was in a groove the rest of the way.
“Once we got the runs, that’s when I felt relieved,” Leitner said. “I’m like, ‘All right, we got runs on the board, so we have some leeway. If we get girls on base, I don’t need to stress myself out because we’re not coming from behind.’
“They were strong, they were a very good team. They kept you on your toes. They could always get their bat on the ball. They were very, very good.”
The Hatters added an insurance run in the fifth. Tooley drew a leadoff walk, and Rapino hit a bloop single over second. The bases were loaded after Leitner drew a walk, and then Lundy was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game, this time pushing a run across for the 3-0 lead.
“They beat us last year and it was a tough loss,” said Leitner, who had not forgotten it was Neshaminy that handed the Hatters a 3-0 loss in the district quarterfinals. “We all wanted to win today. Maybe there was a little added motivation, but we stayed focus on the goal and thankfully we got the outcome we wanted.”
Tooley (2-for-3) and Rapino (2-for-4) led the Hatters’ seven-hit attack.
“Alyssa and Marissa did a really great job leading off for us,” Krier said. “Unfortunately, Neshaminy made a great defensive play (in the third) to get two outs, so Kendal kind of knew this was her moment. She battled and got ahold of one. It was high enough, I just wasn’t sure it was far enough. I heard it hit the ground – it was that thud of grass, not warning track.
“Then Amya (Lundy) coming up later on and getting hit twice by a pitch. She’s just such a tough kid, and Abby (Waeltz) battling through and having a great hit and Amya running the bases aggressively just getting it done.”
Krier also credited her team’s flawless defense.
“The infield was solid – they made great plays,” the Hatters’ coach said. “Neshaminy was putting the ball in play. They had a lot of spin on those hits.
“Marissa (Rapino) at shortstop and Alyssa (Tooley) at second base especially were sticking with it and they came up big. And Maddie (Karpovich) at first holding her ground and just being very dependable. I’m just very proud of these girls. Thinking where we started (1-3) and where we are now – early in the season, our mantra was, ‘It isn’t where you start, it’s where you finish.’ It was just a great team win today led by our seniors.”
For the Redskins, it was a disappointing end.
“It’s really hard to see this season end like this, especially because last year we won on this same exact field,” Michelle Baradziej said. “They came out, and we didn’t get calls the way we wanted to, but we needed to score to win. We have been on and off all season, and it was an off day.”
Slabicki’s leadoff single in the fifth broke up Leitner’s shutout bid.
“It all comes down to hitting,” Slabecki said. “That’s what you need to do to win. You need to hit to win.
“This was not the best ending, but these are the fun games. We always have fun. That’s our team motto – have fun while you play. We try and have as much fun as we can while still being focused on playing.”
“I used to play with their pitcher,” Zoe Shimp said. “So it was kind of fun. I had a really long (nine-pitch) at-bat against her. It turned out bad, but it was still a good at-bat. It was a good game.
“We came in knowing they were tough competition. They were good last year. We had a tough time beating them last year even with our power-hitting seniors, so we knew what we were facing. It just didn’t turn out our way.”
Hatboro-Horsham (17-3, 15-1 SOL) will travel to North Penn for a quarterfinal contest on Friday. It’s a rematch of a District One 6A playback game last year that saw the Hatters suffer a season-ending 1-0 loss to the Knights. Neshaminy (12-4 SOL) closed out its season with a 16-6 record.
Neshaminy 000 000 0 0-1-1
Hatboro-Horsham 002 010 x 3-7-0
#7 QUAKERTOWN 9, #10 RIDLEY 4
It was not the beginning the Panthers had hoped for as they found themselves on the short end of a 2-0 score before they ever came to bat, thanks to a two-run home run by Paige McLaughlin off the usually stingy Syd Andrews.
“With two outs and two strikes on the hitter, she just made a pretty bad pitch, and the girl hit it a mile,” Quakertown coach Dave Scott said.
That was only a temporary setback for Andrews and the Panthers.
“The key to the game was – we came back in the bottom of the first and put five on the board,” Scott said. “That was huge. The girls could have gone one or two ways with it, and I told them after the game – they could have lost their energy and gotten down on themselves, and instead they bounced right back. I think that inning pretty much won the game for us.”
Ava Beal and Emma Hilton hit back-to-back singles to lead off the first. Beal scored on a fielder’s choice, and Hilton came home when Andrews lined a single to left. Two outs later, Skyler Williams stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and smashed a bases-clearing triple to right field for a 5-2 lead.
In the bottom of the third, Maya Hellyer drew a leadoff walk, and Leah Schwalm singled to left. One out later, Williams delivered a two-run single to center, capping a five-RBI day at the plate.
In the fourth inning, Katie Muller reached first on an error, and Andrews followed with a ground single to left. A walk to Hellyear loaded the bases, and Schwalm brought a pair home with a line drive single to center.
The Green Raiders added a pair of runs in the fifth when Jolie Torrens hit a two-run home run to center field for the 9-4 final.
Andrew allowed just four hits in the complete game win and four runs while striking out 11 and walking one.
“From a pitching perspective, Sydney actually pitched pretty well,” Scott said. “She only gave up four hits. It’s just that two of them were home runs. She made two bad pitches to good hitters, and they did what they’re supposed to do with them. It was just location.
“She just missed her spot on both those pitches, and they were a little elevated, and both girls jumped on them, but other than that, she pitched pretty well.”
Andrews also had a big day at the plate, finishing 3-for-4 with one RBI. Beal (2-for-4, R), Schwalm (2-for-4, R, 2 RBIs) and Williams (2-for-3, 3B, 5 RBIs) also had multiple hits.
“My freshman jayvee call-up, Leah Schwalm, has been doing very well in practice,” Scott said. “She had a great practice yesterday, and I talked with the other coaches and said, ‘We have to give this kid a shot.’ I think she hit .600-.700 for jayvee, and she hit a little bit for us the time she had at-bats in the regular season, so I just rolled the dice and said, ‘Let’s put her in there as our designated player,’ and she was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. She came within three feet of hitting a grand slam. It was pretty impressive. She was cool as a cucumber. I checked on her a couple of times – ‘Are you okay? Are you nervous?’ She was like, ‘I’m fine, coach.’ That was fun to watch.”
Quakertown (18-3, 14-2 SOL) will travel to #2 Spring-Ford for a quarterfinal contest on Friday.
Ridley 200 020 0 4-4-3
Quakertown 502 200 x 9-10-1
#2 SPRING-FORD 3, #18 SOUDERTON 2
Someone apparently forgot to tell the Indians that the 18 seed isn’t supposed to hang around in a game against the two seed. The Indians were in this one to the final out against the heavily favored Rams, but in the end, it came down to a three-run fifth inning that propelled the Rams to the hard-fought win.
“We played really, really well,” Souderton coach Carol Atkinson said. “It was a great game. My heart breaks for the girls, but they gave 110 percent, and they never gave up.”
The Indians took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Taylor Nelson, who singled, scored on Lily Ponce’s two-out double to center field. That lead stood until the bottom of the fifth when the Rams – benefitting from an error – scored three runs.
Souderton didn’t go down quietly, mounting a rally in the top of the seventh when Megan Kummery, who reached base on an error to open the inning, scored on Kayley York’s one-out double to center field. Riley York was intentionally walked to put a pair on board with one out, but Jules Scogna closed it out with a ground out and pop out, bringing the Indians’ season to an end.
“They went out with a bang,” Atkinson said. “They didn’t give up. They battled until the last out. Your heart aches. There were a lot of tears.
“Spring-Ford played a great game. Best of luck to them. We gave it our all.”
Abby Burns absorbed the loss, allowing six hits and three runs (one earned) while striking out six and walking one.
“She pitched a phenomenal game,” Atkinson said. “All the seniors are definitely going to be missed and are going to be very hard to replace.”
Souderton (9-7 SOL) closed out its season with a 13-9 record.
Souderton 010 000 1 2-7-2
Spring-Ford 000 030 x 3-6-2
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