Pennsbury & North Penn advanced to Thursday’s District One 6A title game with wins on Tuesday. Quakertown earned a state berth with a hard-fought win over Hatboro-Horsham. Pennsbury/Haverford photos provided courtesy of Darryl Rule of J&D Photography. Quakertown/Hatboro-Horsham pictures courtesy of Tracy Valko. Check back for galleries of both games. All SOS photo galleries for SOFTBALL can be viewed by clicking HERE. (NP photos courtesy of Marlee Doherty/NP Softball)
District One 6A semifinals
#1 PENNSBURY 2, #4 HAVERFORD 0
Laney Freiband is an advertisement for doing the little things. And doing them correctly
Twice she stepped to the plate in Tuesday’s district semifinal and was given the bunt sign. On her first in the bottom of the second inning, she successfully laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved Sammy Raub, who led off the inning with a single, to second. The Falcons couldn’t push a run across, but Freiband did her job.
Her second was much more critical. It came in the bottom of the sixth with one out and runners on second and third in a scoreless ballgame, and on this one, Quinn McGonigle was breaking for home on a suicide squeeze. Freiband – who was given one swing and fouled off the pitch – laid down a perfect one-strike bunt that easily plated McGonigle with a run that turned out to be the game-winner.
“Going up my first at-bat, I saw the sign, and I was kind of nervous, but it was okay, and I got it down,” Freiband said. “The second one was really exciting because we had second and third, so I figured it if got it down, the girls would get it and score.
“In the moment, you hope for the best, but it’s exciting. I feel like that inning was our time to be ready and score. I think we felt it in the dugout too that we were going to score that inning.”
In a game where runs were difficult – if not impossible to come by – it took a pair of miscues to set up the game-winner in the bottom of the sixth. This on the heels of a fifth inning that saw the Falcons put runners on second and third with one out and come up empty, thanks to back-to-back strikeouts by Yale University-bound senior Emma Taylor and a harmless fly ball to center field.
“A big part of it is – we have to stay up in the dugout,” senior Quinn McGonigle said. “If we don’t, we kind of fall down.”
“Energy depletes – it’s natural,” senior Ainsley McClure said. “We found ourselves a little behind energy-wise. I think we needed to take that minute and reflect – the next game is the district championship. Feed off that.
“People get tired, and it’s hot, but we feed off each other. Even if it’s just a good at-bat and it results in an out, something good for the team lifts us all up.”
The Falcons got an almost immediate lift in the top of the sixth when – after the Fords collected a one-out single – catcher Rowan Mulholland picked off the runner at first base.
In the bottom of the inning, McGonigle led off the inning, and her pop fly to the infield deflected off the glove of the shortstop, who lost it in the sun. Then Mulholland lofted a fly ball to shallow right that was dropped, putting runners on second and third with no outs. Taylor came up with a huge strikeout for the inning’s first out, but that brought Freiband to the plate for the run-scoring bunt. A second run crossed the plate when Ava Storlazzi singled to left.
“We hadn’t executed up to that point, but Laney executed, which was really big,” Pennsbury coach Frank McSherry said. “And then Ava came up next and got a basehit. That was nice, but we should have scored a couple more.”
That was more than enough for McClure, who tossed a four-hit complete game shutout in the oppressive heat. On the heels of Friday’s perfect game, the senior standout retired the first 10 batters she faced, striking out six. The Fords collected their first hit on a one-out infield single in the fourth.
Seeing her streak of perfect innings come to an end mattered not at all to McClure.
“That’s never how I take the game,” she said. “The game is one pitch at a time, one batter at a time. It’s the same philosophy for hitting and pitching. First pitch to last pitch – every single one matters.”
McClure escaped a second and third, one-out jam in the fifth, collecting the first out when the Haverford batter stepped on the plate while bunting and closing out the inning with a strikeout.
“She picked us up, Ainsley picked us up,” McSherry said. “She made pitches when she had to make pitches, and we were fortunate, we were really fortunate. She was certainly the MVP today, there’s no doubt about it.”
McClure struck out 12 and did not walk a batter.
“All of us were definitely sweating today, I’ll say that,” McClure said. “But I don’t think the heat factors into how we play because most of us play travel ball. We play in 100-degree heat in Atlanta in the middle of the summer. It’s hard to blame something on the weather, so don’t. Just go after it.”
Tuesday’s semifinal was a rematch of last year’s state semifinal that saw the Fords hand the Falcons a 2-1 defeat that brought an end to their successful season. Last year’s Pennsbury squad – also the district’s top seed – was the sixth place team out of District One.
“We’re a different team than we were last year,” McGonigle said. “There’s something amongst everybody – you can tell – that’s stronger. Even though we have similar people, there’s something different this year.”
The Falcons managed just four hits off Taylor, who struck out six and walked one.
“We knew coming in their pitcher is really strong,” senior Caitlyn Martell said. “She held us down last year. We’ve seen she’s had a successful year this year, so we knew coming in we had to be smart. It feels good to beat them after they beat us last year.
“This is huge. We take one game at a time and being in the district final is really exciting.”
The Falcons’ celebration when it was over was subdued.
“It’s the little victories,” McClure said. “Not that this is little at all, but this marks a great achievement. The fact that we won against Haverford especially – they put up a great fight, they’re a great team, their pitcher is amazing. Last year they beat us fair and square, and this year I think it means a little bit extra.”
Pennsbury (22-1, 16-0 SOL) will face #3 North Penn in an all-SOL District One 6A final on Thursday at Spring-Ford.
Haverford 000 000 0 0-4-2
Pennsbury 000 001 x 2-4-0
#3 NORTH PENN 5, #2 SPRING-FORD 2
Things did not look promising.
As a matter of fact, they looked downright bleak for the Knights, who had just two hits through six innings and were down to their final three outs in a game they trailed 2-0. That’s when the bottom of the order came to the rescue. In a big way.
Senior Maddy Gronback – who a week earlier smashed a three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh to defeat Avon Grove 3-0 – set the tone for the Knights’ improbable comeback when she lined a leadoff single to center.
“My thoughts were definitely to just start it off, get something going because I knew I had to provide for the team, and any little spark would have started it,” Gronback said.
“That was huge,” junior Reyna Doherty said of Gronback’s leadoff single. “We needed a spark. Honestly, I was doubting it in the seventh inning, but we’re one of those teams – as long as we get it started, we can keep it going, and that’s what we needed.
One out later, Doherty – hitting out of the nine hole – poked a single over the third baseman’s head after showing bunt and then pulling back and swinging away.
“That’s something I’ve been working on, and I think it helps me see the ball better,” Doherty said. “Since Maddy was on, it helped me move her around. I just poked it in the hole and hoped something would happen.”
Suddenly, the Knights, who barely had a pulse moments earlier, had life with runners on the corners and one out.
Julia Shearer lined an RBI single to center, and Sarah Sabocsik legged out a bunt single to load the bases. Annabelle Smink’s grounder to second in a drawn-in infield turned into disaster for the Rams when an errant throw for the forceout at home went to the backstop, allowing a pair of runs – including the go-ahead run – to score.
“I knew we were going to fight back,” Shearer said. “I knew we were not done. We really proved that.
“Knowing that the bottom of our order can produce extremely well, it’s so comforting as a pitcher because in the late innings, they came up clutch, and it 
just gives momentum to the top of the order, and that’s huge. We’re really lucky that our seven-eight-nine are really clutch.”
With two outs, the Rams committed yet another error, and two more runs crossed the plate. Just like that a 2-0 deficit had turned into a 5-2 lead, and the Knights were three outs away from a trip to the district final.
Shearer allowed a one-out single in the bottom of the seventh but struck out the next two batters she faced, and the come-from-behind win was in the books.
“I wanted to get to the (championship) game so bad,” Gronback said. “The last time I got to see a district championship was my freshman year, and I was hurt, so I didn’t get to play in it. For the past four years, that’s the goal.”
The Rams’ seventh inning single was their lone baserunner over the final four innings as Shearer, who struck out four through the first three innings fanned seven in the next three. She acknowledged the sweltering heat took some getting used to on Tuesday.
“The weather played a huge part in it – I was dying out there,” Shearer said. “Between every pitch, I just took a breath and was like, ‘One more pitch, one more pitch.’ I had to keep going.
“It wasn’t my cleanest game, and in the early innings, it was a little messy, but as I kept getting comfortable and getting to know the batters, it helped me come up with a plan. It became easier. The innings were cleaner, my pitches were better, our defense was good, and that really helped as the innings went on.”
The Rams took a 2-0 lead after an uncharacteristic two-out miscue on a strikeout kept the inning alive and set the stage for a two-run double by Riley Ganrasz. Those runs loomed large since Spring-Ford’s Jules Scogna had a no-hitter though five innings.
In the end, it was Shearer walking away with the win, allowing four hits and two runs (both unearned) while striking out 13 and walking none.
“(Julia) kept us in it,” North Penn coach Rick Torresani said. “I don’t know how many strikeouts she had – if we throw to first on that one strikeout, they don’t score those two runs.
“But they come out and they play to the last out. You can’t ask for anything more. We’re doing it a different way this year. It’s tough on the coaches, but we’re loving it. Just loving the way these kids come together. They’re a team. The chemistry from one to 17 is unbelievable, and they just don’t give up.”
North Penn (22-1, 15-1 SOL) will face #1 Pennsbury in Thursday’s District One 6A title game at Spring-Ford. The Falcons won the regular season meeting between the two teams 5-4.
North Penn 000 000 5 5-6-1
Spring-Ford 002 000 0 2-4-4
District One 6A playback
#7 QUAKERTOWN 2, #6 HATBORO-HORSHAM 0
In an elimination contest between a pair of squads that split their two regular season contests, it was the Panthers capitalizing on a pair of Hatter miscues and a clutch two-run single by junior Katie Muller to eke out the win that ensured the team a berth in the state tournament.
“There was a lot of pressure on both teams,” Quakertown coach Dave Scott said. “We played a very solid game defensively, and we got a timely hit from Katie Muller.
“It’s a game of inches. We lost a game Friday night (to Spring-Ford in eight innings) on a ball that was six inches over our shortstop’s head. Tonight, they had second and third, and the ball was hit virtually to the same spot as the one against Spring-Ford, and our shortstop (Skyler Williams) made a great catch on it and saved the game basically.”
Williams’ game-saving play came in the bottom of the sixth after the Hatters put a pair on board after back-to-back singles by Kendal Leitner and Amya Lundy to open the inning. Both runners advanced on Abby Waeltz’s sacrifice bunt, and with one out, Williams came up with a grab of Maddie Karpovich’s line drive to end that threat.
The Panthers played error-free softball behind ace Sydney Andrews, who notched the complete game shutout. She allowed seven hits while striking out four and walking one.
“Syd (Andrews) did not have her best stuff, and I think the heat was bothering her a little bit, and she just battled and worked out of a couple of jams, and that’s how we won the game,” Scott said.
The Panthers scored the game’s only runs in the top of the fifth. With one out, Trinity Lucas and Ava Beal reached base on back-to-back errors – the second on a sacrifice bunt by Beal.
“Ava Beal put down a really nice sacrifice bunt, and they threw the ball down the right field line, so it put runners on second and third,” Scott said.
Emma Hilton drew a walk to load the bases, and after Leitner came up with a strikeout for the inning’s second out, Muller delivered the game’s biggest hit – a double to left that plated a pair.
“She’s been coming up big pretty much all year,” Scott said of Muller. “She’s one of our unsung heroes in that she sort of flies under the radar, but she’s a great kid. She hustles every play, she works really hard to be a better softball player, and she’s another player that’s really dramatically improved this year.”
That 2-0 lead stood the rest of the way, and the Panthers had punched their ticket to states.
“Trinity (Lucas) has come on so much this year and really improved – for her and Sydney and Alexis Micucci, I really wanted to keep playing for those three,” Scott said of his team’s three seniors. “It’s my first full graduating class at Quakertown. They’ve been a great influence on the program. I didn’t want to see their high school careers come to their end, so I was really thrilled for them.”
Making the win even more impressive was the fact that it came on the heels of a heartbreaking loss 3-2 loss to Spring-Ford in Friday’s district quarterfinals after the Panthers had taken a 2-1 lead in the top of the eighth only to watch the Rams stage a two-out rally to win it in the bottom of the inning.
“We had a practice last night – it was optional, but everybody showed up,” Scott said. “The girls just seemed to have a real determined attitude, and they kind of flushed Friday night.
“I was concerned that maybe they weren’t going to, but I knew after practice last night that we were going to be okay because they really did a good job putting it in the rearview mirror and played really well today. I was really happy for them and really proud of them.”
Quakertown (19-4, 14-2 SOL) will host #9 Garnet Valley in the fifth place game on Thursday. Hatboro-Horsham (15-1 SOL) closed out a successful season with a SOL Liberty Division title and a 17-5 record overall.
Quakertown 000 020 0 2-3-0
Hatboro-Horsham 000 000 0 0-7-2
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