Quakertown defeated Garnet Valley in the District One 6A fifth place game.To view photos of Kim Supko’s gallery from the Quakertown/Hatboro-Horsham game, please click on the following link: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/p859545996
District One 6A fifth place
#7 QUAKERTOWN 1, #9 GARNET VALLEY 0
Syd Andrews didn’t pull any punches.
The Quakertown senior’s motivation in Friday’s otherwise meaningless seeding game was simple.
“For this seeding game, I definitely think it was – we don’t have to drive far,” Andrews said. “If we were to lose, we would have had to drive two hours, but now we don’t have to drive too far.
“I feel that was our motivation for today’s game because it doesn’t really matter who we play. It’s still going to have the same competition, and we still need to show up and play as hard as we can.”
Andrews certainly did her part to make sure the Panthers wouldn’t lose. She owned Friday’s game from the outset, allowing only a meaningless two-out infield single in the third inning. She fanned 16, and appropriately, she opened the game by striking out the side in the top of the first and did the same in the bottom of the seventh to close out the contest. She walked just one in another standout performance.
“I don’t really change what I do in a normal game, to be honest because if I change something in this game – the next game I’m going to have to change it back,” Andrews said. “It just stays the same consistently.”
The Panthers had troubles of their own trying to generate offense, and they scored their only run of the game in the fourth inning without a hit. Katie Muller was safe on an error to open the inning, and she advanced to third on a ground out. She scored when – with two outs – freshman Leah Schwalm’s hard grounder to second was misplayed.
All told, the Panthers had just three hits off of Kelly Cornog, who struck out three and walked one.
“It’s sort of a trap game for us in that the energy was kind of low – nobody was super fired up,” Quakertown coach Dave Scott said. “Syd did a good job of fighting that. Where the team in general was kind of blah, she fought through that really well.”
The Panthers earned their ticket to states by eking out a 2-0 win in Tuesday’s emotionally charged playback battle against rival Hatboro-Horsham. It was the third meeting between the two teams with the teams splitting the two regular season games.
“It was super tough,” Andrews said. “They’re one of the better teams we play all season. Playing them is always a good game. We knew we were going to have to battle, we knew it was going to be a close game.
“(Kendal) Leitner is always amazing with her pitching. It’s definitely tough seeing the other team have to go home. Especially them because we’re pretty close with them. We play each other, we know each other, and it’s hard to send someone home.”
It is the second consecutive year the Panthers advanced to the state tournament.
“It’s a big thing for us,” Andrews said. “I definitely want to have as much time with these girls as I possibly can. They’re like my family, so it’s very exciting – we’re just ready to play.”
“That’s been the goal all year, that’s been (Syd’s) theme,” Scott said. “We don’t want this to end for her and the other seniors. We like this group of seniors, and we don’t want to be done playing with them.”
Quakertown (20-4, 14-2 SOL) will travel to District 11 champion Northampton for Monday’s PIAA 6A opener.
Garnet Valley 000 000 0 0-1-3
Quakertown 000 100 x 1-3-0
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