Neshaminy defeated defending state runner-up Hazleton 15-4 in a mercy rule contest. The Redskins were the lone SOL softball team to survive Thursday’s PIAA 6A quarterfinals. Neshaminy/Hazleton photos provided courtesy of Jesse Garber (http://jsgarber.zenfolio.com/p890499363)
Three SOL softball teams were in action on Thursday, and when the dust had settled, only one – Neshaminy – was still alive. The Redskins join a final four that includes a pair of District 11 teams – Parkland and Nazareth – as well as District 7 champion Hempfield.
The Redskins are not only the lone SOL team still standing, they are the only District One team still alive. Not bad for a squad that earned the district’s fifth and final spot and is proving it is the fifth seed in name only. In two state playoff games combined, the Redskins have scored 24 runs. Throw in their fifth place district win over Conestoga, they’ve scored 40 runs in three games.
Neshaminy coach David Chichilitti was asked if he felt his team is better than a five seed.
“District One is very hard,” he said. “That’s just where we happened to fall. A lot of those teams are good. I think you could take any of those five or six top teams and mix them up in any order, and you really can’t get a one, two, three, four, five or six.
“It could be the one, it could be anybody. It’s just a matter of getting hot at the right time.
CLASS 3A
#1-5 NESHAMINY 15, #2-1 HAZLETON 4 (5 innings)
Sarah Dowalo and her Redskin teammates are one win away from a trip to the state title game. The heartbreak they were feeling after a district quarterfinal loss to Council Rock North is becoming a distant memory.
But Dowalo hasn’t forgotten.
“We lost that game to North, and we all started crying,” the Redskins’ senior pitcher said. “We thought we were done.
“Honestly, this is the greatest thing. We just needed to ground ourselves and get back to what we’re good at.”
What they’re good at these days is putting runs on the board. In Thursday’s mercy rule win over the defending state runner-up Cougars, the Redskins pounded out 17 hits – seven for extra bases.
“It’s safe to say we were in a little bit of a funk there for a while, and a couple of those losses helped us refocus,” coach Dave Chichilitti said. “The girls are just really focused.
“Some of them have been playing together since they were 10, and they’ve been waiting to take this ride a long time. Everything is working.”
That much was apparent in the top of the first inning that saw the Redskins erupt for five runs. Amber Brugger got things started with a single to center, and one out later, Natalie Rios singled. Brugger raced home when Liana Jones hit her first of three doubles, this one to deep left. The bases were loaded when Amanda Kurtz was safe on a fielder’s choice, and Alexis Watkins brought home a pair when she doubled to right center. With two outs, Vic Smith singled to plate two more runs.
“As soon as we found out we had first at-bats, we knew we were going to jump on them right away,” Watkins said.
Watkins had herself a day, driving in five runs while collecting two doubles and a home run. Her two-run home run after a Kurtz single in the third inning put the Redskins on top 7-1.
"As soon as I saw it out of her hand, I knew I was putting it over," Watkins said. "It was right down the middle."
Jones doubled home a run in the fourth, and the Redskins blew the game wide open with a six-run fifth.
With one out, Paige Metz singled to right but wound up on third when the ball got by the outfielder. She scored when Smith laid down a successful suicide squeeze bunt. With the bases loaded, Olivia Fee pulled off the second successful suicide squeeze of the inning, and Rios emptied the bases when she ripped a thee-run home run over the center field fence.
The Redskins weren’t finished yet, and Jones, who doubled, scored when Watkins doubled down the left field line. It was the 17th and final hit off Erika Book, who was 4-1 in state playoff games heading into Thursday’s game
“We knew she was going to try to work us outside a little bit, and we knew she was going to throw strikes,” Chichilitti said. “We had to be aggressive and wait for the pitch to hit that we wanted, and we were able to do that.
“The first inning was key. It’s huge to get the first run in these games. It takes a lot of pressure off the defense.”
The Redskins received three-hit efforts from Watkins (3-for-4, 2 2B, HR, 5 RBIs, 2 runs), Fee (3-for-4, RBI, run), Jones (3-for-4, 3 2B, 2 RBIs, 2 runs) and Smith (3-for-3, 3 RBIs, run). Rios was 2-for-4 with a home run, three RBIs and three runs scored.
Dowalo earned the complete game win, allowing five hits and just one earned run while striking out four and walking one.
“She hit her spots – Sarah Dowalo was phenomenal again,” Chichilitti said. “I can’t say enough about how great she’s been in this run.”
And after three years of coming up short in districts, the Redskins are in the state semifinals for the first time since 2013 when they advanced to the title game.
"I just remember every game we lost I cried for hours," Watkins said of past playoff disappointments. "All of us did – we were all heartbroken.
"Words can't even describe this feeling. This is all I could ask for."
“This year we kind of put our foot down and we’re like, ‘Yes, this is enough,’” Smith said. “We come into each game with a lot of intensity, no matter who we’re playing. It doesn’t matter.”
Neshaminy (21-4, 10-2 SOL) will face District 11 champion Parkland in Monday’s state semifinal game.
“It’s very exciting,” Smith said. “It’s kind of like a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and since it’s our senior year, we’re putting everything out there we can.
“A lot of us grew up playing together, and through middle school, we knew who was coming up and we knew we were going to have a really good team coming into high school.”
Neshaminy 502 17 15-17-3
Hazleton 010 03 4-5-3
Neshaminy (15) – Amber Brugger 3-2-1-0, Olivia Fee 4-1-3-1, Natalie Rios 4-3-2-3, Liana Jones 4-2-3-2, Amanda Kurtz 4-2-1-0, Alexis Watkins 4-2-3-5, Paige Metz 4-1-1-0, Vic Smith 3-1-3-3, Sarah Dowalo 3-0-0-0, Asia Barnard 0-1-0-0, TOTALS 33-15-14.
Hazleton (4) – Taylor Kaschak 3-1-1-0, Rebecca Rossi 3-0-0-0, Tiana Treon 2-0-0-0, Marissa Trivelpiece 3-1-1-3, Kyra Antolick 3-0-0-0, Erika Book 2-1-2-1, Julia Mrohko 0-0-0-0; Julia Mooney 2-0-1-1, Olivia Wolk 2-1-0-0, TOTALS 20-4-5-4.
2B: Neshaminy – Liana Dean 3, Alexis Watkins, Hazleton – Erika Book. HR: Neshaminy – Alexis Watkins, Natalie Rios. Hazleton – Marissa Trivelpiece.
WP: Sarah Dowalo
LP: Erika Book.
#11-1 PARKLAND 6, #1-3 NORTH PENN 3
There’s no mistaking the future is bright for a Knights’ squad whose starting lineup features three juniors, three sophomores and a freshman, but that didn’t make Thursday’s ending any easier to swallow.
“It’s so hard to see it end,” sophomore Amanda Greaney said, biting back tears. “This team – we grew as a family.”
The Knights ran into a Trojans’ squad that pounded out 13 hits and rode the strong arm of pitcher Kelly Dulaney.
“We didn’t play a team like this, we didn’t play a game like this all year, and to know what this is like, that’s going to help us so much next year,” junior Elia Namey said. “The whole feel of a state game especially against a team like this – we’re going to be ready for next year definitely.”
Parkland scored a run in the top of the first, but the Knights got that run back in the second when Jamie Beer, who singled in a tough at-bat to open the frame, scored on Tori Chiu’s two-out bloop double to left field, knotting the score 1-1.
The Trojans bunched three hits to plate a single run in the fourth when Dulaney delivered a two-out double, and they put some distance between themselves and the Knights with a four-run fourth that saw the Trojans collect six hits.
In the bottom of the inning, the Knights scored a pair. Sophomore Vitoria Juckniewitz led off with a single, and one out later, Greaney delivered an RBI double to deep right center. Namey’s double to center plated another run, and the Knights trailed by three. They managed just one hit the rest of the way as the Trojans won by that 6-3 score.
“It’s just a different pitcher that we haven’t seen before,” Greaney said of Dulaney. “It took us a little longer for us to adjust. Usually after the first inning or so, we’ll adjust to the pitcher and hit really well. It just took a couple extra innings to adjust and those innings took away from the time we usually score, and that was a problem.”
The Knights, according to Namey, never lost hope.
“Until that last pitch, we were still hoping to make that comeback, and we definitely thought we could,” the junior first baseman said. “We tried our best, we gave everything we had. It’s not always going to go our way. Today it didn’t, but next time, next year it will.”
Although disappointed to see the season end, coach Rick Torresani was pleased with his team’s performance behind freshman pitcher Mady Volpe.
“I knew we were good because we had everybody back but our pitcher, but pitching is the game,” the Knights’ coach said. “For (Mady Volpe) to do what she did to keep us in every game and a lot of games just shutting teams down – at the end, I thought we were going to do it today. They just had a big inning, and that’s what cost us the game.”
Namey pointed to the addition of Volpe to the lineup as a key to the team’s success.
“From the beginning, Mady came into this program, and she just ran with it,” the junior first baseman said. “She was welcomed into this team so easily. The girls had such a great connection from the very first workout in September. I could tell from that moment this was going to be a great team. We had great leadership from our seniors. I could tell it was going to be a good year. We made it this far, and that’s great.”
Namey, for one, is already looking forward to next year.
“I’m so excited,” she said. “Mady is coming back, she’s going to be a sophomore. She has a whole year of experience, she has two state games under her belt now. She’s going to do so well next year.
“We have our whole infield returning, and we have some great girls that are going to be in the outfield. Of course, we’re going to miss our seniors, but we’re very excited for next year.”
North Penn (9-3 SOL) captured a share of the SOL Continental title and closed out its season with a 20-6 record.
Parkland 100 140 0 6-13-2
North Penn 010 020 0 3-8-1
Parkland (6) – Chelsea Morgan 4-2-3-0, Makenzie Wolfe 4-1-1-0, Katie Zaun 4-0-1-1, Analena Yeager 4-2-2-2, Ashley Gallina 4-1-1-0, Kiara Bryant 4-0-1-0, Kelly Dulaney 4-0-2-2, Renee Snyder 3-0-2-1, Caroline Rivera 2-0-0-0, Megan Fenstermacher ph 1-0-0-0, TOTALS 34-6-13-6.
North Penn (3) – Victoria Juckniewitz 4-1-1-0, Emily Groarke 4-0-1-0, Amanda Greaney 4-1-1-1, Elia Namey 4-0-1-1, Jordan Pietrzykoski 3-0-1-0, Jamie Beer 3-1-1-0, Paige Paciolla 2-0-0-0, Courtney Neal 3-0-1-0, Tori Chiu 3-0-1-1, Mady Volpe 0-0-0-0, TOTALS 30-3-8-3.
2B: North Penn – Tori Chiu, Courtney Neal, Elia Namey, Amanda Greaney, Parkland – Katie Zaun, Kelly Dulaney, Makenzie Wolfe, Analena Yeager.
WP – Kelly Dulaney.
LP – Mady Volpe
CLASS 2A
#2-1 HOLY REDEEMER 11, #1-1 SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP 1 (5 innings)
Morgan Bienkowski fanned the first 12 batters she faced and struck out 14 in the abbreviated contest. A single with nobody out in the fifth by Hannah Sebenick broke up Bienkowski’s perfect game. It was the only hit of the game for the Spartans, who scored their only run on an error.
“They were a really good team – a lot of good players, well coached,” Springfield coach Josh Ringgold said. “We gave it our all.
“They didn’t quit. Even in the fifth inning, they kept swinging even through they weren’t getting their bat on the ball, and they were able to make something happen. I was proud of the girls,”
This year’s team won the program’s first district title since 1994 and went on to win an opening round state game.
“It was a great experience for my seniors to finally win the district and for my young guys to get the experience of playing in big games,” Ringgold said. “I think it will do wonders for the program going into next year.”
The Spartans lose three seniors – two starters.
“I was proud of them this year,” Ringgold said. “It was a great year for all involved. I told the girls even the ones on the bench – they played a part. I think it was a total team effort.”
Springfield Township (6-8 SOL) closed out the year with a 10-9 record.
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