The Suburban One League is standing tall in this year’s PIAA Class AAAA Softball Tournament.
While it would be impressive if three of the final four teams were from the same district, to boast three from the same league is nothing short of amazing, but that’s exactly what has transpired this spring.
Hatboro-Horsham, Pennsbury and Neshaminy – the number one, two and three seeds respectively out of District One AAAA – comprise three-quarters of this year’s final four. It is a not only a tribute to the three teams but to the entire league.
The journey for each team has been decidedly different. Hatboro earned a come-from-behind win in eight innings in its opening round state game against Governor Mifflin and then routed Williamsport in Thursday’s quarterfinal.
A trip to the state semifinals is nothing new for the District One champions, who are three years removed from winning a state title and last year advanced to the state semifinals.
“It’s still nerveracking,” said Hatboro senior Julie Wambold, who was the designated player on the state championship squad. “We had numerous goals at the beginning of the year, and our last goal is to win states.
“I think our team just really stuck together, and we actually really want to win. We’re not just going through the motions. We’re definitely in it to win it.”
Pennsbury – four years removed from a state title – didn’t make it past the second round of districts last year. In their abbreviated opening round game against Northeast, the district runner-up Falcons didn’t work up a sweat and then played a near flawless game against Souderton in Thursday’s quarterfinal round, earning a 5-0 win.
The Falcons accomplished all of this with six sophomores in their starting lineup.
“At the beginning of the year, everyone was doubting us because our team was so young, but everyone on our team wanted it so bad, and they were determined to win,” Pennsbury senior D’Anna Devine said. “If you think about it, me and Kelsi (Bunda) have six sophomores around us, and as the only seniors on the field, we try and stay up, so they can look up to us, sort of like role models.
“We just try to keep them as comfortable as possible because the one thing you don’t want is an underclassman nervous on the field. We just tell them to play. They’ve been doing great.”
Neshaminy – after a earning the top seed but suffering a disappointing second round exit in last year’s district tournament – finished third in the district this time around. The Redskins rolled to five-inning mercy rule win over Easton in an opening round state game but rallied from a 3-0 deficit to earn a 5-3 win in eight innings over New Oxford in Thursday’s quarterfinal contest.
“Honestly, it’s crazy,” Neshaminy senior Courtney Clee said. “Thinking about all of it – not to say I thought it was going to be over, but you have that feeling during a game when you’re behind. I don’t cry when we’re losing or when we lose or when I do bad, but I cried at the end of that game because of how good we did.
“I didn’t really have a great game, but everybody else picked me up and helped me out because it wasn’t my best game, and it was great to see the team come together without me, that the team itself was so strong together.”
And that’s the difference between winning and losing in the postseason.
At least one SOL squad – Hatboro or Neshaminy – is guaranteed a spot in Friday’s state final at Penn State University. There’s the intriguing possibility that there could be two. No one, however, has an easy ticket into the state title game.
The defending district champion Hatters will take on Neshaminy while Pennsbury will travel to Shippensburg University to do battle with a red hot Latrobe squad that captured the District 7 title.
Emotions are running high on all sides.
“Oh my gosh, I can’t even explain how excited I am,” Clee said. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight, to tell you the truth. It’s going to be Christmas morning all over again.”
“It’s so unreal,” Neshaminy senior Brianna Guidos added. “We have practice tonight (Sunday), and we’ll probably do some team bonding just to get that momentum. Even the night before, we have to settle down and relax because we know the last game we played we did not play our best. We were so pumped up and we just needed to relax. Once we did that we finally pulled through.
“This is so exciting. This is what we have been working on for four years. I can’t even put it into words.”
Hatboro’s seniors will be heading straight from Monday’s game to graduation that evening.
“I’m not going to sleep at all,” Hatboro senior Julie Wambold said. “I’m going to put graduation behind me so I can focus on the game. I’m going to tell all my seniors – Danielle (DiFillipo) and Melissa (Spinosa) – tomorrow to just focus on the game, and maybe we’ll go out with a win.”
It promises to be a most interesting day.
#1-1 Hatboro-Horsham vs. #1-3 Neshaminy at Spring-Ford High School, 1 p.m.
Hatboro-Horsham- 24-2 overall
- SOL Continental Conference champions
- District One Class AAAA champions
- Won 11 in a row since loss to Souderton on May 3
Players to watch: Melissa Spinosa (Center Field), Chrissy James (Third Base), Julie Wambold (Catcher), Danielle DiFilippo (First Base), Val Sadowl (Shortstop), Kelsey Koelzer (Left Field), Heather Lutz (Right Field), Jackie DiPietro (Second Base), Maggie Shaffer (Pitcher)
How they got here: After eking out back-to-back wins in eight innings over Pennsbury (8-5) and Governor Mifflin (6-5), the Hatters survived the nightmare of traveling to Hershey in a coach bus without air conditioning in the sweltering heat for Thursday’s quarterfinals and took out their frustrations on District 4 champion Williamsport. The Hatters scored early and often on their way to an 11-0 rout in a game that was halted after six innings. Melissa Spinosa ignited the Hatters with a 3-for-4 day at the plate. The senior leadoff batter scored a pair of runs. Cleanup batter Danielle DiFilippo executed a successful suicide squeeze and was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Val Sadowl delivered a two-run home run while Julie Wambold had a hit and RBI. Maggie Shaffer, who had a pair of RBIs, earned the win with five shutout innings, allowing three hits while striking out four. Nicole Casagrand worked a scoreless inning in relief.
Coach Joe DiFilippo says: “We have to play a perfect game to win this game. They handled us pretty good in a scrimmage – that was in March, but we have to pretty much play a perfect game. Player for player, position for position – we have some advantages, and they have some advantages. I think it’s going to be a very good game.
“I think defense and pitching are going to be the keys. I think it’s going to be one of those games – nobody is going to score a lot of runs.
“We set our goals way back in January, and we have been chugging along and chugging along. Hopefully, they’re attainable because I lose a lot of offense next year.
“Every game somebody different has stepped up, but I will tell you that the three seniors made this all jell together. Not what they did on the field but what they did off the field, what they did at practice – that’s what made it.
“There are a lot of different personalities on this team. It took a certain group to make all of those personalities work. You have Melissa (Spinosa) who is quiet but gets all the respect in the world. You have Danielle (DiFilippo) who is a little bit more vocal, and you have Julie (Wambold) who goes on the lighter side a little bit. I couldn’t have asked for better right hands than those three.
“No matter what happens this week, our season was very successful. I’m happy with it. The three seniors are going out with a pretty special run they’ll always remember.”
Senior Danielle DiFlippo says: “We all stick together. If somebody is down, we try and pick them up. We really go off each other - if one person is doing really good, our whole team is doing really good. I think the key on Monday is going to be staying focused and not letting down the hype level. We have to stay hyped the whole time.
“It would have been very disappointing (to not get back to the semifinals), but we have reached two of our goals so far – a league championship and a district championship. I’m so glad that we’re going towards our third goal. It’s really exciting – we’re trying to out with a big bang.”
Senior Julie Wambold says: “We worry about ourselves - we don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about the other team. This season has been a lot of fun. Coming back, I was a little nervous about it, but I’m really excited with how far we got. I expected so much out of the season, and here we are.
“We’re silently confident - we don’t hold a banner saying ‘We’re number one.’”
Neshaminy- 20-4 overall
- Third place finish in the District One AAAA Tournament after earning the fourth seed
- Three of four losses this season are to archrival Pennsbury
Players to watch: Sarah McGowan (Pitcher/Third Base), Courtney Clee (Second Base), Brianna Guidos (First Base), Lauren Quense (Third Base/Pitcher) Julia McGovern (Catcher), Laura Altenburger (Shortstop), Diana Lapalombara (Center Field), Carly Coleman (Left Field)
How they got here: The Redskins trailed 3-0 in Thursday’s quarterfinal game against District 3 runner-up New Oxford, but they rallied for a 5-3 win in eight innings. Highlights of the two-run uprising in the eighth were an RBI triple by Lauren Quense as well as a successfully executed suicide squeeze by cleanup hitter Sarah McGowan. Quense, McGowan and Diana Lapalombara led the Redskins with two hits each. Lapalombara scored three runs. Quense earned the win on the mound, fanning 11.
Coach Dave Chichilitti says: “I don’t think we really focus on Hatboro at all. We have to focus on ourselves to make sure we do the small things we’ve been doing that got us to this point. If we do that and leave it all out on the field, we should be successful. If we do all that and we’re not, then you tip your hat at this point.
“Obviously, Hatboro is a very good team. They only have two losses all year, but we think we’re a pretty good team because we only lost to two teams all year.
“When we first entered the playoffs, it looked like there was a little bit of pressure, and you would think as you would move on the pressure would increase, but I think we’re starting to see them gain more confidence, and the pressure is starting to lift actually as their confidence builds, especially after that game the other night. That pitcher (Caroline Brehm) was fantastic.
“The key for us on Monday offensively – Maggie (Shaffer) is going to throw strikes, and we want to make sure we hit the strikes we want to hit and not the ones she wants us to hit. Offensively, that will be the difference in the game for us.”
Senior Courtney Clee says: “I know a couple of girls from Hatboro personally, so I do know their team. Both teams play solid defense, and I think it’s going to come down to who hits better. If we can string our hits together and pull through and get some runs – that’s who is going to win. Defense is going to be huge, but that’s not something I worry about. We need to hit.”
Senior Brianna Guidos says: “We honestly didn’t think we were going to get this far. We knew we had the team to do it. It was just that we had a new coach, a new team and new bonding. To have gotten this far is the most exciting thing. I had no idea what it was like to be in states.
“We’re such a close family, and the two reasons we don’t want it to end is because we don’t want this family experience to end for us, and two, we have the drive and we have the ability to go all the way.
“Hatboro’s pitcher – Maggie Shaffer - is one of the pitchers on my travel team (Warrington Blue Thunder). I have hit off of her in batting practice, and she’s a different kind of pitcher. She is not speedy fast, but she is super accurate and her balls move like crazy. We’re just going to try and stay back in the box to see the movement on the ball. Obviously, they’ve gotten this far, and so have we. It’s not going to be an easy game.”
#1-2 Pennsbury vs. #1-7 Latrobe at Shippensburg University, 4 p.m.
Latrobe
- 17-4 overall
- Upset top-seeded Shaler 4-3 in eight innings in the District 7 semifinals and went on to down Seneca Valley 5-3 in the district title game
- Alexa Larkin and Rebecca Taylor have shared duties on the mound, but it is Larkin, a southpaw, who has been posting the big numbers in the postseason. Larkin threw the final six innings of Latrobe’s semifinal win over Shaler, allowing two hits and striking out nine.
- Larkin, who has accepted a softball scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh, boasted an 11-1 record and a 0.98 ERA entering the district title game. She fanned 139 in 178 innings. She earned wins in both state playoff games.
How they got here: Latrobe needed 10 innings to defeat State College 1-0 in an opening round state playoff game. Alexa Larkin pitched the final six innings, fanning 12. In Thursday’s 1-0 win over Erie McDowell in a quarterfinal game, Larkin tossed a two-hit shutout. She struck out 16, fanning the side in three innings. She retired 13 in a row to close out the game. Latrobe scored its only run in the sixth when Larkin, who walked to lead off the inning, scored on Ashley Perillo’s RBI single.
Pennsbury- 22-3 overall
- SOL National Conference champions
- District One Class AAAA runner-up
Players to watch: D’Anna Devine (Catcher), Kelsi Bunda (Center Field), Mackenzie Obert (Shortstop), Jess Greenewald (Second Base), Christina Bascara (Third Base), Suzanne Swanicke (First Base), Val Buehler (Pitcher), Dannielle Fox (Left Field), Savanna Grantham (Right Field)
How they got here: After making easy business of District 12 runner-up Northeast in the opening round, Pennsbury with almost businesslike precision defeated Souderton 5-0 in Thursday’s quarterfinal game. The Falcons received a one-hit effort from sophomore Val Buehler on the mound.
“Last year when she played she used to get frustrated so fast,” senior catcher D’Anna Devine said. “If she would walk one batter, it would take her completely out of her game. For her part, she has grown so much and gotten so much stronger. She carries herself a lot better than she did last year. She’s tough now. She’s very good.”
Pennsbury’s offense – sparked by the 3-for-4 effort of Devine – collected nine hits off Souderton ace Liz Parkins. Sophomore Mackenzie Obert’s solo home run gave the Falcons a lead they would not lose in the second. Obert and fellow sophomore Suzanne Swanicke both collected a pair of hits.
“The first time through – it was all about seeing what (Parkins) could throw,” senior Kelsi Bunda said. “We knew she threw a rise, and it was really hard to stay off of it, but the second time through we stayed off of it. Coach kept talking to us about staying disciplined and looking for our pitch.”
Defensively, the Falcons were pretty close to perfect, and it was an inning-ending double play in the second inning by senior centerfielder Bunda with the bases loaded in the second that proved to be the backbreaker for the Indians.
Coach Frank McSherry says: “At this point, everyone has good pitching. She (Alexa Larkin) is a lefty. I don’t think she throws as hard as the Souderton kid. We preach discipline – stay off the high pitch and don’t chase out of the strike zone. You’re not going to be perfect, that’s for sure, but against Souderton, our kids were fairly disciplined at the plate. We were not against Hatboro (in the district title game), and that was the difference. The keys on Monday are going to be discipline at the plate and good defense.
“In the beginning of the year if somebody had said we would here, I would have said, ‘You’re crazy. I don’t think so.’ We had a good nucleus with Bunda and Devine and Obert playing like she did as a freshman, but to say we were going to start six sophomores in most games and be here – we would have said ‘That’s silly.’ We’re really, really excited.”
Senior D’Anna Devine says: “It’s going to be different going against a lefthander. Since I’m hitting from the left side – when I’m running at her, she’s going to throw in on me, but it’s going to be outside on our righties. They’ve been jamming our righties so much – every team we face has been jamming them. It’s going to be a challenge, and we can hit it, but it’s going to be different.
“I’m so excited. I just want to win so bad, and I really think we can. I believe in our team.”
Senior Kelsi Bunda says: “Honestly, when we first came on to the team this year, me and D’Anna (Devine) were thinking – we’re going all the way. During winter workouts, we watched a video from the 2007 team and their trip to Shippensburg when they won states, and it pretty much pumped us up. We were just determined that we were going to go there and create our own video.
“We really have gotten to know each other and gotten to know each other’s personalities and how we play, and I feel that’s really brought us together as a team. When you have that, it’s easier to play together, and we need to keep that up.
“We’re very confident, and we’re ready. We just know we have to stay disciplined at bat and look for our pitch and we have to play defense when we’re out there and not let anything go by because we have to be there for Val (Buehler) at all times.”
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