The SOL saw its successful Carpenter Cup run come to an end in Wednesday’s semifinals. (Photo submitted)
JERSEY SHORE 6, SOL 2 (8 innings) (Carpenter Cup semifinals)
SOL 3, DELAWARE NORTH 0 (Carpenter Cup quarterfinals)
A young SOL team put on quite a showing in the 2022 Carpenter Cup.
No, they didn’t win the championship, although just one out in the seventh inning separated the SOL from a spot in Wednesday’s title game, but the team did the SOL proud, rebounding from an opening game loss to advance to the semifinals.
“That’s what we said to them at the end of the game – part of the goal down here is to represent the league,” said Quakertown coach Dave Scott, the head coach of the SOL. “I think they did a good job with that, and I told them that.
“This was a young team. I think we had four or five freshmen and six sophomores. There were teams out there that had mostly juniors, so it was exciting to see some of these young kids stepping up in these pressure situations and doing well. They did a nice job with it.”
More important than the outcome of any game, however, were the relationships formed and the new friendships made.
“A big thing our team talked about today – win or lose, that’s not what you’re going to remember – it’s the people I met and the friendships I made throughout this experience and this journey with them,” rising PW junior Marissa Perez said. “Especially being able to represent my school and represent our league, I’m really proud of how we showed out and how we came back after that first loss.”
For Bella Nunn, a rising North Penn junior, it was an unexpected experience, to say the least.
“She wasn’t on the team until Friday,” Scott said. “We had an injury to one of our pitchers (Quakertown rising junior Abbey Wagner). I was at my son’s rehearsal dinner on Friday night, and I got a call from one of the dads saying she got hurt that day at travel and wouldn’t be able to play.
“I scrambled all around, put it out on social media, and fortunately, Rick Torresani at North Penn saw it and said, ‘I might have a pitcher for you.’ And sure enough, we reached out to Bella. She was all excited to come, enthusiastic, and she did a great job for us. She really pitched well. She gave up two earned runs the whole tournament. Other than that, she was really perfect.”
For the tournament, Nunn threw 16 innings and allowed just nine hits, struck out 21 and walked four.
“It was a lot of fun,” Nunn said. “A lot of our games were close, so it was a good time, and it was fun playing with girls that you don’t know. I made a lot of good friendships with them.
“I think we represented our league well. We played really well together as a team, we had each other’s backs. It was a good group of girls.”
The SOL – after dropping its first game and then winning back-to-back games on Monday to earn the top seed in its bracket – came oh so close to earning a win over Jersey Shore in the semifinals. Neither team scored through five-and-a-half innings.
In the bottom of the sixth, the SOL broke through and put a run on the board. Ava Storlazzi collected her second hit of the game – a one-out infield single, and she moved up to the second on a groundout. Sierra Miller singled to center, and Storlazzi – who possesses blazing speed – easily scored from second to give the SOL a 1-0 lead.
“We really wanted to get to the next game and play with each other one more time, which was definitely a good motivation,” Storlazzi said.
Just three outs separated the SOL from a trip to the championship game, and when the team pulled off a nifty double play on a sacrifice bunt attempt after Jersey Shore put its leadoff batter on in the seventh (pitcher Laney Freiband fired the ball to second baseman Allie Franck covering first, and then Franck threw a strike to third where Madison Moran, who made the great tag), it looked like the team was a cinch to advance.
But Sophia Lasater hit a shot off the fence in left field for a triple and circled the bases for the tying run as a result of a miscue on the relay.
The international tiebreaker went into effect in the eighth, and Jersey Shore benefitted from a pair of hits, an error and two walks (one intentional) to score five unearned runs. The SOL got one of them back in the bottom of the eighth, thanks to an RBI single by Hannah DeFinis (Pennsbury), but it wasn’t enough.
“I thought we had a little bit of a storybook ending with the winning run across the plate in the bottom of the sixth and holding them in the top, and it just didn’t work out that way,” Scott said. “We were one out away from the championship game. It was a tough way to lose.”
“It was tough,” said Storlazzi, who plays for the Pennsbury Gems Gold on the travel circuit. “We only had one practice, so getting this far was really good for our team, and we represented the league really well, so I’m proud of us.”
In Wednesday’s semifinal, Nunn started and threw four scoreless innings, allowing three hits while striking out five and walking two. This on the heels of tossing four shutout innings in the SOL’s 3-0 quarterfinal win earlier in the day when she allowed one hit, struck out two and did not walk a batter.
*****
In Wednesday’s 8 a.m. quarterfinal against Delaware North, three pitchers combined for the shutout, and the SOL scored the only run it needed in the first inning, benefitting from its speed on the base paths. Storlazzi drew a leadoff walk and immediately stole second. She moved up to third when Perez grounded a single to left and raced home when Perez stole second.
The SOL added a pair of runs` in the third. Grace Christie (Souderton) led off and wound up on second, thanks to a two-base error. She scored when Perez followed with a single, her second of three hits in the game. Miller singled, and Perez scored when Delaware North committed a costly two-out error. That 3-0 score stood the rest of the way.
In addition to Nunn’s four shutout innings, rising sophomore Amariah Knight (Harry S Truman) threw 2 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out one. Freiband recorded the game’s final out.
That win set the stage for a classic battle with Jersey Shore in the semifinals, and although the SOL came up just short, there were no regrets.
“This was super exciting,” Perez said. “I went into it, and I didn’t really know what to expect – I don’t think anyone from our team really did.
“When we lost our first game, reality set in. It was kind of shocking, and then we won our next two games, and we moved into today, so it was exciting to be able to come back and have a chance to win that championship. Although it didn’t turn out how we expected, the experience was something I’ll never forget.”
And Perez – like all of her teammates – left FDR Park on Wednesday with rivals that were now friends.
“I met so many new teammates, we played such good competition from all over, so it was cool to interact and play with new people, going against the best of the best from the tri-state area,” Perez said. “I can’t wait to see them again and play against them. It’s such a cool experience and such a cool feeling to meet the different players. I played with two girls from Quakertown – we play them twice every year. It’s a big rivalry game. It’s really cool to have personal relationships with some of the teams now.”
“It was great,” said Storlazzi, who plays travel for Pennsbury Gems Gold. “It was good to meet new people and start with a new team, a fresh start, and we did well too.
“Playing together brought us closer. We didn’t know each other’s names in the beginning of the week, and now we’re cheering for each other.”
“It was nice meeting new people and getting to know everybody – usually we’re rivals,” said Miller, who plays travel ball for the Ambler Boilermakers 18U Navy. “We jelled really well. It was surprising how easy we all just conversed. It was like we had been teammates for 10 years.
“Monday really solidified everything, especially game three (a come-from-behind 9-7 win over Lehigh Valley). That’s when we were all rooting for each other and everything. I’m just glad we got this far. We did our best, we gave our all.”
Jersey Shore 000 000 15 6-8-0
SOL 000 001 01 2-6-2
Jersey Shore (6) – Sophia Alonso 4-1-2-0; Olivia Smith 4-1-1-0; Georgia Tym 2-1-0-0; Danni Forrester 2-0-0-0; Adrianna Lisotto 1-0-0-1; Jamie Vigil 1-4-0-1; Jiana Maniscalco 4-0-2-2; Riley Lawrence 4-0-2-0; Sophia Lasater 2-1-1-0; Maggie Turnbach 3-0-0-0; Kiara Castera 0-1-0-0; Erin Clancey 0-0-0-0; Giana Abinanti 0-0-0-0; Madilynn Boyce 0-0-0-0; TOTALS 30-6-8-4.
3B – Sophia Lasater.
SOL (2) – Ava Storlazzi 4-1-2-0; Marissa Perez 3-0-0-0; Sierra Miller 4-0-2-1; Katie Muller 3-0-0-0; Amariah Knight 3-0-0-0; Madison Moran 1-0-0-0; Alleigh Waskie 2-0-0-0; Allie Franck 3-1-0-0; Hailey Hernandez 3-0-1-0; Sophia Azzarano 1-0-0-0; Grace Christie 1-0-0-0; Hannah DeFinis 1-0-1-1; Laney Freiband 0-0-0-0; Bella Nunn 0-0-0-0; TOTALS 29-2-6-2.
|
Jersey Shore |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
|
Giana Abinanti |
4.0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
|
Madilynn Boyce (W) |
4.0 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
8 |
|
SOL |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
|
Bella Nunn |
4.0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
|
Laney Freiband (L) |
4.0 |
5 |
6 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
Delaware North 000 000 0 0-2-3
SOL 102 000 x 3-4-2
Delaware North (0) – Annica Downs 3-0-0-0; Ryan Vitola 3-0-1-0; Savannah Laird 3-0-0-0; Abby Baldwin 2-0-0-0; Carly Maxton 1-0-0-0; Reese Founds 3-0-0-0; Lindsay Henn 3-0-1-0; Lily Papellas 2-0-0-0; Marisa Edevane 1-0-0-0; Jaida Church 2-0-0-0; Skyler Eleazar 0-0-0-0; TOTALS 23-0-2-0
SOL (3) – Ava Storlazi 1-1-0-0; Marissa Perez 3-1-3-1; Sierra Miller 3-0-1-0; Katie Muller 3-0-0-0; Bella Nunn 2-0-0-0; Amariah Knight 1-0-0-0; Alleigh Waskie 2-0-0-0; Madison Moran 1-0-0-0; Allie Franck 3-0-0-0; Hailey Hernandez 2-0-0-0; Grace Christie 1-1-0-0; Sophia Azzarano 1-0-0-0; Laney Freiband 0-0-0-0; TOTALS 23 3-4-1.
|
Delaware North |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
|
Reese Founds (L) |
3.0 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
|
Carly Maxton |
3.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
8 |
|
SOL |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
|
Bella Dunn (W) |
4.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
Amariah Knight |
2.2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Laney Freiband |
0.1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
SOL ROSTER
|
Name |
Class |
High School |
|
Sophia Azzarano |
2025 |
Lower Moreland |
|
Grace Christie |
2023 |
Souderton |
|
Hannah DeFinis |
2024 |
Pennsbury |
|
Allie Franck |
2024 |
Central Bucks South |
|
Laney Freiband |
2023 |
Pennsbury |
|
Hailey Hernandez |
2025 |
Abington |
|
Emma Hilton |
2023 |
Quakertown |
|
Amariah Knight |
2025 |
Harry S Truman |
|
Sierra Miller |
2023 |
Souderton |
|
Molly Moore |
2023 |
Plymouth Whitemarsh |
|
Madison Moran |
2025 |
Plymouth Whitemarsh |
|
Katie Muller |
2023 |
Quakertown |
|
Bella Nunn |
2024 |
North Penn |
|
Marissa Perez |
2024 |
Plymouth Whitemarsh |
|
Ava Storlazzi |
2024 |
Pennsbury |
|
Abbey Wagner |
2024 |
Quakertown |
|
Alleigh Waskie |
2024 |
Neshaminy |
Head coach: Dave Scott
Assistant coaches: Mary Cate Clancy, Chris Vanelli, Mike Perez, Bob Baginski
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