To view photos of the Pennsbury/Neshaminy game, visit the photo gallery by clicking on the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
Monday was an exciting day of softball in District One and the SOL. Four SOL teams saw their seasons end – two by 1-0 scores – while one squad moved on to Wednesday’s second round.
In a game that had both district playoff and conference title implications, Pennsbury staged a two-out rally in the bottom of the seventh to eke out a 3-2 win over Neshaminy under the lights at Bristol Memorial Field, earning not only the top seed in the District One AAAA Tournament but also sole possession of the National Conference crown.
Central Bucks East – a 5-1 winner over Perkiomen Valley – was the lone SOL squad to earn a win on Monday as Council Rock North, Wissahickon, Plymouth Whitemarsh and Norristown all saw their seasons come to an end.
Pennsbury 3, Neshaminy 2
BRISTOL – D’Anna Devine never saw teammate Suzanne Swanicke’s grounder up the middle find its way into the outfield for a base hit.
She didn’t need to.
The Pennsbury senior knew with complete certainty that something good had happened as she sprinted toward home for the game winner with two outs in the seventh inning of Monday’s classic battle against neighboring Neshaminy.
“I was coming off of second, and as soon as I saw my coach – his eyes just lit up, and he was screaming, ‘Go, go, go. You’re in,’” Devine recalled. “I was smiling the whole way home. I was just so excited.”
Devine was still smiling long after the game was over. The Falcons, thanks to their dramatic 3-2 win, not only owned sole possession of first place in the National Conference standings but also earned the top seed in the District One AAAA Tournament.
The mood in Pennsbury’s dugout was a far cry from a year earlier when – in this same game - the Falcons watched a 2-0 lead evaporate in the seventh inning. The Redskins went on to win 3-2 in eight innings.
“We always want it every year, but last year I don’t want to say no one came to play because we always come to play, but as soon as we were down, we stayed down,” Devine said. “This year we did not want the same thing to happen, and we just fought and we fought and we fought.
“To be a senior and to come back from losing last year, it’s amazing.”
The Falcons’ fight was never more apparent than in the bottom of the seventh when - with the bases empty - the Falcons staged a gutsy two-out rally. It all began with Devine slapping a single just over second base.
“That was huge,” Pennsbury coach Frank McSherry said. “She had two strikes with two outs and nobody on base – we’re down to our last strike in the bottom of the seventh.
“That was really big, but that’s why she’s there. She’s a leader, she’s our lead-off, and she’s a four-year starter. We certainly expect and hope for things like that from her, but that was big.”
The senior captain had a singular thought when she stepped into the batter’s box to face sophomore Lauren Quense, who had allowed just one hit after relieving Sarah McGowan with two outs in the first.
“I need to get on base,” Devine said of her mindset. “I need to help out my pitcher. She’s pitching an awesome game, and I just need to get on base, and I knew we could run and run and run.”
The Falcons’ speed was underscored when Jess Greenewald followed and legged out a bunt single to put runners on first and second.
“She could not have placed the ball any better,” McSherry said of the bunt single. “You need a little luck too because that involved a little luck because they all have good arms in the infield, so if she gets that out to any of their position players, we might not be as fortunate.”
Greenewald’s bunt set the stage for Swanicke. The sophomore first baseman, who hits out of the three hole, had walked and struck out twice – a fact she didn’t need to be reminded of when it was over.
“Don’t even tell me about that,” Swanicke said.
The third time, however, was the charm, and Swanicke stroked a grounder up the middle for a base hit that brought Devine home with the game winner.
“I let out a grunt, and I just got all my anger out, all my frustration,” she said. “I had seen her (Quense) twice. I didn’t do as well, but I knew it was my time to hit, and I came through.
“I like pressure, and I do well with pressure. This feels good. Especially not playing last year (Swanicke was on the freshman team), I have only heard about the excitement of this game. I have never actually seen it. Now I know.”
Lost in the shuffle of the dramatic finish was the standout effort on the mound by Pennsbury sophomore Val Buehler, who allowed just five hits. Three of those came in the first inning.
“She did amazing,” Devine said of her batterymate. “There wasn’t one spot she missed.
“She has grown so much, and she’s only going to get better.”
“I said to Val – this is your finest game,” McSherry added. “She hit the spots we asked her to hit, and that is a great hitting team.”
Also turning in a stellar outing was Quense, who entered the game with two outs in the first and a pair of Falcon runs across. She retired the first batter she faced and did not allow a hit until Christina Bascara lined a two-out double down the left field line in the sixth.
“She’s a great pitcher,” McSherry said. “She looked so much in control tonight, and she was. Man, she was bringing it.
“It took us a little while, but we made some adjustments. We started laying off the high pitch a little bit. I told the kids – it’s easier said than done to lay off that high pitch because it looks like it’s not going to be high. We started to a little bit, and that certainly helped us. She’s a quality pitcher, there’s no doubt about it.”
“Lauren came in and pitched an excellent game,” Redskin coach Dave Chichilitti said. “She pitched an excellent game, and we rallied behind her. We played hard right to the very end.”
In the top of the first, the Redskins came out with their bats on fire. Courtney Clee picked up her first of three singles on the night, and one out later, Quense grounded a single to center. Julia McGovern’s two-out single to center plated Clee, and the Redskins led 1-0.
But not for long.
After retiring the first batter she faced, McGowan struggled to find the strike zone, walking the next four batters she faced. Two of them – Greenewald and Keli Bunda – scored to spot the Falcons a 2-0 lead. Both crossed the plate on wild pitches.
“We didn’t get off to the start we wanted,” Chichilitti said. “We spotted them two runs, and that was ultimately the difference.”
Quense came in to record the final out, and neither team generated a whole lot of offense after that. The Redskins rallied to knot the score in the fifth, benefitting from three walks – one semi-intentional – as well as a single by Clee. Jenna Loftus, whose one-out walk started the rally, scored the tying run on a wild pitch.
It looked like the Redskins might be in business when Clee lined a single to right to open the seventh. She moved up to second on Laura Altenburger’s grounder to the right side, but she was stranded there as Buehler retired the next batter on a popup. The final out came on a groundout to shortstop Mackenzie Obert.
“We had chances, we had a lot of chances with runners in scoring position, but we couldn’t capitalize,” Chichilitti said. “If you’re going to beat a team as good as Pennsbury, you have to get those hits.
“They were pitching away from our big guns, which is smart.”
When Quense retired the first two batters she faced in the seventh, extra innings appeared inevitable, but Devine and her young Falcon teammates had other ideas.
“They always call us the underdogs because we always do well when we’re down, which is not a good thing, but we fight,” Devine said. “We don’t stop.”
For McSherry and his players, this year’s title was especially sweet.
“There was a good part of the season we started six sophomores,” the Falcon’s veteran coach said. “They have a lot to be proud of, there’s no doubt about it.
“We have some solid senior leadership, which certainly helps. It’s certainly not something we expected, by no means, especially being that young and playing people in different positions. D’Anna (Devine) was at second base for three years and then slide behind the plate for the first time since eighth grade.
“We had some question marks. Jess Greenewald playing second base – she had never played second base. Christina Bascara came up from ninth grade and played a great third base. Suzanne Swanicke at first base – you can't ask for much more than she’s given us this year.”
It turned out to be a winning combination for the top-seeded Falcons, who will host Central Bucks East in a second round game on Wednesday while Neshaminy, the tournament’s fourth seed, will host West Chester East.
Harry S. Truman 2, Bristol 0
Monday’s season finale at Bristol Memorial Field was for little more than pride for a Truman squad that missed out on a bid to districts, but the Tigers showed that they have plenty of pride as they earned the impressive non-league win.
“It was good,” coach Gretchen Cammiso said. “It was a good way to end our season. They played solid.
“Typically, they tend to have a collapse inning in close games, and they battled through it in this game. Bristol had second and third with nobody out in the fifth inning, and they worked their way out of it.”
The Tigers managed just four hits, but it was enough to plate single runs in the second and fifth. In the second, it was Stevie Van Schaick delivering an RBI single to put the Tigers on top 1-0. In the fifth, Nicole King came through with a clutch RBI single.
Bristol hurler Kiersten Cain fanned 13 in a strong outing, but while Caitlyn Brasier’s numbers might not have been quite as eye-catching, the freshman hurler – who allowed just three hits and struck out three – was equally effective while earning the win.
“She did real well,” Cammiso said of Brasier. “She showed a lot of composure, and as a freshman, I couldn’t ask for more than what she did this year.”
Truman closed out the season with a 9-9 record.
District One AAAA Tournament (Opening Round)
#16 Central Bucks East 5, #17 Perkiomen Valley 1
Central Bucks East broke a scoreless tie with a single run in the fourth and then added another run in the fifth before exploding for three runs in the sixth to seize command.
“Both teams played really, really strong defense,” coach Erin Scott said. “We had some hits that their infielders just made some phenomenal plays on.
“The first play of the game was a shot down the third base line, and Jess Haug made an unbelievable play. They had a lot of runners in scoring position the first four or five innings and somehow we managed to get out of that situation without letting them score.”
The Vikings had runners in scoring position in the first, third, fourth and fifth innings but did not push a run across. They plated their lone run in the seventh but left the bases loaded.
East got on the scoreboard in the fourth when Laura Murray, who singled and stole second, scored on a sacrifice fly by Julia Schoenewald. The Patriots led 2-0 after Ali Vavala delivered a slap single to plate Brittany Aughenbaugh, who had reached base on an error.
In the sixth, Murray once again got things started for the Patriots with a leadoff single. She advanced to second on a passed ball and stole third on a delayed steal. She scored when Schoenewald doubled. The Patriots added a pair of insurance runs when Chase delivered a two-run home run.
“Laura Murray had a great game,” Scott said of her senior shortstop. “Defensively, she was just swallowing up every single ball that came her way, diving and just making great plays.”
According to Murray, Monday’s win was a team effort.
“The key defensively was making each play and communicating with each other and doing it as a team,” the West Chester-bound senior said. “Offensively, it was getting little hits – little singles.
“People would get on base, and we would hit them around. It’s not always about the doubles and home runs. The singles added up and did it for us.”
The game was not without its anxious moments as the Vikings opened the seventh with four straight singles, but that’s where their rally ended.
“Their hitters didn’t want to lose this game,” Scott said.
Sierra Huckfeldt and Jayme Ziegler shared mound duties with Huckfeldt working the first three innings and Ziegler throwing the final four.
“They work in tandem,” Scott said. “That’s part of our game plan. I’m sure everybody knows about it at this point because it’s not like we have a super overpowering pitcher, but they do what they need to do. They work well together and are able to keep teams off balance.”
Monday’s win was the first district playoff win for Scott, who took the team to districts last year in her second year at the helm.
“It was a great game,” the Patriots’ coach said. “I couldn’t be more proud of them. They played phenomenally. They did exactly what we talked about doing before the game, which was producing offensively and not committing errors.”
The Patriots were the fifth place team out of the Continental Conference, and after a loss to Quakertown in the final week of the season, the players were worried that their team might not earn a bid.
“It was kind of borderline for us,” Murray said. “We definitely wanted to get in, and it was real exciting for us, especially because for some of us it’s our senior year.
“After our loss to Quakertown – it was a setback, but it also was a reality check and showed us what we had to do if we wanted to make districts. The Souderton win was a big game for us. We were all really excited after that one. It was a big accomplishment. The whole process was really exciting.”
The Patriots have earned a second round date with top-seeded Pennsbury.
“We’re really excited,” Murray said. “They’re a threat and everything, but if we just play our ‘A’ game the way we know how to – we’re the underdog, and no one really expects anything from us. Hopefully, we’ll come out of nowhere and give (them a run).”
#22 West Chester Henderson 1, #11 Council Rock North 0 (10 innings)
Scoring runs is not usually a problem for the hard-hitting Indians, but they could not capitalize on their opportunities and were forced to absorb the disappointing loss.
“Defensively, we played really strong, and Morgan (Lewis) pitched fantastically, but we could not get a clean hit,” coach Hollie Woodard said. “They played outstanding defense – smart plays, good plays on balls that should have gotten through the infield.
“But the big thing for us was we could not get a bunt down to save our life. We could not, on any level, execute the short game, and that hurt us, especially once we got into the international tiebreaker because that’s how you win with that.
“When it came down to it, they got their bunts down, and we were not able to.”
The Indians managed just five hits – the same number of their counterparts, but it was their inability to push a run across in the bottom of the 10th that proved to be the difference.
“We got our runner to third with one out, but we couldn’t get her home,” said Woodard of a 10th inning that saw both teams start with a runner on second base. “We tried a safety squeeze and couldn’t get that bunt down and then had to go for the base hit but got a ground ball to third.
“It’s a shame.”
The Indians closed out the year with a 12-6 record, finishing third in the National Conference to only Pennsbury and Neshaminy. West Chester Henderson will travel to Souderton on Wednesday to take on the sixth-seeded Indians.
#20 West Chester East 7, #13 Wissahickon 0
East scored a pair of runs in the second and added another run in the third and then sealed the win by plating a pair in both the sixth and seventh innings.
The Trojans, meanwhile, managed just two hits off winning pitcher Brianna Andraos, who fanned eight and did not walk a batter. Gretchen Guaglianone and Alex Comonnitski accounted for Wissahickon’s only hits.
Katie Ziegler absorbed the loss, allowing eight hits while fanning five and walking four.
The Trojans closed out the year with a 13-5 record while West Chester East has earned a date with fourth-seeded Neshaminy in Wednesday’s second round.
#15 Upper Darby 4, #18 Plymouth Whitemarsh 2
Upper Darby scored four first-inning runs, and that turned out to be the difference in the game.
“We just couldn’t pull it together in the first inning,” coach Dana Moyer said. “I’d like to get that game back and start in the second inning.
“After that, we shut them down. It was one of the quickest games in history – an hour and 10 minutes.”
The Colonials scored a single run in the fifth to make it a 4-1 game. Susan Janfrancisco drew a lead-off walk and was replaced by pinch runner Laura Berman, who scored on an RBI single by Jordan Katz.
In the sixth, the Colonials tacked on another run when freshman Rachel Konowal, who had singled and stole second, scored on a single by Tori Baratucci for the 4-2 final.
The future is bright for the Colonials, who lose only one starter – catcher Alexa Borkowski – to graduation.
“I’m excited,” Moyer said. “It meant a lot to get to districts. As a first-year coach, it’s nice to see the kids buying into the system to kind of show them – hey, believe in us as much as we believe in you, and we’re going to take you guys some place.
“It’s nice to have that validation, but the girls put the time in, they put the work in. This showed them how their hard work is paying off.”
The Colonials closed out their season with a 9-7 record. Upper Darby will travel to second-seeded Hatboro-Horsham for a second round game on Wednesday.
#12 Downingtown East 1, #21 Norristown
Jon Kandrick says he walked away from his team’s season finale on Monday with a smile on his face.
“I told them – I can’t be upset with them because they didn’t do anything wrong,” the Eagles’ coach said. “I said to them – you guys made all the plays you were supposed to make, and even the one play they scored on, we made the play.
“They did everything else right. We turned a double play when they had the bases loaded. We did everything we could in that game, but we just couldn’t get a run across.”
The Eagles actually held a 5-3 advantage in hits.
“We had the bases loaded in the first, we had (runners on) second and third in the second, so we had our chances, but we just couldn’t capitalize,” Kandrick said. “It was an absolutely great softball game. I couldn’t ask for much more.”
The Cougars scored the game winner in the fifth, successfully executing a suicide squeeze after an East player had doubled and moved up to third on a sacrifice.
“I told the girls – we have been doing this all year, and today we got beat at our own game,” Kandrick said. “We knew it was going to happen.
“Gwyn (Botley) made a great play on the ball, but the girl is going on the release of the pitch, so she had the momentum. We just missed her on the tag. They just got that extra step on us and got it in.”
Taylor Copestick led the Eagles with two hits while Gabbie Berry, Sammi Kidd and Julia Santoro each had one hit.
Kidd, Berry and Santoro, according to Kandrick, also sparked the defense.
Botley allowed just three hits while striking out two.
“Gwyn pitched her heart out,” Kandrick said. “We outhit them and outplayed them, but they got their run, and that’s what counts in the end.
“The coaching staff was extremely proud of the team today. It was a total team effort.”
The Eagles closed out the year with a 12-6 record while Downingtown East moves on to face Owen J. Roberts.
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