PIAA Softball: A pitchers' duel till the end, North Penn falls in semifinal; Conwell-Egan's history-making win

Shearer was good as gold, but Knights edged by Spring-Ford

It was a heartbreaking ending.

The sinking line drive off Julia Shearer’s bat with a North Penn runner on second and two outs in the seventh had base hit written all over, but Allie Wescott had other ideas. The Spring-Ford senior went for a diving all-or-nothing catch and came up with the ball in her glove for the final out of Monday’s 2-0, PIAA 6A semifinal win at Boyertown High School.

“Any other left fielder, any other team, that would have dropped, and something crazy would have happened,” Shearer said. “It’s just unfortunate. She made a great grab.”

PIAA Baseball: Holy Ghost makes history, advances to state title game; Wood falls in extra-innings

The Rams — thanks at least in part to Wescott’s heroics — are going to Friday’s PIAA 6A state title game at Penn State University. The district champion Knights, the state’s top-ranked team, are going home.

“We have a bunch of amazing seniors – it’s going to be sad to let them go,” Shearer said. “But I feel like we went out and we fought like we could. We had energy. We just couldn’t produce, and that hurt us today.”

Monday’s state semifinal was a rematch of the District One 6A semifinal, a 5-2 Knights’ win in a contest that saw the Rams commit four errors. This time around, they played flawless defense behind pitcher Jules Scogna and not only made all the routine plays but all the tough plays as well.

“I think we were relying on the fact that we beat them before, and we shouldn’t have done that,” senior co-captain Sophia Collins said. “It’s definitely hard to do it again once you beat a team.

“We had runners on third in multiple innings. Just no clutch hits.”

Postseason Push:Big day for North Penn's Shearer started before the Knights' quarterfinal win

For the first time all season, the Knights were kept off the scoreboard. They had plenty of chances, most notably in the first inning when Sarah Sabocsik ripped a one-out double to the fence and Annabelle Smink followed with an infield single. Smink took second on defensive indifference, and the Knights had a pair of runners in scoring position with one out. Scogna struck out the Knights’ four and five hitters for two of her four strikeouts in the game. It turned out to be an omen of things to come.

“That was huge because we knew if we jumped on them the first inning – then we controlled the game, and we didn’t do it,” said Knights’ coach Rick Torresani, whose team held an 8-3 advantage on hits. We had a lot of people on base, and we just couldn’t get the clutch hit.”

The Rams put a pair of unearned runs on the board in the fourth despite collecting just one hit as they capitalized on a rare North Penn error. That 2-0 lead stood the rest of the way.

Shearer – who gave up just three hits, struck out eight and walked one – allowed just six earned runs in 159 innings in a brilliant season that saw the Gatorade Player of the Year compile a 25-2 record.

-Mary Jane Souder

Pennsbury's title-run comes to an end

Chalk up Pennsbury's loss in Monday’s PIAA Class 6A softball semifinal game to a couple of things.

Namely:

Several uncharacteristic mistakes.

A dynamite opposing pitcher leading a hungry team.

And a little looking ahead.

"I think we maybe got a little ahead of ourselves and were thinking about playing for the state title," said Pennsbury senior catcher Rowan Mulholland of her team's 9-0 loss to Seneca Valley.

"And their pitcher did a really good job. If you can't hit, you can't win."

Football:Archbishop Wood names David Armstrong new football coach

The loss, the first time the Falcons (24-3) were shut out all season, ended their season while the Raiders advanced to Friday's PIAA title game against Spring-Ford.

"Give that team a lot of credit," said Pennsbury head coach Frank McSherry, who wrapped up his 40th season with a second-straight trip to the PIAA semifinals and plans to return in 2023.

"They came out aggressive with the bats and were ready to go. We made some uncharacteristic errors that hurt us and we were never able to get into our game. They deserved this one."

Seneca Valley (16-6), which is about 25 miles north of Pittsburgh, heads to State College as the District Seven-champion and winners of 13 straight.

"We've really been playing well and we need to keep doing that for one more game," said Seneca Valley first-year head coach Marlesse Hames, who was the standout senior pitcher in 1992 when the Raiders made their only PIAA title game appearance.

"This whole season has been really cool. Our girls are all friends and they have fun on the field. We lost when we played at states when I was senior and hopefully it will be a different story for us this time."

This year's story has a familiar theme to 30 years ago as Hames' daughter, impressive freshman Lexie Hames, is a dominant pitcher.

The younger Hames yielded just one hit to Pennsbury and did not walk a batter while striking out 11. No Falcon advanced past second base.

In last Thursday's quarterfinals, Hames surrendered just three hits in a 1-0 win over Quakertown.

"Their pitcher is really tough and she throws strikes," McSherry said. "That's a tough team to go up against."

Seneca Valley scored five runs in the third inning off Pennsbury senior starter Ainsley McClure and added four more against reliever Quinn McGonigle in the fourth.

"Ainsley meant so much to our program like all of the seniors did," McSherry said. "We have some really good players coming back, but we're going to miss our seniors."

And they can sing, too...

In a cool moment before the game with both teams lined up after introductions, a balky public-address system wouldn't play the National Anthem. No worries. Instead, the Pennsbury players started singing the Star Spangled Banner and the Seneca Valley players quickly chimed in. Well done by both sides.

-Drew Markol

Class 2A

They already made history, and they are far from finished

12-1 CONWELL-EGAN 7, 6-2 CLAYSBURG-KIMMELL 2

Photos:Pennsbury, Quakertown look to keep their postseason dreams alive in quarterfinals

It’s been a historical season for Conwell-Egan, well before the Eagles played Monday’s PIAA Class 2A semifinal game. And the Eagles will continue to make history, after downing Claysburg-Kimmel 7-2 to advance to their first state title game in program history. And it’s not just a first for Conwell-Egan, but for the Philadelphia Catholic League. The Eagles will become the first team in PCL history to play in a PIAA Softball championship game.

The Eagles were just the second PCL softball team to win a state quarterfinal in league history, eight seasons after Lansdale Catholic went to the semifinals in 2014.

Winning pitcher Ahlana Sesar held the Tigers to just four hits, while the Eagles offense took care of the rest.

Outfielder Katey Brennan, MVP of the Philadelphia Catholic League, continued her strong postseason play. Brennan, who made a game-saving diving catch in the Eagles’ first-round win, led the way on offense with a pair of doubles. Cassidy Blaskof, Ange Bresnan and Cecilia McBeth had two hits apiece for the Eagles, who broke open the game with a five-run fifth inning.

Conwell-Egan will play District 7 champion Neshanook in Friday’s championship game at Penn State University. Neshanook defeated Laurel 13-6 in the semifinals.

Class 4A

2-1 TUNKHANNOCK 13, 1-1 VILLA JOSEPH MARIE 0

An uncharacteristic first inning saw Tunkhannock score seven runs on the Jems, who were unable to climb back in the Class 4A semifinal game. While pitching has been a strong point for the Jems during their postseason run, Tunkhannock took advantage of a couple errors and a wild pitch to put the game out of reach. Villa Joseph Marie finished the season with a 19-4 record and a District One Class 4A championship.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: PIAA Softball: Pennsbury, Conwell-Egan, North Penn play semifinal games