Bishop Shanahan ends Lady Hatters' Softball Reign

Two teams had retribution on their minds when Hatboro-Horsham High met Bishop Shanahan in the PIAA 4-A softball quarterfinals Thursday afternoon at Spring-Ford High in Royersford. 

But it was Kate Poppe and Bishop Shanahan that earned revenge with a 4-1 victory that ended the Lady Hatters' reign as defending state champs.

Poppe, who had beaten Hatboro-Horsham, 1-0, 13 days earlier in the District One quarterfinals, did as much damage with her bat as her pitching in this meeting. Her two-run homer to right-center field in the third inning gave the Eagles a 3-0 lead and left the Lady Hatters with an uphill battle to overcome. 

Poppe said memories of her 3-0 loss to Maggie Shaffer and Hatboro-Horsham in the 2010 quarterfinals fueled her effort on Thursday.

"I knew I wanted (Hatboro-Horsham) more than any other team," said Poppe. "I wanted that game back." 

The Lady Hatters (24-4) had wanted a second chance at Bishop Shanahan (21-4) as much as Poppe had desired one more encounter with Hatboro-Horsham after suffering through a dreadful one-hit, 17-strikeout performance in the district tournament. 

And the Lady Hatters managed six hits and only fanned six times to put together threats in four separate innings. 

But perhaps the biggest factor in Bishop Shanahan's win was that its generally suspect defense played errorless ball behind Poppe and bailed her out with several surprising plays. 

"She didn't strike out 17 this time," said Hatboro-Horsham coach Joe DiFilippo. "We just didn't hit it in the right places."

Hatboro-Horsham threatened right out of the gate when leadoff hitter Jackie DiPietro beat out a bunt down the third-base line. But the Eagles got huge break when Chrissy James dropped a bunt that was fielded by the athletic Poppe. 

Poppe whirled and made an ill-advised decision to throw to second. It appeared that DiPietro beat the play, but the umpire called her out, taking some steam out of what could have been an early rally for the Lady Hatters.

With two outs, Val Sadowl walked, but Poppe blew away Daria Edwards on four pitches to end the inning. 

Weather impacted the game in the bottom of the second when a brief cloudburst played a role in Bishop Shanahan's first run.

With one out, Shaffer went to a full count on Eagle catcher Claudia Boggi as the Hatboro-Horsham senior tried to throw with a rain-slicked ball. Boggi fouled off a pair of pitches and walked.

Another 3-2 pitch to Kathleen Devaney resulted in a second walk and Bridget Magee stroked a soft looper into center on a 3-1 count for a single. The wet ball died on the outfield grass and Boggi scored the first run of the game.

Shaffer walked Kelsey Campbell to load the bases before regaining her control and striking out two batters to work out of trouble. 

A 1-0 deficit seemed reasonable enough to overcome, but things quickly turned more critical when Erica Keen opened the third by slapping a soft single to center and moving to second on a grounder to Sadowl at short.

With first base open, the Lady Hatters decided to pitch to Poppe. Keen, meanwhile, was signaling pitch locations to the Eagles' cleanup hitter as the count ran to 1-1 before a fateful delivery. 

Keen "was signaling me, but she missed that one and I knew I just had to hit it," said Poppe, the Villanova-bound senior. "It was an outside pitch."

But Shaffer's effort got too much of the strike zone and Poppe drilled it to deep right-center field. DiPietro gave chase, but it landed just barely over the fence for a stunning, two-run homer to make it a 3-0 game.

After Sadowl's walk in the first, Poppe retired 12 consecutive batters, though without the ease that she had mowed down the Lady Hatters 13 days earlier.

"They were putting the ball in play," said Poppe. "I knew I had to hit my spots and if I missed, they were going to hit it."

With two outs in the fifth, however, Nicole Casagrand — coming off a 4-for-5 effort against Central Dauphin in the previous game — shortened up her swing and punched a single to center.

Then freshman Jen Cader — playing in left field — made her first plate appearance as a pinch-hitter for designated hitter Nicole D'Andrea.

"Jen really made good contact in batting practice on Wednesday, so I thought she was ready," DiFilippo said. 

Cader responded with an approach similar to Casagrand's and popped a controlled swing into left for another hit.

DiPietro strode to the plate as the potential tying run and on an 0-2 pitch, the Seton Hall-bound senior drilled the hardest ball Hatboro-Horsham hit all day towards the hole between first and second. 

Bishop Shanahan first baseman Julie Fullam looked somewhat surprised when she stared down at her glove and realized she had made a diving, backhanded grab of what potentially was a two-run triple. 

Fullam rose off the ground and raced to first ahead of the fleet-footed DiPietro for the final out of the inning and Poppe had dodged a big bullet.

With one out in the sixth. Shaffer started another rally when she smacked a hard grounder past a diving Alyssa Lewis at short into left for a base hit and Sadowl worked a great at-bat as Poppe pitched her carefully before walking on a 3-1 delivery.

With power-hitting catcher Daria Edwards at the plate, DiFilippo said he faced a dilemma. 

"I thought about bunting with Daria to get another runner on base, but what do you do when she could tie it with one swing?" 

Edwards swung away and lofted a fly to medium-deep left where Steph Salcito had struggled all day, dropping one Sadowl foul fly near the line and juggling another fly on a swing from Edwards with two outs in the fourth before ending the inning with a shaky catch. 

Salcito looked less than confident on this effort as well, but she squeezed the ball for a crucial second out.

Suddenly, every out was becoming difficult for Poppe and Heather Lutz — who had just missed centering a Poppe pitch on a fly to right in the second — greeted the power-throwing righty with a one-strike smash to center to drive home Shaffer with run to make it 3-1.

For some reason, the Eagles relayed the ball to the plate, far too late to catch a sliding Shaffer. But a brief delay with the ball at second base held Sadowl at the bag and prevented the Lady Hatters from moving runners to second and third with two outs. 

Maria Spinosa, who came into the game as one of Hatboro-Horsham's hottest hitters and was the lone Lady Hatter to record a hit off Poppe in the first meeting, also worked a fine at-bat, getting to a 3-2 count and fouled off several pitches before she lifted a fly to center.

Keen had to run to track it down and also appeared to struggle with the catch before securing the ball for the third out.

Bishop Shanahan showed tenacity of its own in the bottom of the sixth when Magee stroked a one-out single to right and Salcito worked the count to 3-2 with two outs. The Eagles' ninth-place hitter then stunned the crowd with a shot to deep right-center that fell out of the reach of the speedy DiPietro for a run-scoring double that pushed the lead back to three.

That advantage proved to be too much to overcome for the Lady Hatters in their final  turn at bat in the seventh.

Leading off, Casagrand toppled a potential hit off the glove of Kelsey Campbell at third, but the ball was touched in foul ground and Casagrand then was retired on a comebacker.

Cader gave Hatboro-Horsham renewed life when she drilled a double down the right-field line, but Poppe coaxed a soft liner to short from DiPietro and struck out James — the south strikeout of the game for Poppe — to set off a wild celebration in one dugout and plenty of tears in the other.

"I was struggling, the last two innings," Poppe admitted, " and (the Bishop Shanahan defense) was really behind me." 

The Eagles had shown their defensive deficiencies in a loss to North Penn for the District One championship, but that same defense proved to be one of the biggest differences on Thursday.

“You have to give it to them,” the UConn-bound Sadowl said. “They all played a great game today.”

Hatboro-Horsham executed it game plan well, but Bishop Shanahan managed its effort even better. 

“Our goal was just to put the ball in play and see what happens, and we did, but they just came up with great defensive plays,” Sadowl said. “There was nothing more that we could have done. It was a well-played game by both teams.” 

It was the final game for an accomplished senior class that included, Sadowl and four others — D'Andrea, DiPietro, James and Shaffer. 

D'Andrea will continue her softball career at the University of New Haven, while Shaffer will play at Guilford College. James has decided to hang up her cleats and focus on studying at the next level.

“It’s tough,” Sadowl said. “I have been playing with these girls since little league, and to never be on the field with them again – it was a great four years. We accomplished a lot – top-three sophomore year and we won (the state title) last year. I would never trade that for anything.” 

DiPietro shared Sadowl's sentiments. 

“It’s really tough, especially your senior year,” DiPietro said. “All the seniors – we have gone so far. We won the state championship, we were in the semis and today the quarterfinals. We have seen it all pretty much.”

DiFilippo, who started coaching the group when they were youngsters, said he will always have a soft spot for this group of veterans.

“These five seniors that just played their last game – this group is a phenomenal group of kids,” DiFilippo said. “I, personally, will miss everyone.” 

The goal of consecutive state titles — something that has been done only twice in PIAA softball history (Minersville at the 2-A level in 1979-80 and Susquehannock at 3-A in 2007-08) — proved to be too big a challenge for the Lady Hatters, who were constantly in every teams' gun sights throughout the year. 

“Every team looked at us like it's the World Series,” DiFilippo said. “Everyone wanted to beat us."

That target will move to another team in 2013, as Hatboro-Horsham reloads with another strong team.

“Unfortunately, we lost this one, but the team that wins the state championship is going to go through the same thing next year," DiFilippo explained. "There aren’t many teams that win a state championship and come back and go 24-4. I give these kids a heck of a lot of credit for that.”