Heavy-HItting Lady Hatters Thump CB East Again

BUCKINGHAM — Central Bucks East High School went into the 2013 Continental Conference softball season talking about how it was ready to not only win a conference title, but challenge for a PIAA 4-A championship. 

Such boasts didn't sit well with a Hatboro-Horsham program that has won two state crowns in five years and considers itself as the top dog in Pennsylvania's top conference.

Within that backdrop, the Lady Hatters pounded out a 7-4 victory on the road Tuesday afternoon to sweep the regular-season series with the Patriots behind the heavy hitting of Jen Cader, Carlie Johnson, Maria Spinosa, Jackie Locke and others.

"We hit the ball really well and got a lot of contributions from a lot of players," said Hatboro-Horsham coach Joe DiFilippo of his team's 13-hit performance. "This was a big win for us."

With CB East starting the day a game back of Hatboro-Horsham and Central Bucks South for the lead in the Continental Conference, the first game of the second half schedule loomed as significant.

It became even more important when Pennridge stopped CB South 4-1 on Tuesday to vault the Lady Hatters (10-1 overall, 7-1 in conference) back into first place all by themselves.

Cader was the catalyst with a triple, a homer, a single and two RBIs, just missing the cycle in four at-bats.

Cader made a statement on the opening at-bat of the game when she slammed a triple to give the Lady Hatters a scoring threat before fans had even settled into their seats.

Spinosa followed with a sharp single to left on the next pitch and it was 1-0, Hatboro-Horsham. 

Spinosa, who has been practically unstoppable in the past two weeks, added a 2-for-4 performance and an RBI. The cagey third baseman is 11-for-18 (.611) in the past five games. 

Johnson was a steaming 3-for-4 as well, with twin doubles and pair of runs scored. The speedy left fielder seems to be getting hot at the plate just as the Lady Hatters are entering the regular-season home stretch.

Locke made a sparkling debut as a designated hitter in her first varsity appearance of the season.  

Hitting .567 at the JV level, this sophomore first baseman in waiting was brought up due to the hamstring injury suffered by freshman right fielder DeAnna Moyer on Monday at Crestwood. 

Locke, who split time between varsity and JV squads as a freshman before suffering a season-ending concussion, was 2-for-4 with a key RBI in a two-run fourth inning tar made it 3-0.

The lead would grow to 6-0 as hard-throwing lefty Nicole Casagrand mowed down the heavy-hitting Patriot lineup with five shutout innings.

CB East (9-3, 5-3) finally rallied for three runs in the sixth and one in the seventh off Casagrand, but the deficit was far too big to overcome.

Casagrand turned in another complete-game win, scattering seven hits and allowing four earned runs, while not permitting a walk.

Heather Lutz had an RBI on her lone hit, Daria Edwards scored a run after a single and Emily Wrenn came off the bench to go 1-for-2.

The win gets Hatboro-Horsham off to a great start in the second half of conference play, heading into a four-game stretch against Souderton and Pennridge at home and CB South and North Penn on the road — a gauntlet that will likely decide the Continental title and could determine if the Lady Hatters get a top seed in the District 1 playoffs.

That schedule begins Thursday with a 3:30 p.m. game against Souderton.

Coach DiFilippo was so pleased, he took time after the game to shift into his role as a proud dad, taking time to show reporters a picture of his daughter Danielle on his cell phone after the younger DiFilippo was named as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference softball player of the week. 

Second baseman Danielle DiFilippo was 11-for-22 (.500) with two RBIs and a game-winning hit against Kutztown as Millersville University went 5-1 last week.

The JV Hatters suffered a heartbreaking 5-4 defeat on Tuesday at CB East, narrowly losing to a team that had beaten them 16-2 in the first round of conference play.

Lexi Campbell, making just her third start of the season, was brilliant in the circle, allowing just five hits to a hard-hitting Patriot that ripped 15 hits in the first meeting earlier this month.

One of those five hits was a bloop single to that resulted in a two-out RBI in the third and another was on a bunt. None of CB Bucks' five runs were earned. 

Mixing a nice change-up and a hard-breaking screwball with her fastball, Campbell struck out five, walked only two and hit one batter in twirling a complete game.

Hatboro-Horsham (5-6, 2-6) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when catcher Emmy Rivkin hustled to beat out an infield hit, center fielder Jamie Mroz smacked a single to center, moving Rivkin to third and right fielder Charlotte Coulson (1-for-2, one RBI) stroked a hard grounder up the middle. 

CB East's shortstop was able to make a fine play for a force on Mroz, but Rivkin scored and Coulson easily beat the relay throw to first to avoid what would have been an inning-ending double play.

A hit batter and two huge errors — among the seven errors the JV Hatters committed on the day — allowed the Patriots to jump ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the second, but HHHS rallied for two to make it 3-2 a half-inning later.

Campbell led off with a booming double and stole third base. Following a walk to left fielder Miranda Nish and Nish's stolen base, first baseman Jessica Eble stroked a sacrifice fly to center to score Campbell.

Nish failed to tag up on a hard-hit liner by Emily Wallace to deep left that just missed going for a ground-rule double, but shortstop Meghan Fitzgerald picked Nish up with a looping single to right to give the JV Hatters the lead.

Third-baseman Wallace made the defensive play of the game in the bottom of the third when she caught a slapped line drive just a few feet away from the batter, but a two-out, two-base error and a bloop single over second baseman Kaylin Mount allowed CB Bucks East to tie the game again.

The game stayed at 3-3 until the bottom of the sixth when a lead-off single was compounded by an outfield throwing error and a wild pitch. A two-out infield hit to short gave the Patriots a 4-3 lead.

Hatboro-Horsham immediately tied it in the top of the seventh when Mount walked, Campbell (3-for-4) beat out an infield hit in the hole at short and Kaeli Simmons roped a base hit to left.

But with runners on second and third, Wallace popped up to the pitcher and Fitzgerald grounded out to second to keep the JV Hatters from taking the lead.

A lead-off single, a stolen base and an error gave CB East a runner at third with no outs and the runner scored to win the game in walk-off fashion on a grounder to Fitzgerald at short.