Lady Hatters Draw Perkiomen Valley in District Play

There are pluses and minuses to being a top-seeded team and having a first-round bye in the PIAA District One softball tournament. 

"It seems like we should have been playing today," said Hatboro-Horsham High School coach Joe DiFilippo on Monday evening. "Having a bye and playing at home is nice, but in some ways, I'd rather be playing." 

The Lady Hatters, the No. 2 seed behind top-ranked Neshaminy in the playoffs, put in a hard practice on Monday afternoon while awaiting news of No. 18 Perkiomen Valley's 5-4, eight-inning victory over host and No. 15 West Chester East in a first-round.

Perkiomen Valley's reward for that win is a chance to play one of the state's top softball programs Wednesday in Horsham at 4 p.m. in the second round.

"They have had a good program," said DiFilippo. "I've had a couple of players on my travel team from there through the years." 

The Lady Vikings overcame a 4-0 deficit after three innings to tie the game and won it in extra innings as freshman pitcher Emily Oltman out-dueled West Chester East's Olivia Rogers. 

Oltman allowed just six hits — only two after the second inning — and walked two with seven strikeouts as she kept WCE off-balance with a variety of pitches. 

Rogers limited PVHS to six hits with one walk and five strikeouts, but was undone by her defense. 

Jenny Minnich delivered a two-run single to the left-center field gap after a hit and an error to get PVHS on the board and cut the lead in half in the fourth inning.

Minnich struck again in the seventh with a lead-off single to right, followed by Nicole Bangert's base hit to the same location and a sacrifice by Laura Matekovic.

With runners in scoring positions, Ana Bruni's grounder to short was thrown into right field to tie the score. 

Lady Viking catcher Kelsey Impink started the eighth with a double, moved up on a ground out and scored on Kelly Wild's bouncer to first to give PVHS its first lead. 

Oltman then slammed the door in the bottom of the eighth. 

The winner of Wednesday's game will face the survivor of a second-round contest between No. 10 Methacton and No. 7 Central Bucks East Friday.

"If my girls play their game, we will be fine," said DiFilippo of his 16-3 team.

The Lady Hatters beat Methacton 13-0 in the District One consolation semifinals last season and toppled Continental Conference co-runner-up CB East twice by a combined 16-8 score this year.

Methacton dropped William Tennett 5-0 on Monday to set up that meeting at CB East. 

With a victory, Hatboro-Horsham would be at home for the quarterfinal game at 4 p.m., with the winner of that matchup earning one of District One's four berths to the PIAA 4-A tournament.

But DiFilippo isn't looking ahead. He reminded his team at the end of Monday's practice that the season would be over and the careers of the senior class would be finished if the Lady Hatters lose on Wednesday.

"I'm not looking at Friday," said DiFilippo. "I'm worried about Wednesday's game right now." 

But DiFilippo can relax knowing he has a power-hitting lineup, led by third baseman Daria Edwards, first baseman Heather Lutz (seven home runs each), center fielder Jen Cader (four homers) and lead-off hitter and shortstop Maria Spinosa (.560 batting average).

He can also rely on the pitching of left-hander Nicole Casagrand, who has blossomed in her first year as a stater in the circle replacing Maggie Shaffer.

Coach Dan McLaughlin is in his fifth season for a Perkiomen Valley team that lost to No. 16 Boyertown in the semifinals of the Pioneer Athletic Conference tournament last week. 

Boyertown lost 2-0 to No. 9 Spring-Ford in the PAC-10 championship game, but advanced to the second round of district play with a 6-1 decision over No. 17 Kennett and will face Neshaminy next. 

Spring-Ford beat No. 24 Interboro 3-2 in district action and will take on No. 8 Downingtown East next. 

"There isn't anyone in the field that I'm not scared of," said DiFilippo. "Everyone had to win to get here, every team is a good team."

In other tournament play on Monday, two of the three Continental Conference teams in action advanced with wins.

No. 13 North Penn — the defending District One champion — held off No. 20 Garnet Valley 7-4 and No. 12 Pennridge outlasted No. 21 Conestoga 2-1.  

No. 19 Souderton, coming off a 6-3 victory over Central Bucks South last Wednesday that lifted Hatboro-Horsham to the outright Continental Conference crown and one of six teams from the conference to make the playoff field, was bombed by No. 14 Upper Darby 10-0 in five innings.

Souderton was a team that DiFilippo said earlier on Monday "I wouldn't want to face right now."

Upper Darby lost to Hatboro-Horsham in the second round of the 2011 playoffs, the first of eight consecutive postseason wins that gave the Lady Hatters a second state title in four years. Upper Darby now faces No. 3 seed, Pennsbury.

No. 4 seeded CB South hosts North Penn in second round play on Wednesday.

In the biggest upset of the first round, No. 22 Avon Grove went on the road to topple No. 11 Haverford.

Avon Grove meets a sixth-ranked West Chester Henderson club on Wednesday that has only lost one game all season and a team that DiFilippo thought was under-seeded. 

"I thought the committee did an excellent job and seeded the eight teams that should have gotten first-round byes," DiFilippo explained. "The only question I had was how a Henderson team with only one loss wasn't seeded higher?" 

Henderson (17-1) won its first Ches-Mont Conference title in 34 years and is led by one of the top pitchers in the area, Lauren Butts. 

Henderson is seeded to face Pennsbury in Friday's quarterfinals, a matchup that will occur if both teams win on Wednesday. The winner of that contest is bracketed to potentially play against Hatboro-Horsham, if the Lady Hatters can win two games in the district tournament.