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Health & Fitness

Lady Hatters Open Softball Playoff Action Wednesday

Hatboro-Horsham begins defense of its district and state softball titles Wednesday against Upper Darby after drawing the No. 4 seed in the District 1 4-A tournament.

Motivation can take many shapes and forms for an athletic team and the committee seeding the Pennsylvania District 1 high school softball playoffs may have provided with a spark as it begins defense of its 2011 PIAA 4-A softball title. 

Despite winning a share of another Suburban One League/Continental Conference title in 2012 and compiling an 18-2 record for the second year in a row, the Lady Hatters begin the playoffs as only the No. 4 seed in its own district.

Seeded ahead of Hatboro-Horsham last week were a Pennsbury squad that lost both the district and state titles to the Lady Hatters in 2011, a Neshaminy team that was thumped 8-3 in a season-opening scrimmage on the Hatboro-Horsham home diamond and a Spring-Ford unit that hasn't played as tough a schedule, or built the type of reputation in postseason play as the Lady Hatters have.

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None of this bothers Hatboro-Horsham coach Joe DiFilippo, who was just happy to get one of the top-four seeds that allows the Lady Hatters to get an opening-round bye and to be at home through the next two rounds.

"It really doesn't matter where you are seeded, as long as you get one of those top-four seeds," DiFilippo said following his team's 2-0 victory over North Penn last week in the regular season finale.

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The Lady Hatters will host Upper Darby on today at 4 p.m. in the second round. Upper Darby, the No. 13 seed earned the right to play the defending state champions by edging out No. 20 Owen J. Roberts, 7-6 in eight innings on Monday afternoon. 

Awaiting the winner of Wednesday's game will be either Bishop Shanahan, the No. 5 seed, or No. 12 Perkioman Valley in the district quarterfinals. Perkioman Valley knocked off No. 21 West Chester Rustin 10-0 on Monday. 

The quarterfinals will be held Friday at 4 p.m. at Hatboro-Horsham if the Lady Hatters defeat Upper Darby (15-6).

Upper Darby broke out to a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first on Monday, but needed an extra frame to knock off Roberts, which scored three runs in the top of the seventh to take a 4-3 advantage.

But Upper Darby tied the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the seventh and the Royals tied it again in the eighth after Roberts (14-7) had rallied again for a 6-4 edge on a two-run triple from Nicole Testa.

Amy Jackson's RBI single in the eighth tied the game again for Upper Darby and winning pitcher Savannah Nierintz helped her own cause with a base hit to drive home Jackson with the winning run.

Upper Darby had 11 hits, one more than Roberts, including a double off the bat of Olivia Chase. Sarah Dowd took the loss for Roberts, but she was 2-for-4 at the plate with a homer, a triple and four RBIs. 

WAMBOLD HELPS SYRACUSE TO REGIONAL TITLE GAME 

Former Hatboro-Horsham star continued to provide Syracuse with a big bat as a freshman, coming up with several key hits as the Orange marched to the Tempe, Ariz. regional championship game last weekend at No. 3 seeded Arizona State in the NCAA Division I Softball Tournament.

Syracuse opened tournament play with a 4-2 victory on Friday over Long Beach State for the Orange's first-ever NCAA tourney win. Wambold got Syracuse off to a good start with an RBI single in the first inning and finished 1-of-2 with a walk.

An inside-the-park homer by left fielder Lisiara Daniels scored two runs to break up a 2-2 tie in the fourth inning.

Syracuse led 1-0 after one inning against Arizona State on Saturday afternoon, but a three-run rally in the bottom of the fourth inning put the defending national champions in front and the Sun Devils held on for a 3-1 victory.

Wambold was 0-for-2 with a walk. She took what looked to be ball four in another at-bat, but was called out on strikes on a pitch that was high and inside.

Forced into the loser's bracket in the double-elimination tournament, Syracuse came through with a 2-1 victory over Long Beach State on Saturday night.

Wambold gave the Orange a first-inning lead when she ripped a double off the left-field fence to score Veronica Grant, who had singled and gone to second on a throwing error.

A homer by Karli Sandoval tied the game for Long Beach State (29-25), the Big West champion, in the fourth, but Syracuse won the game when Jasmine Watson slammed a home run of her own in the top of the eighth. 

Wambold finished 1-for-3 and picked up her team-leading 34th RBI.

Needing to beat Arizona State twice on Sunday to win the regional, Syracuse blanked the Sun Devils 1-0 in the afternoon game on a first-inning homer from Stephanie Watts and the four-hit pitching of Jenna Caira, who out-dueled last year's national-championship winning pitcher Dallas Escobedo.

But in a rematch of the two pitchers on Sunday night, Escobedo was staked to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and beat Caira 4-0. With the hard-throwing, right-handed Escobedo in the circle, Wambold was reduced to a pinch-hitting role in the two games on Sunday and finished 0-2 with a pair of strikeouts.

Syracuse ended the year at 43-16, while Arizona State moves on to host Louisiana-Lafayette in this weekend's Super Regional. The winner of the best-of-three series moves on as one of eight teams going to Oklahoma City for the College Softball World Series.

Wambold finished her freshman season with a .260 batting average, a .372 on-base percentage and a .573 slugging percentage. She led the Orange with 11 home runs and was sixth in the Big East Conference in that category.

The Wambold family of Hatboro nearly ended up with two daughters playing in the NCAA tournament. Julie's sister, Katie, a senior second baseman at Albany, made it to the American East Conference championship game before the Great Danes were beaten by Boston University, 5-0.

Katie Wambold finished the year with a .265 batting average, with five homers and 34 RBIs. She had a .422 slugging average and a .290 on-base percentage as Albany went 36-14.

You can read more from David Coulson at www.college-sports-journal.com

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