Lady Hatters Stay Alive for State Tournament

What a difference four days meant for the Hatboro-Horsham High School softball team.

Coming off Friday's 1-0 loss at home in PIAA District 1 play to Bishop Shanahan — a game where the Lady Hatters managed just one hit and were struck out 17 times — Hatboro-Horsham's bats were as hot as the weather on Tuesday afternoon in a five-inning, 13-0 victory over Methacton. 

The win lifted No. 4-seeded Hatboro-Horsham (20-3) to the district consolation final on Thursday against No. 3 Spring-Ford (19-3), with the winner advancing to the state tournament. The Thursday game will be played at 4 p.m. at a neutral site to be determined on Wednesday.

In the final home game for five seniors, the Lady Hatters jumped on Warrior pitcher Madeleine Lowery for three runs in the first inning to take some of the pressure off, added two more runs in the second and then broke the game open completely with a seven-run third.

Lowery was the same pitcher who limited No. 1 seeded Pennsbury — the team that Hatboro-Horsham beat for the district and state titles last season — to two runs in an eight-inning loss on Friday. But Lowery and Methacton (18-8) had no answers to slowing down the Lady Hatters on Tuesday.

Shortstop Val Sadowl led the offensive explosion with four RBIs on a double and a three-run homer and sent two other shots to the warning track on a day where every Lady Hatter hitter reached base and eight of the nine batters combined for 14 hits.

"This is more like Hatters' softball," said Sadowl. "We were in complete attack mode today."

Sadowl had Hatboro-Horsham's first hit and it may have been the Lady Hatters' most important one, as her double to the left-field fence scored pinch-runner Jaynie Black with the initial run of the game.

Black had replaced Hatboro-Horsham pitcher Maggie Shaffer on the bases paths after Shaffer had worked a two-out walk against Lowery.

The Lady Hatters struck for two more runs in the first when catcher Daria Edwards drilled an RBI-single up the middle and scored moments later when Heather Lutz's grounder to second was dropped by Methacton first baseman Rachel Picozzy for an error — a ball Picozzy might have lost in the sun. 

Another two-out rally in the second put more pressure on the Warriors and helped Hatboro-Horsham to relax even more.

Center fielder Jackie DiPietro beat out a bunt on a close play at first and Chrissy James looped a single to right. DiPietro aggressively charged to theirs on the play and James raced to second on the throw back to the infield.

Shaffer ripped a shot inside of the third-base bag to plate two more runs and made it 5-0 after two innings.

"Our bats came back today," said Hatboro-Horsham coach Joe DiFilippo. "We were relaxed today."

With Shaffer in almost complete control again inside the circle, Methacton's chances of coming back seemed particularly slim. The cool and collected senior scattered three soft, ground-ball singles and allowed only two walks, while striking out three. 

Methacton's lone threat off Shaffer occurred in the first when Amanda Kulp rolled a base hit to center, leading off on a 3-2 pitch and went to second on a sacrifice bunt. Shaffer pitched around clean-up hitter Sarah Pambo with four balls, but coaxed a grounder to Sadowl at short from designated hitter Rachel Rodden to end the inning. 

Edwards (3-for-3) slammed a single through the hole at short to open the bottom of the third and Methacton was fortunate that only seven runs had been scored by the time the Hatboro-Horsham at-bat had ended.

Lutz reached on an error and Maggie Leisch, pinch-running for Edwards in her first varsity appearance, was thrown out at the plate on a squeeze bunt from Maria Spinosa before the carnage went into overdrive.

Nicole Casagrand lofted a fly into short center for a single that scored Lutz and pushed Spinosa to third and Casagrand took an extra base when no one covered second base on the play. 

Designated hitter Nicole D'Andrea (2-for-3), who hit the ball hard on all three of her at-bats, followed with a scorching single to left for two RBIs.

With two outs, James crushed a double to left-center field to score D'Andrea and Shaffer was walked for the second of three times. Then Sadowl sent the second pitch she saw over the fence in left for a three-run homer.

Edwards followed with another single before the inning mercifully came to an end when Brit Dickinson flagged down a near-homer by Lutz in deep left-center.

Spinosa bombed a pitch over the left-center-field fence to add a final run in the fourth and the Lady Hatters loaded the bases again on singles from D'Andrea and DiPietro and a walk to Shaffer before Sadowl's bid for what would have been a game-ending grand slam was hauled in near the fence again by Dickinson.

Casagrand quickly retired the first two batters she faced in the top of the fifth as the left-hander came on in relief of Shaffer. An error and a base hit gave the Warriors a threat of breaking up the shutout, but Casagrand regrouped to fan Katie Civitello for the final out.

"Today, we played to win instead of playing not to lose, like we did on Friday," DiFilippo said.

And that adjustment in approach puts the Lady Hatters in position to return to the state championship tournament.

"We have done a good job of playing one game at a time and now that opportunity is here," said Sadowl. "Thursday, we have to come out and do what we did today."