Spinosa Keys H-H Softball Comeback at Quakertown

QUAKERTOWN — For two innings Wednesday, Quakertown High School had Hatboro-Horsham right where it wanted them. 

A two-run homer over the center-field fence by shortstop Maddie Mulhall in the second inning vaulted the Panthers to a quick 2-0 lead before the Lady Hatters stormed back for a 10-3 victory behind a 13-hit attack. 

Hatboro-Horsham tied the game with a pair of runs in the third and took the lead with three more runs in the fifth, highlighted by Maria Spinosa's hustling double to center, Daria Edwards' RBI single up the middle and Heather Lutz's scorching-low liner over the right-center field fence for a home run. 

Spinosa was brilliant with a 4-for-4 afternoon, scoring two runs and driving home another to boost her production to 6-for-7 in two games this week.

A key contributor off the bench was Maggie Leisch, whose base running and hitting helped fuel a key rally. The speedy Leisch was 1-for-2 with a run scored. 

Leisch beat out an infield grounder in the sixth and moved all the way to third on a great slide as DeAnna Moyer laid down a bunt single.

Jen Cader then drove both Leisch and Moyer in with a double to the left-center-field gap to make it a 7-3 game, scoring herself on Spinosa's two-bagger down the left-field line. 

Moyer drove in a pair of runs in the seventh with a single to complete the rout. 

Pitcher Nicole Casagrand wasn't as sharp as she had been on Monday in a 2-1 victory over defending District 1 champion North Penn, but the hard-throwing lefty scattered eight hits and allowed just three earned runs. 

"We did what we needed to do today," said Hatboro-Horsham coach Joe DiFilippo. "We have one more game (on Thursday) against Central Bucks West to finish the first round of conference play and I want to finish the first round at 7-1. I want to go 8-0 in the second round." 

The Lady Hatters improved 8-1 overall and 6-1 in conference play to stay even with Central Bucks South and Central Bucks East. Quakertown fell to 1-5 in the tough Continental Conference.

CB South overcame an early 4-0 deficit to beat Souderton 13-7 at home on Wednesday, while CB East pulled away late to stop Pennridge 6-2.

The JV Hatters fought back from a 4-0 deficit to pull within 4-3, but lost 6-3, even though they put the tying runs on base with two outs and no one on in the seventh. 

Center fielder Jamie Mroz started a three-run rally in the fifth with a single to center and shortstop Meghan Fitzgerald added another base hit to center an out later. 

After a line out to third by right fielder Charlotte Coulson, first baseman Jackie Locke laced a single to left-center to score Mroz and then stole second. Catcher Kaeli Simmons followed with a single up the middle to knock in two more runs and pull the JV Hatters to within a run.

Down to their final out in the seventh, the lefty-hitting Coulson fouled off a bunt attempt, worked the count to 3-2 and then went the other way to rip a single to left past a pulled-in third baseman. 

Locke then looped a one-strike, base hit to short right and left fielder Emily Griffis worked the only walk that Hatboro-Horsham received all day with another tough at-bat, drawing ball four on a 3-2 count.

All the JV Hatters needed was an extra-base hit to tie the game. 

But three pitches later, Quakertown ended the game with a strike out to leave those three base runners stranded and pushing Hatboro-Horsham's record to 3-5 overall and 1-5 in conference play. 

Lexi Campbell started in the circle for the JV Hatters, working out of a bases-loaded jam in the first and negotiating around an error in the second to keep the Panthers scoreless.

But Campbell was undone by a pair of costly fielding miscues and two blown calls in the third as Quakertown plated four runs. 

The Panthers added a pair of runs off reliever Emily Wallace in the fifth, keyed when a runner reached first after a third strike that got away for a wild pitch.

Mroz ended that inning with the defensive play of the day, gunning out a Quakertown runner at home plate following a single to center. 

Hatboro-Horsham's two teams will host CB West for 3:30 p.m. games on Thursday.