DOYLESTOWN, PA.—It's the midway point of the Suburban One League/Continental Conference softball season and it probably comes as no surprise that Hatboro-Horsham High School is in prime position to claim another championship.
Led by some big offensive contributions from junior first baseman Jackie Locke, the Lady Hatters used a 14-4 victory on a windy, rainy afternoon over last-place Central Bucks West Tuesday to finish the first round of conference play with a 5-2 record and improved to 6-2 overall.
HHHS trails conference-leading Souderton by a half-game and is tied for second place with Central Bucks East and North Penn in the ever-competitive Continental Conference.
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The Lady Hatters get a second chance at Souderton on the road at 3:30 p.m. on Monday after a disappointing early-season 3-2 loss to the Indians the first time around.
The second round of conference action starts Thursday afternoon at home against CB East in one of the key games remaining.
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Locke was 3-for-5 with four RBIs on a day where the entire Hatboro-Horsham roster finally got to play.
Junior second baseman Jaynie Black, currently the team's leading hitter with a .500 batting average, was perfect at the plate, stroking a single for two RBIs, scoring twice, walking three times and getting hit by a pitch.
Junior center fielder continued her scorching hitting with a two-run triple in the first inning to get the Lady Hatters off to a quick start in a three-run outburst on the way to a 2-for-4 day. She was also hit by a pitch.
In the circle, Lexie Campball turned in another stalwart performance despite pitching with a rain-slicked ball, with five strikeouts, scattering a pair of walks and hits, while allowing just one run.
Hatboro-Horsham added three more runs in the third to forge a 6-0 lead and led 8-1 midway through the fifth before Central Bucks West showed some signs of life against reliever Kaeli Simmons, rallying for three runs to make it an 8-4 game in the bottom of the fifth.
But the Lady Hatters got a boost from freshman hurler Brynn Griffith, who worked out of trouble in the fifth, stranding a pair of runners and then closing out the game with near-perfect pitching the final two frames.
In the longest varsity outing of her young career, Griffith gave up a walk and a single before settling down to retire seven of the last eight batters she faced, the only runner getting on by an error.
Tuesday's victory followed a uneven and frustrating pair of games for the Lady Hatters during the previous week.
Hatboro-Horsham was in position for a key victory last week at North Penn when — after wasting numerous opportunities early (including a bases-loaded and no-out situation in the top of the first without scoring) — Daria Edwards blasted a two-run home run through the brisk wind to deep right-center field off Hatboro native Jackie Bilotti.
Senior shortstop Megan Hallock got that fifth-inning rally started in the scoreless game with a walk to chase starting pitcher Vicki Tumasz from the game and scored ahead of Edwards
But a blown call by the base umpire in the bottom of the fifth changed the tide of the game.
North Penn's veteran coach Rick Torresani gambled with one out after a pair of walks by Campbell to Jovanna Alfanzi and Lauren Schwartz and had ninth-place hitter Alexa Sims drop down a sacrifice bunt to put the tying runs in scoring position.
Bilotti was up next and smacked a hard grounder up the middle that was flagged down nicely by Hallock. Hallock fired to first and freshman Kylie Flagler stretched and clearly caught the ball against her chest for what looked like the third out.
The Lady Hatters raced off the field to celebrate stopping another Maiden rally, but were called back into position when the field umpire ruled that Flagler had juggled the ball momentarily.
Flagler insisted afterwards that she had never lost possession of the ball.
With the umpire delaying his decision, not only did Alfanzi score on the play, Schwartz alertly scampered home with the tying run.
After another error, third baseman Edwards stopped North Penn's rally with a diving stop on a liner in the hole for the third out.
Hatboro-Horsham had a chance to take the lead with runners in scoring position in the seventh and eighth, but Cader stranded two runners on a comebacker to Bilotti in the seventh and Flagler and Bridgett Shaffer both popped up weakly to Bilotti with Black on second base in the eighth after being hit by a pitch and advancing to second on a nice Locke sacrifice bunt.
That set the tone for an umpiring blunder of massive preportions in the bottom of the eighth.
With Campbell still in the circle for the longest performance of her softball career, North Penn took advantage of another error and Tumasz's infield hit to put runners on first and second with one out.
Megan Curley was retired on a line drive to Deanna Moyer in right, but Alfanzi banged the next pitch to center field for a clean single. Cader charged, briefly juggled the ball and then unleashed a perfect one-bounce strike to Shaffer at home plate.
Torresani sent Becky Christofers home, but Christofers was beaten by a good 10 feet on the plate and Shaffer clearly caught Cader's throw and placed the tag on her for what should have been the out to send the game to the ninth inning.
Instead, the umpire at home plate, who was out of position behind Shaffer, called Christofers safe, setting off a wild celebration on the North Penn bench.
When Hatboro-Horsham coach Joe DiFilippo came out to argue the obviously blown call, the umpire said Shaffer had bobbled the ball.
Even worse was the umpire's comments that were overheard by players and parents as he walked away from DiFilippo.
"I late for dinner," several observers reported the umpire saying, referring to Jewish Passover that was set to start that evening at sunset.
Hatboro-Horsham left nothing to chance when it hosted Quakertown two days later, smashing out an easy 10-2 win.
Juggling his lineup around by moving Hallock to the leadoff spot and the slumping Moyer from leadoff to the two slot, the Lady Hatters took advantage of shaky Quakertown defense to score four times in the first.
Hallock started things with a slap single, Moyer walked and Cader bunted for a base hit with one out to squeeze home Hallock.
Black popped up a bunt deep up the first-base line, but it fell in for another hit as Moyer raced home on another squeeze play.
Simmons, in the lineup as a designated player, ripped a liner to right that was dropped to score Cader and Black stole home when Simmons got caught in a run down to make it 4-0.
On a day where the Lady Hatters pounded out 12 hits, they scored single runs in the second, fourth and fifth before blowing things open with three runs in the sixth.
Cader was 3-for-4 and came within about a foot of a three-run homer in the second when Becca Robinson flagged down her deep drive at the right-field fence. Black, Hallack and left fielder Jamie Mroz also had a pair of hits.
Campbell worked out of several jams with her pin-point control to earn the pitching win. It took Quakertown until the seventh to finally push home a run.
