Villa Maria’s season ends with 3-2 loss to Lampeter-Strasburg

ROYERSFORD >> She broke the all-time Pa. strikeout record last week.

Surprisingly on Monday, it wasn’t Villa Maria’s Maddie Abbot who looked unhittable.

Lampeter-Strasburg’s Jordan Weaver took charge in the circle, allowing three hits and one earned as the Pioneers ousted the District One champions 3-2 in the opening round of the PIAA-AAA playoffs Monday at Spring-Ford.

“I’ve been hearing about her all year,” Villa Maria head coach Nikki Hartshorn said. “She was very impressive. She handled it very well. The spins she put on worked, you could tell with the contact we had. It was impressive to see how that carried on throughout the game.”

Weaver was sensational in the circle for the District 3 third-place finisher as she kept Hurricane hitters off balance through the majority of the contest. It wasn’t until the bottom of the seventh where she looked human, allowing two hits as Villa tried desperately to claw back from a 3-1 deficit, stranding the tying run on second to end it.  Weaver threw 69 of her 107 pitches for strikes and worked the minimum in three of the seven innings she pitched.

Jordyn Kondras finished with two hits for Lampeter-Strasburg, who will face District 11 champion Bangor (10-2 winners over Jersey Shore) in the PIAA-AAA second round Thursday at a site and time to be determined.

Villa Maria, however, sees its season end after winning their second consecutive District 1-AAA championship last week. The Hurricanes received hits from Sarahrose Jonik, Liz D’Ascenzo and Fran Delviscio but a three-run first inning from Lampeter was too much to overcome.

Abott was terrific after the first inning, not allowing a runner past second the rest of the way. The senior righthander allowed just one hit in the final six innings and finished with seven strikeouts. Only one of her allowed runs was earned.

“Our whole philosophy as a team is that there are no individuals,” Hartshorn said. “With the energy these girls have shown, it was a shame giving up those runs in the first inning. It caught everybody off guard, we’ve never seen anybody hit like that off of Maddie in the first inning. They tried to battle those demons, and they didn’t allow them to get to them the rest of the game, so I’m very proud of how they responded and how they recovered.

“We always believe that we’re tested and this was just another test, another challenge. It was a shame that we couldn’t reap the benefits of believing in that.”

Kondras started the Lampeter tide-turning first inning with a bunt single before stealing second and moving to third on a bunt. Brianna Garber then knocked her in with a double to left before Delaney Baker reached on an error the next at-bat. Robin Feaster then broke it open with a hard-hit single to left, scoring Garber and eventually Baker as the Villa center fielder misplayed the ball.

Villa got a run back in the fifth as Emily Cosgrove reached base on an error, scoring courtesy runner Riley Mille from second to make it 3-1. Following a scoreless fifth, Villa rallied in the seventh. D’Ascenzo led off with a double and was brought home by a Delviscio sinking liner to right. However, Weaver settled down the rest of the way, striking out the next batter before getting the final out via popup.