Elyse McMenamin, Council Rock North clip Pennsbury

FAIRLESS HILLS — When the young Council Rock North softball team lost standout shortstop, clean-up hitter and leader Nicole Rounsavill to a serious elbow injury a couple of weeks ago, it would have been easy to understand if it went into a funk.

To its vast credit, nothing like that has happened at all as surging Rock North ran its record to 7-3 with an impressive 3-2 victory on Tuesday, April 28 at Pennsbury.

Once one of the true powerhouse programs in the area, Rock North has beaten Pennsbury in recent years. This win, however, sort of had a different feel about it because the Indians beat Pennsbury at its own game with quality pitching, timely hitting and solid defense.

“Everyone was down when Nicole got hurt, but I told the girls we were looking for others to step it up,’ said first-year coach Chris McDermott. “The first time we played Pennsbury, Nicole made like six great plays. Today you saw others come through.’

The pitching was in the capable hands of freshman Elyse McMenamin, who took it to Pennsbury (6-5) immediately by pounding the zone and retiring the first 12 batters. McMenamin ended up with eight strikeouts and might very well have thrown a shutout if not for a big error in the sixth.

The miscue on which a ball was dropped at second opened the door for Pennsbury to score twice. In its only real uprising of the game, Pennsbury also got a sac fly by Dani Litwin and an RBI single by Alyssa Hileman. Also in that sixth, Bailee Zaccaro smashed a hard single and Sydney Jacimowicz beat out an infield chopper.

By that time, however, Rock North was holding a 3-0 lead against Pennsbury senior Casey Boltersdorf (eight strikeouts) after the Indians also scored all their runs in one inning.

In the Rock North second, Madison Tomlinson reached on a bloop single and Hanna Stalker followed with a two-run bomb over the center field fence. After freshman lead-off batter Taylor Briggs reached on one of her two hits, McMenamin drove in the third run with a single.

“We made our adjustments (at the plate) too late, but she pitched a good game,’ said Pennsbury coach Frank McSherry.

“Elyse is one of the players who has stepped it up,’ said McDermott. “She’s become a team leader and she throws hard. I like the way she went right after them.’