Flagler breaks open Hatboro-Horsham’s win over North Penn
HORSHAM >> All season, Hatboro-Horsham has gotten pretty consistent pitching, regardless of whether Taylor Sciubba or Kaeli Simmons is in the circle.
What had been holding the Hatters back in big games was a lack of runs to back the pitching up. Thursday afternoon, in the bottom of the second, junior first baseman Kylie Flagler stepped into the box in a prime position to give her pitchers some runs to work with.
With a big swing of her bat, Flagler broke the game open and set the tone for the afternoon with a three-run, bases-clearing triple that sparked the Hatters to an 7-0 win over visiting North Penn.
“Stepping into the box and being an upperclassman, all I want to do is put the ball in play and at least get one run in,” Flagler said. “Being able to clear the bases, it was a good feeling to get our team up early.”
Flagler’s big hit to right field would have been all Simmons, who threw the first five innings, and Sciubba would have needed. But it was important for Hatboro-Horsham (7-3, 4-3 Suburban One League Continental) to see more runs go across and that’s what happened in the next two innings.
Meanwhile, Simmons was dominant in the circle, striking out nine batters and allowing just two hits in her five innings. While the senior did walk three, her defense had her back pretty much any other time the Maidens put a ball in play.
Sciubba, who has been dealing with a nagging foot injury for a few weeks, punched out two in her two innings, sitting down all six batters she faced in order. While Sciubba looked to get the bulk of the innings at the start of the year, having Simmons able to come in and pitch just as well has kept the team on a bit of a roll.
“Kaeli Simmons has been lights-out for us,” Hatters coach Joe DiFilippo said. “She moves the ball. She’s not overpoweringly fast, but knows where to throw the ball and what time to throw it.”
It was another frustrating outing for North Penn (5-4, 4-3 SOL), which saw an error set up Flagler’s triple and another in the fourth inning allow two runs to score on a bunt that didn’t travel more than five feet up the line. Just as hurtful was the fact the offense put almost no pressure on the Hatters all afternoon.
“We’ve got to hit, we’ve lost our mojo, I don’t know what’s happened or what’s going on,” Maidens coach Rick Torresani said. “They usually bounce back; most of the teams I’ve coached have been able to bounce back from a tough loss. Today we didn’t come ready to play and I’ll take the blame for this one. We had a good practice yesterday but I didn’t have them ready.”
In the home half of the second, Hatters catcher Bridget Schaeffer led off with a hard-hit ball that glanced off Katie Beer at third, and made it tough fielding for Jamie Beer at short. Hatters shortstop Dee Moyer drew a walk then an error in the infield allowed Kyleigh Dineen to reach and load up the bags.
Flagler just wanted to put something in play and said she was trying to wait on something outside. She got the pitch she wanted and got all the way around on it, hitting a liner into right and getting a fortuitous deflection off a pole at the end of the outfield fence.
The junior was thinking double as she sped out of the box but she decided she wasn’t going to stop there and there was no sign coming from third base either.
“It is so important to capitalize in that situation because it changes the whole game,” DiFilippo said. “I wasn’t stopping her at second base. If she got thrown out, she got thrown out, she deserved a triple and I was going to let her go for it.”
Flagler came in right after when Sciubba drove her in with a sac fly. Moyer hit an RBI single up the middle in the third to extend the lead before Mikayla Fedele’s bunt capped the scoring.
“It’s a great feeling and it lets us played more laid back and have more fun,” Flagler said. “We’re not there being so on-edge and having to make every perfect play. It also gives our pitcher a lot of room to work with and throw different pitches.”
Fedele couldn’t have put down a better bunt in the fourth and when North Penn tried to get Sciubba going to second, the throw sailed high and way back into the outfield, allowing both runners to come all the way in.
“It was a good bunt and I saw the ball go down to the fence,” the freshman third baseman said. “I just kept running and they told me to go home.”
North Penn concludes the week with a home game against Council Rock North on Saturday. Torresani said his team still have time to recover and if it can pick up a win or two to start a little streak, that should help his team get its groove back.
Hatboro-Horsham welcomes Souderton to open next week as the SOL schedule enters its second half. The Continental is still far from decided and the Hatters feel they’re ready to make a mark in the outcome.
“We definitely are and if we keep playing the way that we’re playing, there’s no doubt we’ll be in playoffs,” Flagler said. “We’ll go as far as we can and give the seniors the best last season they can possibly get.”
