Solid Souderton tops Hatboro-Horsham in key SOL Continental clash
HORSHAM >> Jen Klepfer came up firing in the bottom of the seventh.
After Hatboro-Horsham outfielder Brynn Griffith stroked one into right in the bottom of the frame with two runners on, it looked like the Hatters would plate two badly-needed runs. The first got across safely.
The second, thanks to a brilliant throw and a money tag by catcher Dayna Shelly, did not.
Souderton pitcher Alex Scheeler jammed the next batter into a pop-up and just like that, Big Red had eluded a threat and escaped with a 5-3 win over the host Hatters Tuesday. It was a key game for both teams in the log-jammed Suburban One League Continental Conference but it was the Indians’ mix of smart offense and sound defense that was the difference.
“Our offense is on right now, we’re working together as a team,” Souderton senior outfielder Angie Carty said. “They scored in the first inning so we had to keep fighting in every inning and win every inning. That’s what we do every game, try to win every inning.”
The first meeting between the teams was a nail-biter until the Hatters came undone in the sixth inning in a 5-0 loss. Tuesday, they got on the board first but the Souderton (5-4, 4-4 conference) defense came up big to limit the damage. After Rachael Carney walked and Kaeli Simmons singled to put runners at the corners for the Hatters (8-4, 4-4), Scheeler got Griffith to ground up the first base gap.
Waiting there was second baseman Savannah Bostwick, who deftly turned two while Carney came in to score. Scheeler, who scattered seven hits over seven innings, was able to hold the Hatters off from there.
The sophomore worked an effective game with Shelly, a senior who normally patrols left field, catching for the second straight game. Shelly has plenty of catching experience so putting her behind the plate allowed the Indians to make some other lineup changes, like moving Klepfer from first to right.
“It’s working really nicely for us with all the players we’ve moved around,” Shelly said. “(Scheeler) threw a pretty good game. We pitched a lot of them drops and inside, so a lot of them were hitting grounders and that made it easy on our fielders.”
Souderton knotted the game at 1-1 in the third when Bostwick hit a long sac fly to left that plated Carty, who had singled and moved to third on a double by Shelly. Those three, the top three hitters in the order, were quite productive at the plate to go with their defensive plays while the team churned out 11 hits in the win.
Carty, the center fielder, had a nice sliding grab in the bottom half of the third to take a hit away from Hatters catcher Bridget Schaeffer.
After the first inning, Hatboro-Horsham’s bats went quiet. Despite loading the bases in the second, the Hatters had a run erased on a force-out at home and couldn’t score there, not plating another run until the sixth.
“I think when we went up 1-0, I think we kind of got down and got relaxed,” Hatters senior shortstop Dee Moyer said. “We have to stay on top of them the whole game and have high energy the whole game too. We were on cruise control, the energy was up and we thought we had it and we can’t think like that.”
When that run crossed in the sixth, the Hatters were now down three runs thanks to a Souderton outburst in the top of the fifth. With the top of the order starting things off, Carty led off with a single and Shelly walked before Bostwick moved them on a sac bunt.
After Carty zipped home on a wild pitch, Scheeler helped her cause with a two-out RBI single then scored herself a single by Bri Neely that pushed the lead to 4-1. Once the Hatters pulled the game to 4-2, Souderton added an insurance run in the seventh when Bostwick led off with a single, then came all the way around on a single by Missy Wiley and ensuing error in the outfield.
“With them scoring one we knew we had to keep up,” Carty said. “We had to stay up the entire time, we couldn’t let our heads drop or anything. We kept up and our hits were contagious, we just kept going. Every hit counted, we had a lot of small game today with bunting and that was key, whether it was moving runners or an RBI, anything to move runners was key. Not a lot was left on base.”
The Hatters got their act together in time for the seventh, putting the first two runners on base then moving them to second and third on a sac bunt by Simmons. With one out, Griffith seemed to deliver two runs, until Klepfer’s cannon right shot down that hope.
All Shelly had to do was catch the ball and sweep her glove through to the runner.
“That was a great throw, it was right there,” Shelly said. “It was just there. I just had to catch and swipe it, it was an amazing throw.”
The inning showed some fight by the home side, but it was something they needed more of earlier. What was disappointing for Hatboro-Horsham was that it had come into the game on a bit of a roll and now it will have to find a way to get back on track.
“It was too little, too late,” Moyer said, acknowledging there’s still plenty of season left to play.
Souderton will look to keep it going when it takes on conference-leading Quakertown on Thursday.
“We have a wonderful bench, our coaches are great, we just have to make sure we’re cheering each other on,” Carty said. “If someone messes up, you just have to pick them up.”
